On the other hand, we hear that the economy is doing well, unemployment is 4.7 % nationwide and 5.2 % in Oklahoma, we hear talk of full employment, yet the state can't pay its teachers, and parents can't pay for food. What gives?
From the article, third paragraph: "But funding for classrooms has been shrinking for years in this deep-red state as lawmakers have cut taxes, slicing away hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue in what some Oklahomans consider a cautionary tale about the real-life consequences of the small-government approach favored by Republican majorities in Washington and statehouses nationwide."
It's really sad. My uncle was a big republican in a more moderate state, county committee chairman, etc. He switched because the party degraded into something that doesn't stand for something that a civlized society should stand for.
Ultimately, the fundamentalists and lunatics will implode the GOP. Demographics always win, and these flyover places are going to be ground into the dirt when the people they are hurting rise up.
I used to believe this until I found people who actively vote against their own interests. For example, they know their rep will lie and try to pass a bill that will harm their access to healthcare. But they still vote for them because of party loyalty.
Again... they know exactly what will happen when they vote for them and still choose to do because of loyalty. They know they need their affordable health insurance because of something they are going through yet they'd rather lose it and have their side win. There's no reasoning with some people. You can provide stats, facts, reasons, and yet they'll still do exactly the opposite of what would bring them long term benefit.
Their top tax rate on income is 5.25%. And given their energy boom, there are only two possibilities: they're not taxing enough (they could clearly boost the top income tax brackets slightly), or they're badly mismanaging the spending. Their sales tax is 4.5%, while I regard that as regressive, they could probably afford 6% without any problems given their state income level.
The people in the middle in Oklahoma, have high incomes compared to other developed nations.
But they get mulcted out of it because of their godawful public services. From a colleague who works in that state I hear that everyone who can half afford it sends their children to private school because public schools are simply too bad. Then they vote to fund schools even less. Small-government in action.
It's mind-boggling to me how much of modern republican politics is "I've got mine. Fuck if I'll pay for yours." Directly paired with "No-one cares about us we been forgotten about and left behind. Someone look out for us."
There is an entire American party based on looking out for the overlooked. Maybe vote for them??