That Dahm fool from Broken Arrow is at it again. That’s right, Republican State Sen. Nathan Dahm, who is also challenging Sen. James Lankford in the GOPQ primary this year, has been busy filing publicity-grabbing bills to display his ignorance and play to like-minded Trumpistas in the state.
At the first of the month, he filed SB 1199 that “allows sheriffs to arrest federal officers who attempt to confiscate guns in Oklahoma,” according to the KFOR-TV news story, which continues:
“Senate Bill 1200 requires federal agents and officers to receive permission from the county sheriff before operating in their county.
“Senate Bill 1201 expands a sheriff’s ability to form a posse to include prohibiting agents, employees and officers of the federal government from violating the constitutional rights of the people of their county.”
Grandstanding gobbledygook that ignores the salient points that the oath of office which he took said that he did “solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma.”
And the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma? Article One, Section 1 (following the Preamble): “The State of Oklahoma is an inseparable part of the Federal Union and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.”
Yep, this state’s rights are subordinate to federal rights.
SB 1199 does not address the disturbing news reports that most times people are arrested at their homes – for any reason – we hear how many firearms were “seized” by local authorities.
I guess SB 1200 might appeal to any crooked sheriffs out there who do not want prying eyes checking up on them.
Of course, the background for these wastes of paper and cyberether is the ungrounded fear that someone is going to confiscate our guns. I point out repeatedly that there will never be enough states voting in favor to repeal or even amend the Second Amendment.
But, I will point out, too, that the same Constitution of the State of Oklahoma that acknowledges federal supremacy also includes its own right to bear of arms that contains the sensible phrase, “but nothing herein contained shall prevent the Legislature from regulating the carrying of weapons.”
What we really need is a law that holds legislators who propose such unconstitutional bills accountable for court costs as they are on their way to being rejected. Pro rate the charges to include any legislators who vote for them as well.
No wonder Republicans are so anti-education. They do not want students being taught that nullification is a one-way street from the federal down to state governments.
And – proving again that the most dangerous place in Green Country is between Sen. Dahm and a camera crew – last week he proposed “two bills that would send federal coronavirus relief funds and the Oklahoma National Guard to help secure the southern border,” as reported by KOCO-TV. The account continues:
“Senate Bill 1228 would send federal coronavirus relief funding that Oklahoma received to border states to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The second bill, Senate Bill 1231, would give power to the governor to send Oklahoma National Guard members to border states to help them secure their portion of the southern border.”
We don’t need much more proof of the Republicans’ disdain for human life than such a money grab at a time when Sen. Dahm’s local Channel 2 in Tulsa is reporting, “Record-breaking COVID-19 surge in Oklahoma” and “Long lines continue at COVID testing sites” and “Green Country elderly couples dies of COVID-19 minutes apart.”
So, while staffing shortages in state schools exacerbate the coronavirus spike that is closing many of them again and sending others to remote learning again, and when many states are deploying their guards to help with auxiliary staffing, Sen. Dahm chooses to stoke xenophobic hate-mongering by shipping our National Guard out of state, evidently to use Oklahoma tax money to help the economies of border states suffering from a reduction in snowbirds.
Protecting constituents from a pandemic entering its third year would require admitting that it exists instead of promoting “Send Dr. Fauci to federal prison” on his senatorial campaign homepage.
Stay tuned. No telling what that fool Dahm will propose next week.
(Gary Edmondson is chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party. Longer versions of his columns can be found at scdpok.us or facebook.com/SCDPOK/.)