DownWithTyranny!: Oklahoma's Clyde "Steve" Russell Is The Odd Man Out When It Comes To DACA

Lankford (R) & Guild (D) finally found something to agree on-- a humanitarian approach to DACA

This morning, we took a look at how Trump's DACA craziness is playing out in California and Texas. Did you imagine this could even help elect Democrats in states as beet red as Oklahoma. I'm sure it isn't news to you that the Blue America-backed candidate in the Oklahoma City-centered congressional district, Tom Guild, uses the hashtag #IStandwithDreamers. Yesterday he posted Trump's decision "will affect and disrupt the lives of 800,000 Dreamers, including 100,000 in Texas, many in the area of Southeast Texas already devastated by Harvey. This decision is heartless and will devastate the lives of hundreds of thousands of valuable and valued immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents while they were young children. This action is divisive, undermines families, hurts our economy, and robs America of the talents of well-educated and productive immigrants who are integrated into the fabric of our society and often have little connection with the countries of origin of their parents who brought them to the U.S. 45 said he would deal with this issue with "great heart". Maybe he should visit the Wizard of Oz and ask for a new and improved and compassionate heart." It's the kind of statement we would expect from Tom (whose campaign you can help support here).

But Oklahoma's very conservative junior senator, James Lankford surprised a lot of fellow right-wingers both in DC and in Oklahoma on Monday when he seemed to take a more compassionate and reasonable stand than Trump and his supporters. Keep in mind that Lankford has the highest Trump adhesion score in the Senate, 95.8%, exactly the same as the other Oklahoma senatorial lunatic, Jim Inhofe. There's no one in the Senate with a higher Trump adhesion score!

And yet yesterday, Lankford said that "It is right for there to be consequences for those who intentionally entered this country illegally. However, we as Americans do not hold children legally accountable for the actions of their parents."

That puts Lankford, who formerly represented OK-05 in the House, at odds with his successor, crackpot xenophobe Steve Russell. Russell is a standard Tea Party nut and fervently anti-immigration. He adheres to the Tea Party view that Obama’s actions in adopting DACA by executive order was unconstitutional and we need rule of law and to remove DREAMers or any immigrants "breaking the law." He certainly isn’t criticizing Señor Trumpanzee over his pending action. Russell got his head taken off the last time he held a townhall-- in Shawnee in March-- and has kept his head down to avoid incoming since then, but no one expects him to say anything that will alienate Trump core voters in OK-05. Trump won the district 53.2% to 39.8%, Trump's worst performance among Oklahoma's 5 congressional districts. He won the other 4 with over 60%-- two with over 70%! There are 3 counties within OK-05, Oklahoma County, Pottawatomie County and Seminole County. It's worth noting that on primary day Oklahoma County voters were more enthusiastic about Bernie than about Trumpanzee. Bernie took 32,368 votes while Trump scored just 22,117, coming in third behind Rubio and Cruz. In Pottawatomie County Bernie took 3,400 votes and Trump took 2,309. And in Seminole County Bernie beat Trump 1,194 to 560.

The fools at the DCCC have written OK-05 off; they shouldn't. Voters there might not be interested in the status quo claptrap that Hillary was spewing and that the DCCC prefers but they loved what Bernie campaigned on-- which is very much what Tom Guild has also been campaigning on.