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Trenton Rippey With Young Americans For Liberty Pushes Principles Over Politics

Young Americans For Liberty

Wednesday morning, Michael and I welcomed Trenton Rippey of Young Americans for Liberty to the program. We had a great conversation – not only about what YAL does – but about what we should all be doing if we’re going to turn American around from the brink of economic and social destruction. You can find the entire interview on our Rumble and YouTube channels. I definitely suggest watching the entire interview and then passing it on to young people you know.

It was so great to listen to someone younger talk about the problems they are seeing in the country, what they are doing to try and solve those and how important it is to involve others in changing the system.

In the clip below, Trenton talks about how sometimes, all younger people need is to know there are people out there who think like them. Because college campuses are usually bastions of unfree thought that propagandize leftist ideals, it helps for young, conservative people to find a community of likeminded people and YAL can be that.

He also talks about the fact that his generation is finally realizing that no one (human) person is coming to save them and that they have to do it themselves.

In the clip below, Trenton talks about how hard it is to find out about true economic liberty – the free market economy – on college campuses because of the way it’s taught – or should I say ISN’T taught.

It was great to have Trenton on and to hear him talk about the power of following principles over politics – that saving the country isn’t Red or Blue, it’s about the principles of liberty.

In the first video above, he also talks about how YAL members aren’t accepting compromise on liberty issues anymore. For examples, property taxes are WRONG according to the Constitution of the US and the ideals of our Founders, and so are income taxes. They don’t want a percentage reduction in either tax – they want them abolished period. And who doesn’t really, it’s just that we’ve been putting up for too long with the idea that we have to compromise to get what we want.

Trenton makes us remember that our elected officials are not Kings and Queens to be genuflected to with a kiss on their ring. Elected officials are elected TO WORK FOR THE PEOPLE – to be SERVANTS of the people – not corporations with well-funded lobbyists.

Again, it was refreshing to hear a younger person understand the principles of liberty and have a desire to see those expressed – the way they should be – in our government of The People, by The People and for The People! Help a young person get connected to YAL TODAY!

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Governor Stitt (R) Warns Trump Not To Dump Green Subsidies.

Governor Stitt wants green energy subsidies

Over and over again, Governor Stitt has touted his “more of everything” energy policy as he welcomes everything from the (possibly very dangerous) carbon capture facility Bantam in Shidler, Oklahoma, to an Italian green energy company (Enel) who’s intent it was to build a one billion dollar solar cell factory around the Port of Catoosa – a project which now looks as though it won’t get off the ground – even with 180 MILLION in legislature-approved tax incentives specifically for the project.

Meanwhile, lots of Oklahomans have had enough.

They’ve had enough of the endless miles of wind turbines that Oklahoma doesn’t need and which send energy out of the state to other destinations while actively working to keep from paying property taxes to help local schools.

They’ve had enough of the endless millions of dollars worth in TAX BREAKS AND GIFTS that are given to ‘green’ companies like Canoo, and NextEra – the latter so they can effectively employ something like 50 workers – many of whom are seasonal, or maintenance workers.

They’ve had enough of the ruination of beautiful Oklahoma sunsets behind waving wheat with a giant metal structure that pours 40 trucks worth of concrete into a hole to hold up a structure as high as 295 feet that can come tumbling down at any moment – especially during a storm – and seed perfectly good farmland with near-impossible-to-retrieve shards of fiberglass.

In fact, Oklahomans have had so much of ‘enough’ of it, that 100’s of them gathered in February on a single-digit temperature day at the state capitol to push back against the green energy agenda.

There’s even a petition signed by THOUSANDS of Oklahomans asking Governor Stitt to declare a MORATORIUM on green energy projects to at least get a handle on the projects going up today – many of which no one seems to know about until the first windmill shows up!

Governor Stitt loves green energy

And yet, here’s our REPUBLICAN governor, giving an interview to the very left-leaning Politico (you know the one that had over 8 million in very expensive subscription fees canceled by DOGE?) where he WARNS PRESIDENT TRUMP not to “break contracts” with green energy companies and continue the subsidies from the IRA pouring in!! How in the world does Governor Kevin Stitt have an R by his name? What does that R stand for? RAPING and RUINING farmland in pursuit of a “all of the above” energy policy?

Okay, maybe not that, but certainly, from the recorded interview with POLITICO our takeaway has to be that Governor Kevin Stitt cannot define the concept of free markets and has no clue what it means when he talks about the government picking winners and losers. Unfortunately, for Oklahoma citizens, this is an enormous problem. Whether we like green energy or not, it will likely be shoved down our throats by a man who thinks he’s somehow doing us a favor.

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Oklahoma Taxpayers Get Soaked By Canoo – And Other Taxpayer-Financed Violations Of The Free Market

In case you missed it, The Federalist ran an article I authored last week, “Oklahoma Republicans Are Helping Green Energy Cronies Scam Taxpayers Out Of Billions“. Check it out. I know both the Federalist and I would love that – but so will you. You may not know exactly how much of your hard-earned dollars are being GIVEN to PRIVATE companies in Oklahoma – but then, maybe you do and you’re just glad that Governor Stitt and his hand-picked Commerce Department staff is making sure that your kids have somewhere to work in Oklahoma so they can stay here after graduating college.

But wait. Is that really a reason for Republicans who love to use the expression ‘free market’ in their campaign literature, to GIFT private companies tax dollars.

Last Friday (2.7.25), in a special ROPE Report podcast at 1pm, Oklahoma Representative Jay Steagall was with me to talk about the ‘free market’ and Oklahoma tax incentives. Below is a clip in which Rep. Steagall and I make sure that everyone watching understands the concept of FREE MARKET ECONOMICS. What is that exactly? Watch below and find out.

So, is it appropriate for the legislature to appropriate your tax dollars, give it to another business which has the ability to make dollars on their own in the free market and then tell you that they’re doing it to create jobs? NO NO NO NO NO. I think you might get the idea.

In fact, last week, I wrote another article – this time for just the website – titled, “Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives“. I think this should be required reading for EVERY TAXPAYER IN OKLAHOMA – and not just because I wrote it – because every taxpayer should know that their taxdollars are going to prop up private companies that can pay for their own cost of doing business.

We get our property taken from us and sold at auction if we don’t pay our property taxes. If we don’t pay our income taxes, the government seizes our bank accounts, fines us, or throws us in jail until we do.

And yet, MULTI-BILLION dollar privately held companies can use our hard-earned dollars to make more money whether we like it or not.

And here’s more about the Canoo debacle that you might not know.

Wow! How do you like THEM apples? Not only did Canoo soak Oklahoma tax payers for tax dollars as incentives to help them start a business that WAS NEVER GOING TO GET OFF THE GROUND, employees that more than likely didn’t even live in Oklahoma and were hired just in time to get state and local (Oklahoma City) incentives, got paid Oklahoma unemployment. I’m imagining that Canoo never funded their portion of their employees unemployment, but I don’t know for a fact.

Rep. Steagall has a bill to reduce Income Tax this year on a trajectory to complete removal. Governor Stitt has also said that he wants to remove Income Tax. Yet here’s the headline screaming from an article in the Oklahoma Voice last week, “Oklahoma legislative leaders hesitant to cut income tax“. WHAT? WHAT? Our ‘legislative leaders’ are Republican. Whatever happened to the Republican concept of smaller government and minimal taxation as tenets of the Republican platform? What about the other tenet of the platform – FREE ENTERPRISE!??

Please, contact your Representative AND Senator. Tell them you expect them to lower the state Income Tax with a plan in place to phase it out – THIS SESSION. And you might mention that one of the things they could do to afford it, was to QUIT GIVING BILLIONAIRES AND PRIVATE GREEN ENERGY COMPANIES our tax dollars – FOR A START!

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Five Reasons Republicans Should Not Support Vouchers

Though few may pay it the attention it’s due, the Republican Party has a Platform snapshotting a picture of the basic things Party members generally believe. Oklahoma has its own Platform created through a process that eventually ends in a vote of acceptance at their biennial convention. The Oklahoma County GOP has a very good one page summary of the OKGOP Platform here.

According to this OKGOP Platform, these are five reasons Republicans should NOT support ‘School Choice’ vouchers (please see “An Analysis Of Three Oklahoma Voucher Bills” for more information on what the bills say):

  1. Republicans believe in “limited government“. In fact, that is where the term “conservative” arises. We wish to ‘conserve’ the rights to the people by limiting government to the smallest footprint possible. Every universal voucher bill filed in the senate creates 6 to 7 sections of NEW LAW. In fact, they expand the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office by providing it not less than 20 new duties.
  2. Republicans believe in “personal, moral responsibility“. Taxpayers are forced to pay taxes to governments. If their taxes are not paid, the government will either take our property or our liberty (by throwing us in jail). Once the money leaves our hands, it’s not ours anymore. It is placed into one giant pot over which we have minimal control – through our legislators (taxation with representation) – as to how it’s spent. We can’t use government as a bank – our money isn’t earmarked as ours once it goes into the pot – all we can do is use the services our lawmakers choose to provide us for the money we must provide them from our budgets.
    • It is our personal, moral responsibility to raise and educate our children the way we believe is best.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of our elected lawmakers to do what is necessary to make government – including public schools – produce results and be accountable to the taxpayer whose dollars they appropriate.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of parents to move their lawmakers to force educational results (accountability) on our public schools, but it is also our personal, moral responsibility not to go to our lawmakers and demand more of our neighbor’s money so that we can put our children in schools we couldn’t otherwise afford without help. That is called welfare and/or socialism – definitely NOT a Republican ideal.
  3. Republicans believe in “individual liberty“. If the government gives a private school taxpayer dollars from the public coffers, taxpayers have the right to demand accountability for those dollars. This accountability can put boundaries on “individual liberty”. The Class Wallet debacle shows this to be true in spades.
    • In 2020, Oklahoma government officials – including now State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters – contracted with a PRIVATE organization called “Class Wallet” to disseminate over 17 million dollars in GEER funds (Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief). Parents who privately schooled their children were gifted $6500 for tuition to the tune of 10 million dollars total through the “Stay In School” program. Public school parents who needed help schooling their children online were gifted up to $1500 through the “Bridge The Gap” program.
    • Today, federal and state auditors are investigating over one half million dollars in GEER funds that were spent on things other than education, essentially defrauding the taxpayer. This same thing also happened in Arizona, through their private voucher program.
    • According to The Frontier, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is sending emails to identified users of the programs – for apparent accountability measures – asking, “What was the particular purpose surrounding your purchases during the pandemic?” And “were you homeschooling your children, or were they still in school?” ROPE has expressed continuous concern that homeschooling families taking government money would be assimilated by the government. The government gave away the money without guardrails – what good could it do to determine if families schooled at home or not?
    • Once the government begins to separate homeschooling families from private school families and online public school families from homeschooling families, Oklahoma’s previously undefined, but Constitutionally protected use of education “by other means” is in jeopardy of becoming regulated by the state, thus subverting the “individual liberty” of parents to school their children without state interference.
  4. Republicans believe in “state sovereignty“. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma legislature and public schools LOVE to get federal funding. In fact, according to this article from 2022, Oklahoma is 15th in the amount of federal funding we receive.
  5. Republicans believe in the “free market“. Public/private partnerships are not “free market”. Once the government – at any level – injects money into a private company/organization/school, the business to which the funds were given, now has an edge over the wholly-privately-owned businesses that weren’t able to, or didn’t, capitalize on on government handouts.
    • Nowhere is this better seen than the distribution of CARES Act monies. According to Forbes, private equity firms used federal funds to boost profits, crushing their competitors, the ‘little guys’ who weren’t able to capitalize on federal loans.
    • The “free market” describes a system of business free from government intervention, where businesses compete with each other so that the best companies prevail. Injecting public funds into a private school will create an imbalance in the private school system in which those taking state funding will grow and those that don’t, won’t. Sadly, the ones NOT taking public funds will do so to retain their autonomy, yet parents will slowly be denied access to an autonomous private school as the public-fund-sucking schools overpower their marketshare – leaving parents – AGAIN – with less choice than they had BEFORE government intervention.

Vouchers, like the Republican-pushed Common Core before it, are not based on Republican ideals and they will not work for Oklahoma families just like they haven’t in states like Arizona that have tried them.

As we’ve pointed out again and again, Oklahoma HAS SCHOOL CHOICE! We have a voucher program – the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for children with disabilities. We have the Opportunity Scholarship Fund which uses donations to “help[s] low-income families bridge the financial gap between what they can afford and what is best suited for their student for specialized PreK-12 education”. According to the Oklahoma section of the “National School Choice Week” website, Oklahoma has approximately 60 charter schools, several magnate schools, over 200 private schools, six fully online public schools, Constitutionally protected homeschool, and “learning pods”. The idea that ‘vouchers’ are required to somehow provide parents with school choice, should make one wonder then – what exactly do the people pushing “school choice” legislation really want?

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