110 Comments
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Mitch Baker's avatar

Oklahoman here, and literally every person I’ve talked to about Ryan Walters agrees he’s a massive embarrassment and the embodiment of “holier than thou”. Even my Christian Republican mom can’t stand his face.

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Joe King's avatar

It takes talent to be so Christian Nationalist that the Christian Nationalists hate you.

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Mitch Baker's avatar

To be clear: mom’s not a Christian Nationalist… lots of churches around here are very much in favor of separation of church and state. One even put it up on their roadside marquee sign!

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oraxx's avatar

The churches do themselves no favors by trying to force their way into government. They seem to believe it's okay if THEY do it, because there is no possibility they could be wrong. People simply do not want to be ruled by the preachers.

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Mitch Baker's avatar

I mean, same folks won’t vote for him for the same reasons.

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Alverant's avatar

And how many will vote for him in the primary and/or next election?

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ericc's avatar

He's not up for reelection. Gotta wait until 2027 for both Walters and Governor Stitt.

Given the state's redness, Oklahomans wanting better should (IMO) try and put up a more moderate Republican in the primary and try and knock him out there.

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Whitney's avatar

Or, you know, just stop voting Republican.

Biggest issue with the whole two-party system is that if you don't want to vote Republican, your only viable option is pretty much Democrat. I'm not really a fan of them, either, but this election? I plan on voting straight Dem ticket on principle. Republicans can freaking shove it, I don't trust them as far as I can throw the collective lot of 'em.

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Joe King's avatar

See? It isn't 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 a campaign donation. It doesn't 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 to be the Trump bible. As long as the whole package is sufficiently loyal to Trump, the transparent cash grab can avoid the pesky campaign finance law.

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JP's avatar

MAGA is nothing but a CULT. They assign supernatural qualities to Trump.

To them, Trump is INFALLIBLE, all things that he does - and has ever done - are PERFECT.

Just a reminder that if you go to church and your pastor compares Donald Trump to Jesus Christ, you officially belong to a cult. 🤣

Can't wait to celebrate Harris's victory wearing this funny "Kamala removes stubborn orange stains" t-shirt on November 5th! 👇

libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/votek

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Jane in NC's avatar

I want to know how much Walters' kick-back $$ is.

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Munchygut's avatar

He's not going for a $ kickback. If tRump wins, he's going for the Department of Education top job. tRump's promotion fees go directly to campaign fund. he's hoping to buy the job much like Betsy DeVos bought her way into the job in the tRump administration.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Very possible. We all know that Trump can be bought.

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Joe King's avatar

Total he wants: $3M now, $3M next budget. Total retail cost of 55K Trump bibles: $3.3M. Walters' cut: $2.7M minimum.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Sounds about right. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is a grift with these 'good christian people.'

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Another day, another stupid attempt by Ryan Walters to cootchie-coo Trump and subject Oklahoma school systems, faculty, and students to more of his Christian bullpucky. It was ridiculous the first time around, and no less so this time.

It is past time someone or several someones went up to Walters and told him, point-blank, "NO. You're not getting your way on this one, Ryan. Just ... STOP."

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Matri's avatar

“You’re FIRED!”

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

That works, too! 👍

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Matri's avatar

“Out of a cannon!”

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EllenThatEllen's avatar

Nobody can add or subtract what's already in The Bible. So if Walters is demanding the U.S. Bill of Rights,The Pledge of Allegiance to these "trump" Bibles? It isn't technically The Bible it's trump propaganda. Just insanity.

It starts small like this.

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oraxx's avatar

That Walters deems himself qualified to determine which version of the Bible is the proper one, is a pretty damning violation of the establishment clause. I hope the legislature puts a stop to this, because Walters is going to cost the state a boat load of money defending his actions in the lawsuits that are bound to follow. Christians like Walters are a some of the worst possible arguments in favor of Christianity.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

"𝘈 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 & 𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 2,900 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴."

Nobody, of course, then asked the should-have-been-obvious follow-up question: "why do you need to stock 2900 different versions of what is supposedly the inerrant word of your god?"

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painedumonde's avatar

Not even a faux Christian anymore, just an outright con man prostituting his way through life.

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xenubarb's avatar

It amazes me that there's so little push-back on this obvious grift to put money into Trump's coffers.

Even if it was money spent on regular bibles, it's a waste that could go to better things for the schools.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

The waste is a feature, not a bug; they 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 the schools to have less funding to spend on stuff with actual educational value.

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Matri's avatar

Just another footnote in the Republicans’ decades-long War Against Education.

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ericc's avatar

It's a very red state.

I'm definitely not any sort of expert on Oklahoma politics, but AIUI the FY2025 budget has already been signed. So technically he's already got his approval to spend this money in this way. Though I can't help thinking that he may be creatively interpreting Dept. of Ed funding lines meant for something else (like textbooks), and if that's the case, maybe the story isn't over yet.

Governor Stitt could also fire him, I think. But since Stitt's not up for reelection until 2027, he's probably not concerned about this dumpster fire hurting his political career.

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Marilyn Lemons's avatar

Where are the people, they should be in the streets loudly protesting bibles in public schools period.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Time to post this...

Ryan Walters, anti-LGBTQ asshole, bears direct responsibility for the death of Nex Benedict. I'm going to hound him on this every time there's an article featuring him here. He deserves far worse than a hounding.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Can we get "On the Origin of Species" placed in every church in Oklahoma? Turnabout's fair play.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Doesn't want anyone to notice? If Christians are so hotsy-totsy, why are they so devious? Seems he knows he's doing something wrong/illegal, but does it anyway (a violation of scripture). Little wonder. He models his behavior after Trump.

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

I don't know how he can square this with Christian principles ... hahahahahahahaha ... I don't believe I just said that.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Can you say, 'campaign finance violation', kids?

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Whitney's avatar

Why is it people like Walters always seem to think they're smarter than everyone else when all the evidence says otherwise?

I mean, sure, try to get away with it once. When you get caught, trying the very same trickery over again immediately is just cartoon villain silly. Why aren't you twirling your mustache yet?

What bothers me the most here - and with the current MAGA Republicans - is that they've decided that some people are 'more equal' than others, and it really shows. They've rejected a founding principal of the US of A in the name of Christian Nationalists being 'the best' and they don't even grasp just how ironic that is. Now this Walters guy wants to really try and push his religious beliefs. Since he thinks he's part of that more equal crowd, he thinks he's entitled to ignore any law he doesn't like.

Good luck Oklahoma. This guy isn't going to go quietly.

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