David Yeagley is the great-great-grandson of Comanche leader Bad Eagle. 
Randy Brogdon, Oklahoma Republican state senator from Owasso, is running for governor of Oklahoma. Brogdon stands for a social principle that is more important than any other: individual freedom, or, self-reliance. “I want to see the expansion of freedom,” he told BadEagle.com in a recent interview, not the growth of more government.
Oklahoma Senator Randy Brogdon, Republican
candidate for Governor of Oklahoma, 2010.
When I asked, “Mr. Brogdon, what can I tell 275,000 Indians in the state of Oklahoma that will make them want to vote for you?” he answered, “I’m not after the Indian vote.” That was the most unforgettable moment in all political conversation. But he went on. “I’m not after the group vote.” Randy Brogdon is not campaigning for the support of any special interest group, any union, or any other social conglomerate. Brogdon is after the individual vote–the single vote of individuals who believe in freedom. The collective must reflect the individual, not the other way around. Collectives are tyrannical by nature. The only guard against them is the freedom and integrity of the individual. Self-reliant individuals make a strong nation, not tyranny.
In this approach to people, we find a remarkable commentary on the social collective. Brogdon touches on a principle so profound that most people will feel it only on an intuitive level, and may not appreciate the historical, moral principle that is at work in the campaign concept. Brogdon represents what he believes, nothing more. He is not a manipulator, and not a politician, really. The 2008 and 2009 number one ranking conservative Oklahoma state senator simply acts on what he believes, and seeks legislation and policy based on those values he holds.
They are ancient values. They are simple, clear, and godly. The principle of individual freedom and self-reliance is declared in the first proverbs of Solomon (Proverbs 1:10-16):
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
It is the gang mentality, the idea of group power–this is the fundamental principle of social evil. Men may naturally band together for safety, for defence, or for survival. But, politically, men also unite in wrong doing. Particularly in politics, group behavior is about power, strength, and the ability to override those who disagree. The group approach is about rough shodding the individual. That’s what it boils down to, every time. That is the liability of group think. Historically, group think always unites more for mischief than for good.
Brogdon wants no part of that approach. That is what is absolutely unique about his campaign, and about the principles he wants to put in operation in government. The fact that he is conducting his actual campaign on the principle of individuality rather than seeking group votes demonstrates the unique and superior quality of Brogdan’s sense of government. The nature of his campaign, in itself, qualifies him like no other candidate in modern political history. Oklahoma is just now becoming aware of how valuable such a man is. Brogdon’s approach is so different, so liberating, so refreshing, that many are yet unable to recognize it for what it is. It just hasn’t happened before. Politics is all about group support, all about numbers. How can Brogdan possibly win an election, without appealing to large voting blocks?
Borgdon has faith in the strength of the individual. It is true, only the strong will be attracted to Brogdan–but that’s all he’s interested in. The only kind of people who will support him are those who are self-reliant, and who believe in the strength of the individual. Personally, I think that all anyone has to do is hear this message, and they will respond, from the heart. It is like responding to the sunshine. It is like breathing freely. It is a natural thing, and a pleasurable thing. There is joy in simplicity, and self-reliance alone allows such an experience.
Brogdon applies self-reliance to all levels of government. He will not see the states as extensions of the federal government, but as independent, sovereign entities. He sees the states like he sees the Indian tribes. “Sovereign means sovereign,” he told BadEagle.com, when asked about the Indians’ status. “Leave them alone. Don’t mess with them.” It is not the place of some larger group to curtail the freedom of a smaller group, or freedom of an individual.
As a governor, Brodgon is very much a believer in the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution. Whatsoever powers not specifically assigned the federal government remain solely under the authority of the individual states. Nothing could be clearer, or more important for a state governor.
Brogdon is strong, and will attract strong people. I say, when one contemplates his principles of individuality and self-reliance, one will happily choose the same. It just takes one good exposure to Brogdon’s message, and any conscious individual will vote for Randy Brogdon for governor of the state of Oklahoma. Nothing is more glorious than the natural dignity of a human being. But this joyous revelation is only for the strong, only for those willing to take it as it is. Those who hide in groups, or who seek refuge in the hordes of the weak, will look askance at Brogdon.
Such an opportunity as Brogdon presents is rare, and wondrous. I am very happy that it’s happening in Oklahoma. It makes me exceedingly proud of my state. Brogdon makes me proud of being an Oklahoman, and American, and yes, proud of being Indian. Brogdon shows respect to the divine sense in all men. Only when one is self-reliant and free can he afford intelligent, effective compassion for others. In Brogdon’s campaign, the expansion of freedom means the recovery of individual dignity and honor. Self-reliant individuals make the strongest society.
Vote Randy Brogdon for Governor, Oklahoma, 2010!
23 responses so far ↓
1 tjm // Apr 19, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate “promises,” they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight… Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.
2 David Yeagley // Apr 19, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Well, Brogdon said he wouldn’t support any tax breaks for any particular group. He wanted lower taxes for everyone.
Independence is the secret of tax control. It begins in the city, the county, then the state.
What about roads, for example. There are roads in certain sparcely populated “poor” counties that are vital to thoroughfares. The country could never pay for that. The money has to come from some other source.
What’s your take on that?
3 colleague graduate // Apr 19, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I see no other way to pay for needed improvements where people live than by taxing them with property taxes, sales taxes, and federal income taxes. Federal taxes would pay for federal improvements such as intererstate highway improvements where people live, and pay for federal services where they live such as FBI offices there. State sales taxes and property taxes pay for license plate registration stickers, local services such as police, fire, EMS, water, and public service which includes trash pick up. Also included in these state taxes is local road improvements such as pot hole repair and bridge replacement. There is no other way to pay for these improvements and services for residents other than taxes. If taxes go up, then check on your local population count to see if it has gone up. If it hasn’t, then contact your Senators and Congressmen. Taxes are a necessary evil. At one time there was a tax on everything by Britain, causing the Boston Tea Party and the dumping of tea overboard in Boston Harbor. The only other way to fund civil services is to receive donations from the wealthy, and this is not happeninmg in California right now. How else will money be raised, by government bake sales on the steps of City Halls? Or do places not need taxes, and already have enough money, a taxpayer’s dream? Some bank payout money and stimulus funds were given back because they weren’t needed. Mark Sanford here in SC refused Federal stimulus money for education. Ford Motor Co. did not need any Fed money to continue operation when GM asked for and got some.
4 colleague graduate // Apr 19, 2010 at 3:56 pm
interstate
5 colleague graduate // Apr 19, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I hate making one typo within a huge composition. I could have sworn I was proofreading the entire way.
6 colleague graduate // Apr 19, 2010 at 4:49 pm
tjm- the only place I would expect a Civil War next is in Alaska where Todd Palin is a member of the Alaska Secede from the United States party; there’s no need to distract attention from him and his connection to Sarah if that’s what you’re attempting to do here, which you might be, although I’m only speculating with conjecture
7 David Yeagley // Apr 19, 2010 at 5:23 pm
It isn’t really a question of seceding from the Union. It’s just not allowing the federal government to do what it is not authorized by the Constitution to do. It’s not about being disloyal.
The problem is: the federal government has become disloyal. We have Communists in charge now. That’s how far it’s gone. And FDR loved Stalin, as did Truman. Let that never be forgotten. We are seeing now the culmination of decades of Communist advance. We are seeing the “American” version of Communism–brought to us by the federal governmnet.
The federal governmnet has seceded from the Union. That’s what’s happened.
8 colleague graduate // Apr 19, 2010 at 6:49 pm
David, I saw where the median age in Owasso is around 37. That’s young. It must be healthy there, with a decent median income level. It must be a nice place to live. I recall travelling through OK City in about ’79 on my way back east from a surfing trip to Cal, and staying at a Days Inn on the Interstate there one evening and overnight. I felt well taken care of that night by all of OK City. I had a real good feel about the entire city, good vibes. I saw you on tv in AZ at some meeting at a building built of stone, and Pat Cadell the political statistician was there. Pat went to a Catholic HS in Jacksonville, FL, with some guys I used to know and knock around with, and he was the same age and year in school as you and I. Also, speaking of Randy Brogdon, you might know from Oklahoma conservatives Don Knickles, who used to be a senator from OK and a big leader of the Republican party. He was originally from Atlanta and a younger frat brother of mine who lived down the hall from me in the frat house at Ga Tech. Small world.
9 David Yeagley // Apr 19, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Here is a great piece by Randy Brogdon about his recent statements about Oklahomans who want a militia:
There Already is an Oklahoma Militia
Brogdon is already feared by many, and the home grown local liberal media is already working against him. Mary Falin is his only competition, and he is gaining significantly. Mary Falin is a good woman, but, Randy would make a much better governor.
10 tjm // Apr 19, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Go ahead, take everything I own; take my dignity. Feel good as you grow fat and rich at my expense; sucking my tax dollars and property
It is a lie if we tell ourselves that the police can protect us everywhere at all times. Firearms restrictions are bad enough, but now a woman can’t even carry Mace in her purse?
The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.
11 David Yeagley // Apr 19, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Brogdon has supported gun rights from the beginning. Also, our Democrat governor Brad Henry passed a law that if someone approaches you in a parking lot, and you think your life is threatened, you can take out your gun and blow ‘em away. That’s right.
This is the privilege of state law, unlike federal law. In Arizona, at least in the early nineties when I was there, you could carry a gun on your hip, in public.
It ain’t over yet!
12 colleague graduate // Apr 20, 2010 at 4:10 am
Brogdon spoke of “unorganized militia”. That sounds pretty cool. It conjures up recollections of OK being unorganized Indian Territory once, where my grandmother on my dad’s side was born. Such a militia must be like those common vehicles that everyone drives around with in traffic that occasionaly put red lights on the dashboards in their windshields when they become volunteer rescue squad vehicles responding to large emergencies. I had an ancestor who I have mentioned here in comments previously who was captured by the British and spent the rest of the Rev War off the coast here in the Charleston, SC area. He was on my mom’s side of my ancestors. He came down here from Virginia to help fight the redcoats, and he was a member of the Virginia Militia. His name was John McEntire(McIntire). I guess his first name being the name of a disciple of Christ spared him as a POW with the Brits. Still, he might have had to stay under the deck rowing his arms off with the other prisoners until the end of the war.
13 colleague graduate // Apr 20, 2010 at 4:11 am
time says 4:10 am, but it’s 6:10 am here, 4:10 in OK City
14 tjm // Apr 20, 2010 at 4:32 pm
The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.
15 David Yeagley // Apr 20, 2010 at 7:12 pm
tjm, I want to encourage everyone to avail himself of every political process he can. We elect individuals here in the country, regularly. In cycles. Things can change.
I think one must try every peaceable, socially ordained process before thinking about the use of force. One must find the right candidate, and support him. One must himself run for office, and any and every level.
THEN, only then do you have the right to consider force.
16 Thrasymachus // Apr 20, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Of course a peaceable solution is desired and is what we must strive for. It is certainly not too late for that, so long as we have a free and open Internet.
Just remember, however, that in Great Britain, the citizens have given up their right to carry a gun — perhaps even to own one?
http://www.mcsm.org/britsban1.html
If we Americans ever lose this precious right, the tyranny over us will be complete.
17 Dernon Ruton // Apr 21, 2010 at 6:36 am
Dear Dr. Yeagley: Great article, and thank you for bringing this man — and his authentic love of freedom — to the fore. It’s not my fault I was born in New York. Freedom-wise, the East has become very sissified. I wish we had candidates like Brogdon. Bravo Oklahoma!
18 colleague graduate // Apr 21, 2010 at 11:20 am
I live in the East, and I don’t consider here to be sissified. David went to college at Emory which is in the East, and I’m sure he would not agree that Georgia is sissified. I live in the Southeast, and my region voted for McCain, as did I. He would have been better than Obama as I found out recently when doing a Google Search on peyote and finding the Wikipedia page on it which stated peyote is used by Indians in the NAC, and it is legally grown in McCain’s home state by anybody there. So I believe the Southeast voted for the more turned-on candidate instead of a square. One of my two younger brothers lives in the mountains of NY, and I don’t consider where he lives to be sissified. He works very hard doing outdoor work and it takes it’s toll on his body, and he is not anywhere close to a sissy, physically or freedom-wise. New York also fought in the Rev War against England, so Dernon should not forget that, even if NY voted for Obama. They gotta hold on to their history and not let blacks erase all of it. You know, right near where I live is a junkyard on the main highway to here that used to fly a confederate flag about 50′ above their office building. They had a german shepherd that roamed around the yard there as a pet. They liked it so much that they had a circle overstitched over the center of the confederate flag with the german shepherd’s side view of it’s head. Well, blacks started to complain, and they took it down.That was a private business, and that flag was their artwork. Blacks ended their art. And on that same island, I have made some videos of grafitti depicting blacks that is there to this day. So if blacks get their art to stay, why not whites, who own the junkyard?
19 tjm // Apr 21, 2010 at 1:49 pm
A man with nothing left to lose is a very dangerous man and his energy/anger can be focused toward a common/righteous goal. What I’m asking you to do, then, is sit back and be honest with yourself. Do you have kids/wife? Would you back out at the last minute to care for the family? Are you interested in keeping your firearms for their current/future monetary value, or would you drag that ’06 through rock, swamp and cactus…to get off the needed shot? In short, I’m not looking for talkers, I’m looking for fighters…And if you are a fed, think twice. Think twice about the Constitution you are supposedly enforcing (isn’t “enforcing freedom” an oxymoron?) and think twice about catching us with our guard down – you will lose just like Degan did – and your family will lose.
20 David Yeagley // Apr 21, 2010 at 3:06 pm
tjm, do you vote? Do you participate in campaigns? Do you take part in the political process? Just about anyone can pull a trigger. Most would, to defend their families. Voting and campaigning is defending families, too.
21 David Yeagley // Apr 21, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Here’s the scoop on the AP’s recent distortion of Brogdon’s words.
All In a Day’s Work: AP Twists Words, Paints OK. Candidate as Militia Nut
Last week, Oklahoma state senator Randy Brogdon (R), who is also a serious candidate for governor, inadvertently set off a national firestorm, courtesy of the Associated Press’s egregiously distorting his words.
An article by Sean Murphy and Tim Talley, about tea parties and militias (funny, how those two entities are conveniently linked together), implied that Sen. Brogdon, who was elected to office in 2002, is eager to help launch a kinder-and-gentler version of the Hutaree milita chapter. Or, something to that effect.
22 colleague graduate // Apr 21, 2010 at 4:50 pm
tjm- try not to take the law into your own hands; I know how it is with a gun in the swamp; I used to own a .22 remington bolt action rifle in Jacksonville, FL in the late 60′s, and took it out into some swamp behind my subdivision to shoot at trees, instead of owning it for it’s monetary value, which was very little; but please, don’t try to take the law into your own hands, because that never has worked in the modern world; it worked in the Rev War for the colonists, and it worked for the coup in the Soviet Union, but in the US here is too organized for it to work; besides, it would be anarchy, too disorganized; if you are at the bottom of the barrel scraping it, clean out your gun barrel, it must need brushing of black powder, you must have been using it alot lately
23 colleague graduate // Apr 21, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Randy Brogdon reminds me of the late President of my alma mater, Ga Tech; his name was Joseph Petit, and he used to be at Stanford, of course where Condoleeza Rice was President; Dr. Petit died about 20 years ago, but Brogdon looks very much like him; I thought I might add this little bit of personal history; perhaps Brogdon is Dr. Petit reincarnted; Dr. Petit was at my graduation where Jimmy Carter spoke, and gave me my diploma
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