Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 600-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/
In this bonus episode, we look at the mixed messages of voting and Oklahoma’s aggressive educational policies, then touch on Kamala Harris's eligibility and Texas' voter roll changes. On a lighter note, Dan shows off his Starbucks mug collection, while Brad shares insights on collectibles. The episode wraps with how celebs like Taylor Swift and George Clooney influence political campaigns, fun tangents including ‘Home Alone’ as a midlife crisis movie, and the journeys of Reagan and Trump from Hollywood to politics.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC
Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163
This episode is sponsored by/brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/RC and get on your way to being your best self.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome?
Yeah.
Good government.
They want everybody to vote.
I don't want everybody to vote.
Elections are not won by a majority of people.
They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now.
As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
Welcome to our bonus episode.
I'm Brad Onishi, here with my co-host, who's just started his academic year, Dan Miller.
How's that going, Dan?
It's going.
Yeah.
It's going.
That's what we'll say.
We're done.
That's the supplemental episode for the day.
Thanks for joining us, everyone.
No, it's good.
It's the beginning.
It's always like this mix.
It's exciting.
It's fun.
It's cool to meet new students.
The thing about the academic year is that your schedule changes radically, like every three or four months, so it's always just trying to get used to that.
And I have two kids who need rides everywhere all the time now, so that's the real thing.
But it's alright, and I am, in case I forget to say it, still a professor of religion and social thought at Landmark.
And I did this in my episode, but a shout-out, I got an email from a listener who was like, For some reason, driving up I-91 in Vermont and saw the sign and was like, oh my gosh, that's Landmark.
Yeah, so there's some evidence that I am in fact there and people have seen the place.
It's real and everything.
It would be awesome if this whole time you were making up a college, but I don't think you are.
It's an online degree mill that I just stick my name on.
No, I want it to be like an LLC that you started.
Just like a one-man LLC.
It'd be like the Trump University thing back in the day.
People send me thousands of dollars to do stuff, and I link them to Wikipedia or something and be like, here you go.
Yeah.
All right.
Today on our episode, we want to first, we're going to hear from a friend of the show, Mickey Dollins, who is a state rep in Oklahoma, who's going to give us an update on education and some actions being taken against Ron Walters, the superintendent there.
So if you all remember, Oklahoma is a place where the superintendent is probably the most extreme in the country when it comes to education.
Has hired libs of tick-tock person to be on an advisory committee They have the most kind of aggressive and egregious Bible teaching curriculum in the country Has confronted school districts about how to teach the Bible.
We've been over this on the show if you've listened, so Is accused of sort of slow rolling federal funds to schools that you know don't agree with him on this stuff They deny that of course, but that that's like a whole thing that's going on.
Yeah So rather than us giving that update, we're going to have Mickey do that right now and just kind of explain what's happening.
We'll then jump into the incredible decision by Republican lawyers to claim Kamala Harris is not available to be president or eligible to be president because of the Dred Scott decision, which is- Because of slavery.
Like basically that's the argument.
Yeah, we'll dive right in there.
Long sigh.
Talk about that.
We're then gonna, because it's our bonus episode, devolve into whimsy and tomfoolery, and Dan and I will finally have it out about Dan's collection of mugs and other paraphernalia from various locales he's visited.
We'll dig into the psychology of this, Dan's particular neurosis, the reasons I'm concerned for him and his person.
There's also my trolling of Brad Onishi behaviors.
People don't always see it, but every time we record, I do something on screen to basically troll Brad.
I didn't mean to cut you off, but there's a lot to unpack about me.
There's ways people troll others on screen, and sometimes it gets them sued or fired, or they have to visit HR.
So you wearing a shirt that you got from Metallica is pretty wholesome, I think.
Finally, we'll talk about a Harvard study that shows that celebrities coming out to endorse candidates actually does make a difference, and this is sort of in the context of Ideas from the GOP and Fox News and others that the DNC convention was just a bunch of celebrities.
Who cares?
That doesn't mean anything.
So I actually want to dig into a question, which is kind of interesting.
Does it matter if famous people endorse candidates?
Does it make a difference?
And we'll find out.
So let's turn to Mickey Dollins, representative from Oklahoma, someone who's been on the show before, has written a great op-ed for MSNBC recently.
Here he is giving us an update on what's going on with Ryan Walters and the schools in Oklahoma.
Hello, everyone.
This is Mickey Dollin, State Representative, coming to you from Oklahoma's House District 93 in Oklahoma City.
It's great to be back with you on the show.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to update you on the latest Christian Nationalist Crusades happening in Oklahoma.
There's quite a bit to follow.
I feel like Oklahoma is ground zero for policies straight out of the Project 2025 playbook.
I know that we're living many of those policies right now.
In many regards, beyond just education, but in our society as well.
But today I wanted to focus back and give you an update on someone I spoke about on my previous episode, and that is our State Superintendent, Ryan Walters.
He continues to weaponize his platform as the state's top education official to push his far right-wing ideology that's rooted in Christian nationalism.
Just a little bit of background on Ryan Walters.
I encourage you to check out a recent op-ed I did in MSNBC.
We can link it to the show notes.
But just to give you a little background on this guy if you're unfamiliar, he's responsible for pushing the nation's very first publicly funded religious charter school.
He's enforced a Bible mandate in all public schools and requiring that teachers teach verbatim from the Bible.
And I'm not just talking in a historical context, but teaching actual curriculum from the Bible.
Now, thankfully, many, most of our school districts have pushed back against this publicly.
We have some great superintendents at the local level who have stood up for the Constitution, who have stood up for religious freedom.
And so at the end of this, I want to talk about how this is all coming to a headwind and how this is maybe happening in your state, but what people are doing about it in states like Oklahoma to push back.
So it's actually got a positive message in the end.
But in addition to weaponizing our schools into indoctrination factories, he has also neglected mental health in schools.
Instead of investing in our school mental health counselors, he's suggested that volunteer chaplains can fulfill that role.
The state legislature appropriated $250,000 to the Department of Education to purchase emergency asthma inhalers for kids who could have sudden respiratory attacks, and his department has refused to allocate those dollars or even purchase Any inhalers.
It goes on with not distributing school safety funding.
He's been using taxpayer dollars to hire a PR firm to get him booked on right-wing talk shows so he can jet set around the country and promote his political ambitions.
And so, you know, there's a whole history here that is really egregious, and I go into more on that into the op-ed, but the update I want to give you now is more on the sense of some optimism.
For the first time in two years, we're starting to hear from our Republican colleagues asking the Speaker to form an investigative committee to look into these allegations that are, many believe, reason to begin the articles of impeachment.
No, this is significant because for a year and a half, the only people talking about this in the state capitol were House Democrats, and we were just written off as partisan politics.
And now it's really starting to affect rural legislators in their schools, and their constituents are making their voices heard.
And they're requiring that those who are elected to represent them actually use their platform to amplify their voices to the highest ranking members of the legislature, which is the Speaker of the House.
And so while this is becoming more common, for example, 26 legislators signed onto a very heavy worded letter by the highest ranking member of the Education Committee, Chairman McBride.
Demanding that the Speaker look into Ryan Walters and consider impeachment.
And so, in an unprecedented move, the Superintendent Ryan Walters calls an emergency press conference a couple weeks ago at the State Capitol, invites all of the media, and then publicly challenges the Speaker of the House to impeach him.
He said, get the impeachment going.
I want to be impeached.
Go ahead and start it.
Now of course, people know that in order to impeach, there has to be an investigation first.
And while the Speaker of the House refused to initiate the investigation because he himself is in a race for governor and Due to our closed primaries, fears of backlash from the French, who he would need to depend on to get him through the primary.
Thankfully, we have other avenues to go about an investigation.
One is called the LOFT, the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency.
They're currently in an investigation to look into the many, many examples that Ryan Walters has misused, misappropriated taxpayer dollars.
And he's so desperate that now he's creating sabotaging environments.
And he's so desperate now that he's calling for his own impeachment before the loft investigation can conclude.
And so while I mentioned this is all very unprecedented, some people are calling it his decision to call for his own impeachment as the worst political move in state history.
It's important to realize what is increasing this pressure, and a lot of it has to do with constituents that are voicing their concerns to their elected representatives.
And also it has to do with brave superintendents at the district level that are speaking up against anti-constitutional mandates that Ryan Walters continues to push, such as the Bible mandate.
In Norman Public Schools, we have the superintendent of Norman Public Schools saying, That Norman schools is not going to have Bibles in our classroom, and we are not going to require our teachers to teach from the Bible.
Another local superintendent, Robert Romines, with the Moore School District said, while students learn about religion's role in historical and cultural contexts, teaching any specific religious doctrine or practice is not a part of the current standards.
And he's absolutely right.
He is fulfilling his job and his duty to his students and their parents in not choosing a state-sponsored religion, as Superintendent Walters would like.
Now, if you notice, it was kind of interesting because currently it is not part of the current standards, but we know that Ryan Walter is working with PragerU.
That is part of their agenda, is to get that as part of the standards.
And so, while we're kind of at a turning point here when it comes to finally Republican lawmakers starting to speak up, And make their constituents' voices heard.
It really goes to show that your voice does make a difference.
Talking about this with your friends and your family and colleagues when appropriate.
Or when it's on your mind can make a difference.
And while they may not agree with you in the moment, you may say something that will plant that seed to get them to reconsider some of their beliefs or traditional beliefs when it comes to, you know, separation of church and state or how that is unfair to the many different faiths and religion who we all represent as elected officials.
So continue to stay updated, continue to stay informed.
We'll see how this turns out with the loft report, the investigative loft report.
And to know that this isn't just about one person, like our State Superintendent Ryan Walters.
These people will continue to pop up around the country, around governments.
And they'll challenge the strength of our Constitution and continue to erode the freedom from and of religion.
And so my...
Hi, my name is Peter, and I'm a prophet in the new novel, American Prophet.
I was the one who dreamed about the natural disaster just before it happened.
Oh, and the pandemic.
And that crazy election.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging.
It's not like I asked for the job.
Actually, no one would ask for this job.
At least half the people will hate whatever I say and almost everyone thinks I'm a little crazy.
Getting a date is next to impossible.
I've got a radio host who is making up conspiracies about me, a dude actually shooting at me, and an unhinged president threatening me.
But the job isn't all that bad.
I've gotten to see the country, and meet some really interesting people, and hopefully do some good along the way.
You can find my story on Amazon, Audible, or iTunes.
Just look for American Prophet by Jeff Fulmer.
That's American Prophet by Jeff Fulmer.
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
I don't know about you, but my schedule is packed.
I got kids activities, trying to get them to school every day, big work projects, and much more.
It's easy to let my priorities slip, even when I know they make me happy.
In the past, I've benefited from therapy.
It's made me somebody who understands his past experiences with more clarity, and somebody who has coping skills to deal with my ongoing challenges every day.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.
It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.
You just have to fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists anytime for no charge.
Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit betterhelp.com slash RC to get 10% off your first month.
That's betterhelp.com/rc.
And so while we wait for the Aloft Report to come back and then we see how this plays out going into the 2026 gubernatorial election and even into the 2026,
The 2024 presidential election, it's going to just take a lot of people that continue to connect with their elected officials and to make their voice heard and to continue to hold those accountable and to support local journalism.
If it wasn't for local reporters and doing investigative journalism, many of these things would not be brought to light.
And that's really important that we can continue shedding a light On these types of issues.
But until then, I will keep a watchful eye on the investigative report and I'll continue to give you an update.
And if you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out to me.
I'm on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
Look up Mickey Dollins, M-I-C-K-E-Y D-O-L-L-E-N-S.
I'll be happy to answer any direct messages or questions you may have.
And until then, keep learning, keep an open mind and keep fighting for this democracy that we hold dear and to respect the diversity and beliefs of all people and the lack thereof of all people in America.
Thank you for the opportunity and I'll talk to you later.
All right, Dan, always good to hear from Mickey.
And just to see, I guess for me, what's encouraging is there is pushback on... There's a lot of pushback.
Yeah.
And notably, I think, in general, from some of the bigger school districts, school districts that, you know...
People won't remember, I did my undergraduate work in Oklahoma and I was a good little preacher boy, literally.
I traveled all over the state preaching at little churches and stuff.
So Oklahoma has lots of rural districts where I'm sure this Bible thing is like super, super popular and you know, whatever.
But it's also got Very large school districts with diverse students and people who are not Christian and people who are Christian but don't want to have to learn about Christianity or be taught the doctrines of Christianity, maybe I should say, in public schools.
And yeah, so there's been, I mean, really notable pushback, it feels like, as an outside observer kind of looking in.
Well, and it's also just a good reminder that, you know, Oklahoma in many people's minds is a quote-unquote deep red state, but it doesn't matter where you are.
It could be Texas, Oklahoma, could be Louisiana, Georgia, could be Idaho, could be wherever.
There's people in those places who represent the diversity of the United States, including their political views, their backgrounds, their identities.
And I think it's a good reminder to not, you know, if you live in somewhere that is not those places, to not envision them as Homogeneous, you know, landscapes of voters and Christian nationalism and so on and so forth.
So, all right, let's take a break.
We'll come back and talk about Dred Scott, of all things.
Yeah, it's just a great, great morning when you get to do that before the sun's up.
Be right back.
All right, Dan.
So I want to introduce this by saying that famous clip, Paul Weirich, who said, some of you have goo-goo syndrome, and he goes on to say in the clip, and a lot of people have seen it by now.
I don't want everyone to vote.
And I think we've talked about this on the show consistently, that Republican Party has shown that if it can restrict voting, it feels like that is a winning strategy for them.
And I just, you know, from a kind of philosophical standpoint, I want to ask a question that says, if you consistently have a group of people that don't want your citizenry to vote or be able to vote, you have to believe that that group is Tending towards something we would call illiberal, rule by something other than the will of the people, a non-free, illiberal literally just means non-free way of governance.
And I think the Republican Party has shown that throughout the last 50 years especially, and we can talk about the entirety of the United States history.
But I think that is going to lead us into Dred Scott and then we'll lead that into Texas and the purging of one million voters from its voting rolls just announced by Governor Greg Abbott here a little bit ago.
So let me throw it to you.
Why is Dred Scott in the news and why do we have to talk about this?
Yeah, so some background to this, and I think some of the stuff that we're talking about, I guess, happened like last October.
They had this conference and whatever, and then people sort of, you know, have uncovered it and it's more significant.
So it's not like brand new, but it's like ongoing and it's kind of blown up this week.
So the organization in question is the National Federation of Republican Assemblies.
And just just for kicks, by the way, it also, you know, is often shortened NFRA.
And if you Google NFRA, you will actually first get the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association, which is not what we're talking about.
So I want to make sure that that nobody thinks we're attacking refrigerated foods here.
No.
I googled it.
I was like, I want to go to their website, and I didn't pay attention.
I googled and hit the first blue thing that shows up on Google, and I'm on the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association.
I'm like, oh.
President of that association is Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration.
That's an office reference.
I've had dreams, Dan, that Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration from the office would put out an attack on J.D.
Vance, who happens to be like his third cousin.
Because Bob Vance in the office would be from Pennsylvania.
Ohio, Pennsylvania, you know, kind of Midwest cousins.
Anyway, I've been dreaming of skits that Bob Vance could do in opposition to J.D.
Vance, vice presidential candidate.
But that shows you that I don't sleep much and I may be hallucinating.
Back to you.
I apologize.
And also, I just want to point out to folks who followed this that we just got from like a real thing to like the off, like this is how we could invent our own conspiracy theories.
If we really wanted to, we could tie J.D. Vance directly to frozen foods and a conspiracy to get Kamala Harris off the ballot.
J.D. Vance, for frozen foods, not frozen eggs.
No more IVF.
This message has been approved by the J.D. Vance something something.
Okay.
Sorry.
We're really.
The only thing we're going to do is like make T-shirts that two of us understand and like, you know.
J.D. Vance, freeze foods, not eggs.
Ban all abortions.
Freeze foods, free eggs.
Great commercial, J.D.
Great job.
All right.
So the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, it's this kind of non, I guess, not-for-profit, think tanky kind of thing, right-leaning.
If you go to their About Us statement, which I did, it's this whole thing about returning the GOP to conservative principles.
And, wait for it, originalist and strict constructionist interpretations of the Constitution.
We've heard these buzzwords.
We know they're bullshit.
We know that the conservatives don't actually believe that.
We know that the Supreme Court justices have said for decades that that's their policy.
It isn't.
We've seen that in decisions.
But that's their spin.
Excuse me.
And what they argue is that on that quote, originalist and strict constructionist arguments show that Kamala Harris is ineligible to be on the ballot.
And the reason why it's relevant that they first articulated this in this like policy paper that they put out a while back is they also said this about Nikki Haley.
They also said this about Vivek Ramaswamy.
So it's not just Harris, but that's why.
So this is before Harris was actually the nominee for Democratic nominee for president, but obviously she was his vice president.
So if somebody says, why?
Like, that's really weird.
Why is she ineligible?
They cite the Constitution's qualifications for presidential eligibility.
Sounds good.
And basically, I'm going to kind of walk through the part that, you know, if you didn't know anything about American civics, you might be like, oh, wow, that makes sense.
In fact, that's so obvious that, like, how in the world is she on the ballot?
So what they cite is That it says that no person except a natural-born citizen shall be eligible or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution shall be eligible to the office of president.
In other words, you have to be a natural-born citizen.
Everybody kind of knows that, I think.
And they appeal to, the NFRA appeals to, the late Antonin Scalia and to Clarence Thomas, our friend Clarence, you know, the so-called strict originalists, to argue that natural born means born in the U.S.
to parents who are citizens when the child is born.
That's the argument.
Thanks for listening today, y'all.
If you're not yet a Premium Swash supporter, check it out in the show notes.
You'll get access to the full episode for today, bonus content every Monday, a bonus episode every month, access to our 600-episode archive, and ad-free listening, not to mention an invite to our Discord server.
