This one will be a series and may be broken up between my insane reviews of The One Minute Millionaire. As most of you know, I’ve been avoiding the topic of politics this year, because I feel discouraged about the whole thing. Both state and national politics seem to be pretty messed up.
One of my readers hit me up on a social media network and asked me to look into John Bennett. I heard some things from this source that would have baffled me if I weren’t myself an ex-conservative myself.
Before this discussion, I hadn’t known a thing about this fellow. I don’t follow the minutia of politics, the Oklahoma party chairman pretty much falls under my radar. After the things I’m learning, that may have to change.
Some of you may remember I wrote quite a bit about the last gubernatorial race (emphasis on “guber.”) I have several friends who are teachers, and they motivated me to be interested, and I did some research and wrote my posts, and dug up some dirt, not on him, but on others, and sent that to several reporters and so far, I fall asleep to the sounds of crickets. To be fair, maybe the reporters are researching and just don’t have time to send me responses. I don’t like bugging people (why do you think I never chose to be a reporter), and so I won’t send you a bunch of questions like “What do you think of this? Did you look into that? Is there a possibility we might have hope for our children’s education?” You get the idea.
What did my source tell me? Why am I suddenly motivated to write again? Read on.
Oh yeah, Weird Al and I are gonna put on the tinfoil hat and tell you a story that will either make your hair stand up on end or will make you wanna clash your swords against your shields and cry out “man flesh is back on the menu boys!”
My source described Chet Beafflank…I mean John Bennett as a used car shyster who has mesmerized certain Republicans for his amusement and profit. My source painted a picture of people enthralled by him, eager to do what he wanted. One of their first encounters with him they state that he was able to obtain $1000 in donations just visiting a bar. I can’t verify this, so my apologies if somehow, I misunderstood my source. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in sales, so I get that sometimes you have to put the selling shoes on and make a good go of it. But the method of selling was, according to my source, somewhat less than dignified.
I’m going to share five links. Likely my bias is showing, but I will share his campaign website, and if I can find any pro Bennett sites that don’t give me the heeby jeeby’s I’ll share them as well in the interests of fairness.
https://johnbennettforcongress.com/
https://ballotpedia.org/John_R._Bennett_(Oklahoma)
https://www.thebulwark.com/meet-john-bennett-the-oklahoma-republican-partys-very-special-chairman/
I may not quote from all of these, but I felt I would serve my readers better if you at least have access to all of my online sources of information. Let me know if you find verification for the $1000 donation in a bar.
Now that I’ve talked your ear off, let’s dive in. I’ll tell you who John Bennet is, why he is controversial, and then I’ll try to give some vague justification for why I’m worried about him. By the end, you’ll either be worried too, or you will be signing sending him your debit card and pin number. Let’s begin.
According to his campaign website he is a pastor, family man, and business owner. He “is a Constitutional Conservative whose life has been dedicated to service and defending Liberty, both in the Oklahoma State Legislature and as a United States Marine.” He stands for God, family, and country. He believes that America comes first, in a strong second amendment, strong borders, American energy independence, fiscal responsibility, and rebuilding our military.
He has been endorsed by a couple of big names, Rudy Giuliani and Retired 4 star general and former NSA chief to the Ex-President Trump, Michael Flynn. According to The National File, General Flynn was quoted as saying “I strongly endorse John Bennett as the next GOP Chairperson for the Great State of Oklahoma. To all those delegates who represent the patriotic citizens of Oklahoma, your choice is clear and simple.” So, with some reservations, he sounds like a strong man and a strong candidate. So why is my Spidey sense tingling?
I am still conservative enough that there are several things on his Facebook page I like. (And I can hear the horrified gasps of the half of my readers who are still reading after I’ve insulted most of my conservative friends). By all means take a gander at his site, make up your own mind about whether you like him or not. But now I’m about to reveal why my bias is against him.
I think thebulwark.com from August 3, 2021, gives IMHO the best biography of him (including his own campaign site) that I can find. “
“Who is John Bennett? Just another great Republican Patriot.
“He graduated from high school in Oklahoma, joined the Marines and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then, he came back, got a communications degree from the University of Phoenix (nota bene: not the ASU campus in Phoenix) and got himself elected to the Oklahoma state house. As a legislator, his signature accomplishment was mandating “that public schools recite the Pledge of Allegiance at least once a week.”
“After four terms, Bennett left the Oklahoma House, citing a self-imposed term limit. He became a Pentecostal pastor and was then elected chair of the Oklahoma GOP earlier this year.”
According to The Tulsa World: “During his eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, 2011-19, Bennett was known for his fiery rhetoric and verbal attacks on Muslim Americans.
“He labeled CAIR, Soltani and Imam Imad S. Enchassi of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City as terrorists during a House interim study during October 2016.”
At the risk of angering a lot of readers, I have friends who are still very upset about 9/11 who will likely be suspicious of Muslim’s for the rest of their lives. But I think even the most suspicious of them would have more respect than to 1) require anyone to fill out a “loyalty report” for any official state function that doesn’t involve top secret clearance, and 2) even if they did, I don’t think they would have the Neanderthal disdain for another people to ask such an insulting question.
The Tulsa World continues: “CAIR is a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group working to enhance the understanding of Islam.
“Bennett was equally outspoken in his opposition to gun control and abortion rights, and he often clashed with even fellow Republicans. Agencies warning of cutbacks in senior services because of huge budget shortfalls in 2017 also were terrorists, and tax increases to address the situation were unnecessary, he said.
“If some were put off by Bennett’s polemics, many others were enthralled. At Saturday’s convention, he defeated three other candidates on the first ballot.”
So, if you are liberal and I haven’t lost you yet, almost certainly you are horrified. If you are conservative, I wonder what you are thinking and feeling at the moment. Because as a centrist, I’m trying to tell you that this is the stupid bs that is causing people to believe conservatives are crazy racists.
Now that we’ve learned a little bit about the man, I intend to do a little more digging. Likely I will find out that I am wrong, I don’t doubt there will be a photo of Mother Theresa hugging him. Yes, I’m leaving you with a cliffhanger on purpose. I have some special information that I want to share with you, but I believe tagging it on the end of all this information may be a bit overwhelming for some.
And also, I want to do more digging. There are parts of the story I am wanting to share that I hope to verify, and there are other parts that I can verify, but I feel like the bombshell is best dropped after you have a chance to digest what I’ve shared here.
SARCASM ALERT SARCASM ALERT SARCASM ALERT! Unfair sarcastic joke incoming.
To quote my favorite tv show about the man, “We put our faith in Slab Hardcheese!”
Well, that’s all for now, stay tuned for more Tired Blogging about the wonderful leadership of the Oklahoma Republican Party!
Tired Midnight Blogger (What Blogs at Midnight) 
Bennet BOASTING a picture of himself withRudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, and Jackson Rhodes Lahmeyer tilts me toward knowing all that I might need to know. (How many of those guys were in jail or will be going to jail in this decade? I’m going to guess AT LEAST three.)
Then add to Bennet’s hypocrisy as he tails against so-called Religious Extremism but then using the EXACT SAME PLAYBOOK only for extremist Christianity.
The guy is tyrannically anti democracy.
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I detest ALL politicians and ALL governments; I had a wonderful young person at the school I teach at sometimes present the class I was proctoring with the diagram of political stances.
I let them all discuss, most of these kids are leaning very left with one or two leaning right etc., children follow their parents (as they should in many things)
When they got done, they turned and said, Mr M, where do you stand.
I went up to the 4×8 white board and as far away from the diagram as possible, making it as obvious as I could I placed a VERY small dot – I said the following.
“I have volunteered for dozens of campaigns since 1996, Democratic, Republican, Green party and Libertarian, I was one of 4 people called initially when the FOUNDER of the Libertarian party passed, I have met and sat and talked with dozens of high-profile politicians and have all the signed ridiculous pictures one gets when they volunteer. I did this because I wanted to see if ANY of the parties or individuals running at a state or federal level were worthy of our praise or support. What I found was simple, I DONT NEED THEM TO TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE. NONE of them are better at this than I am for my OWN life. ALL politicians are self-indulgent, self-promoting, narcissistic useless vapid fools and ALL of them are run by someone else. When it comes to politics the simple reality is, ALL of those at a federal level would and many have sold their own mothers down river to remain in power, at a state level, they tend to be worse…because they are not GOOD enough to get to the federal level.”
So, kids, I CHOOSE to simply abstain and instead focus my energy and time where it makes a true difference. Here with you at school, or in the foster care system. Because, until humans realize we DO NOT need government, they will always be taken for a ride by it.
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You almost sound like a more ethical Thomas Jefferson reincarnated in our dismal time🖖
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