OKIE DOKIE: Oklahoma will hold its nose and vote for Trump

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“Something called ‘the Oklahoma Standard’ became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.”— Brad Henry

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Merle Haggard was born in a hardscrabble oil town in California.

But the blue-collar country legend could easily be called the poet laureate of Oklahoma with songs like Okie From Muskogee, Fightin’ Side of Me and Mama Tried.

Haggard’s musical stylings give you a pretty good idea of what Oklahoma is about. No nonsense, working-class.

The state has traditionally been a Republican stronghold. The last time the Sooner State elected a Democratic president was Lyndon Johnson in 1964 in the electoral annihilation of Barry Goldwater.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt also won four straight presidential elections for the Democrats here. But the glory days are long past for the party of FDR.

Donald Trump took the state in 2016 (65% of the vote) and again in 2020 (65% again).

But the Oklahomans The Toronto Sun spoke with aren’t happy with their ballot box choices — Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris — in November’s election.

“Quite frankly, I’m scared to death,” Dan Harp, 75, told the Sun. “I’m not thrilled by either choice.”

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Harp, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and a lifelong resident of Oklahoma City, believes Trump is a “bit unglued” and is far too close to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

He added that all politicians are liars.

“You just wonder if maybe they told the truth sometimes, the average American is capable of making a good decision,” Harp said, adding he had been a registered Democrat for years.

Until the Gipper came along in 1980.

“Truth is, what the country needs now is someone like Ronald Reagan to fix things,” Harp said.

Harp worked for decades as a trucker after serving in the military for four years (1968-72), including two tours of Vietnam, unlike, say, Trump.

“You know, I never liked John F. Kennedy, but I admired him: He was a brave, courageous man who served his country with distinction [Kennedy won the Navy Cross during the Second World War] but for me, Reagan is it,” he added.

In the end, come Nov. 4, he’ll hold his breath and vote for Trump.

“I’d rather see Trump, but I don’t like him. He’s arrogant, got a big mouth and thinks he’s fooling everybody. I don’t hold his sex life against him, though,” Harp said, laughing.

***

Bordered by Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Colorado, the state is going through a boom fuelled by energy and an influx of money and brains from high-tax states like California and the Rust Belt.

As a result, Oklahoma is in the top 10 in GDP growth. Its population is about 4 million and growing.

There is nothing — and no one —on the horizon politically that might move Oklahoma back to the Democrats. No FDR, no Jack Kennedy.

“A lot of the country has turned into a total nuthouse,” a bartender who asked not to be identified said. “Getcha another? The protests on TV every night are just crazy. Don’t those people have anything else to do? Don’t they have to work?

“That shitshow is part of the reason the Democrats remain dead in the water in Oklahoma.”

***

Z.Z. Langston, 25, said the debate was “simply embarrassing.” And the polarization in the country has made her increasingly indifferent to political discourse.

“Our politics are such a disgrace; I pretty much try to ignore it,” she said. “If you ask me, the debate was not a debate. I can’t believe this is America and that this is the best we can do.

“It’s like Trump and Kamala are the best of the worst. I’m sure they’re both fine people. The news cycle moves so fast. I have a little girl, I have a job so, I have to just laugh it all off.”

Langston — from a small town north of OKC — said she sometimes worries about what’s happening in the rest of the country.

“I love it here, people are nice and would give you the shirt off their back. Most are too busy working, raising their kids and living to be too bothered by politics,” she said.

***

In the Sooner Poll released at the end of August, it appears that the status quo will hold in Oklahoma. Tracking showed Trump with a 16-point lead over Harris — 56% to 40%.

Cab driver Muhammad Hussain, 56, has lived in Oklahoma for more than 30 years. The Pakistani immigrant used to live in New York City with five other people in a tiny apartment.

A cousin encouraged him to move to Oklahoma. Hussain has never looked back.

“I’ve always voted Democrat, but this time I’m voting for Trump. I was better off under him, even though I wasn’t working during COVID,” he told the Sun. “With the support, I still had enough for rent, groceries and money in the bank.”

But since the 2020 election that put Joe Biden in the White House, his finances and lifestyle have gone “down, down, down”.

“I think one of the reasons was that he [Trump] was focused on America, not the problems of the rest of the world,” Hussain said. “After the last four years, I’ve become a Republican, and I’ll be voting for Donald Trump.”

***

Merle Haggard would understand this.

In his 1969 country chart topper, Okie from Muskogee, he sang: “I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee. A place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse And white lightnin’s still the biggest thrill of all.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun