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It has not taken the Oklahoma Republican Establishment long to forget that they were placed in the Oklahoma legislature to do the will of the people. Oklahoma Senator Anthony Sykes, in his first order of business as judiciary committee chair, broke the Republican campaign promise of adhering to the Constitution by presenting lawsuit immunity for his corporate benefactors at the State Chamber. However, giving immunity through caps wasn’t sufficient for faux conservative Senator Sykes, he decided he would kick injured Oklahomans while they were down by letting a negligent company reap the benefits of any life insurance, health insurance or disability insurance the injured party had paid premiums on. Talk about personal responsibility (said facetiously).

These so called tort reform bills are being rammed through the Oklahoma Senate at a rapid pace so as to avoid public debate. Why is the Oklahoma Republican establishment ramming these bills through at lightning speed? Its simple. They do not want the public to catch wind of what they are doing. A prime example was the judiciary committee hearing on these bills where State Senator Anthony Sykes and Rob Johnson attempted to silence one of Senator Sykes’ constituents from speaking. They did this in spite of the long held tradition of constituents being allowed to speak at committee hearings. Talk about open and transparent government (said facetiously).

According to reddirtreport.com

And while SB 863 passed in the Sykes-led Judiciary Committee, a report from OKWatchdog.org, by Jeff Raymond, reported that a constituent of Sykes’, Sandy Chow was initially not allowed to speak during Tuesday’s Judicial Committee meeting, although Sen. Brian Crain insisted and it was allowed. Chow, it was explained, his wife was initially told she was cancer-free when it turned out she wasn’t. Chow told OK Watchdog that as Sykes’ constituent and a citizen that he was “enraged” and thought it was “unconscionable” that Sykes was not going to allow him to speak.

I would note that I was in attendance at the committee hearings and while many Senators came up to express their sympathies and well wishes to Mr. Chow, Senator Sykes never acknowledged or went over to speak with him after the hearing. Talk about working for the people (said facetiously).

While this week could be a sad week for the Constitution and conservative principles, it also comes with promise because we the voters have the opportunity to distinguish between real conservatives and those like fake conservatives who desire to be lifelong politicians such as Senator Sykes and Senator Johnson. Their actions show they care nothing about their constituents or open government and instead adhere to the career politician mantra of appeasing their largest donors in the hopes of furthering their political futures.

As political pundit Scott Mitchell said on the Scott Mitchell Showthis past week

In the meantime, Scott Mitchell, the host of the show, expressed his disgust with Sykes, referring to him as a “sellout” and noting that there was a time the Senator from Moore took issues facing ordinary Oklahomans very seriously.

Instead, Mitchell said, “It’s a disturbing story about absolute power.”

Oklahoma Republicans better head the advice of Marco Rubio this past election cycle where in an election-day interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, he warned of what will happen if the GOP and its newest members in Congress fail to live up to their campaign pledges:

"Now, I’m proud to be a Republican, I think it’s the logical home of constitutional conservatism, but I think if there are big gains around this country tonight, Republicans should not make the mistake of believing that this was a national embrace of the Republican party. This is a second chance for the Republican party to be and do what it has claimed to be, and that is the home of the limited government, conservative movement in America, the center-right coalition that believes in free enterprise and freedom and liberty, and the things that have made America great. And I hope I can be a part of that. . . . If the Republican party does not become about ideas and about principles that speak to everyday people in the real world and in real life, then soon we’ll be on the other end of the pendulum again. I mean, this pendulum keeps swinging from election to election because neither party seems to figure it out."

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