"Turnaround," A Book Review

It's US Senator James Lankford's (R-OK) first book. It's a refreshing, insightful, inspirational, and a faith-based call to stop feeding the Outrage Machine™.

With all the focus on the horrible flash flood disaster in Texas’s Hill County, we’ve learned about the plethora of Christian boys and girls summer camps along the Guadalupe River northwest of San Antonio. There are dozens of such camps, including Camp Mystic, the girls’ camp that was Ground Zero of the tragedy.

But Texas is hardly alone; every state seems to have them. My younger son attended a terrific Christian boys’ camp in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, Deerfoot, annually for several formative years. Boy and Girl Scout camps are also ubiquitous, and my older son, an Eagle Scout, attended a few in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. According to the American Camp Association, 26 million young people participate in camps of every kind every summer.

In my home state of Oklahoma, the largest and best-known Christian camp is Falls Creek, with its base of operations in the Arbuckle Mountains near Davis, Oklahoma. It’s affiliated with the Baptist Church. About 40 percent of Oklahomans identify as Baptists, far more than any other denomination. Falls Creek has been around since 1917 and today hosts approximately 50,000 young people every summer. I never attended, but I knew many who did, including my youngest sister.

And for about 20 years, one of its leaders was James Lankford, including serving 14 years as its president and chief executive officer. He stepped down in 2009 when he felt called to run for Oklahoma’s open Fifth Congressional District, being vacated by Mary Fallin. Fallin, a former lieutenant governor, successfully sought the GOP nomination for governor and was elected to two terms.

Lankford was not the early favorite and was outspent in his campaign, but the Texas native was well known and highly respected for his leadership of Falls Creek. He led a nine-candidate field in the GOP primary in the Tea Party year of 2010 and defeated the early favorite, then-State Rep. Kevin Calvey, in the runoff while running as a political outsider. Four years later, he handily won another competitive GOP primary, this time for a US Senate seat vacated by the late Dr. Tom Coburn, defeating a former State House Speaker and others.

Now in his 11th year in the Senate after four years in the House, Lankford was elected, unopposed, by his GOP colleagues after the 2024 election as Vice Chair of the Conference, the first rung on the Senate GOP leadership ladder after the thankless task of heading the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm. That job this cycle went to US Senator and former GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC).

He can no longer claim the mantle of “political outsider.” He’s now about as “insider” as one can get. However, he neither talks nor behaves as if he were one. He’s not forgotten where he comes from, or how he got there, unimpeached by the rarified air of Washington, DC. America’s revival, the subtitle of his book, begins not with Washington or our politicians. It begins with each of us.

Senator James Lankford takes a selfie of he and his wife, Cindy, a Speech Pathologist, with US Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).

Lankford’s Senate career hasn’t always featured fair winds and smooth seas, given his challenging and unsuccessful experience negotiating an immigration reform bill in late 2023 with progressive Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Democrat-turned-independent Senator Kirsten Sinema (I-AZ). As Lankford tells the story in his terrific new book, “Turnaround,” (Chapter 10), he was tasked with the unenviable duty by then-GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to see if they could produce a border control bill as part of a broader deal that included military and other aid for Ukraine.

Lankford, Murphy, and Sinema eventually produced a compromise bill that was doomed to fail upon arrival in Congress. Then-candidate Donald Trump came out strongly against it, and many in and outside the Senate simply did not trust the open borders crowd in the Biden Administration to enforce it (that was also my view). In addition, the House had already passed a strong immigration reform bill and was not interested in giving cover to Democrats on what was a winning issue for the GOP.

Trump supporters are quick to say that we didn’t need an immigration reform bill. We just needed a new President. And Trump, like it or not, has stemmed the flow of illegal immigration along with the human trafficking and worse that Biden’s policies fomented. However, we still need an immigration reform bill to address the gaps and resolve issues with the existing law, particularly regarding asylum claims. I think Sen. Lankford agrees. In fact, he says so in “Turnaround.”

Lankford’s book, which he took three years to write, isn’t really about policy or politics, although there are several doses of both. It’s a faith-based call for individuals to take action and address the issues that frustrate or anger them. He expertly outlines, with numerous examples, how “everyday” people, from the biblical prophet Nehemiah (whom he’s particularly fond of) to Jan Scruggs, who 46 years ago conceived and led the effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on DC’s Mall, overcome odds to achieve great things.

He inspires you to do the same. “Washington doesn’t change America. America changes Washington,” he exclaims at least twice in the book. As a product of the 2010 Tea Party election and the 2014 GOP congressional landslide, he would know.

The story of Jan Scruggs especially resonated with me. I had a front row seat, during my first year in Washington, when the Vietnam veteran and mid-level Labor Department employee was inspired by the 1979 Academy Award-winning movie “The Deer Hunter” (Best Picture, among others) to build a Memorial to the more than 58,318 men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the shamefully led Vietnam War).

Side note: Dr. William Hamilton’s “War During Peace: A Strategy for Defeat” remains my go-to book on the horrific execution of the war by the Lyndon Johnson Administration. Hamilton is a friend, fellow Oklahoma native, co-author (with his equally accomplished and impressive aviator wife, Penny), military historian, and Vietnam veteran who has been inducted into the Sooner State’s Military Hall of Fame. He’s also a world speed record-holding pilot and a fellow Substack author. He’s been awarded the Silver Star and four Bronze Stars for his valor. Like Lankford, he knows what he speaks and writes about.

I met Scruggs in 1979 as a young press aide to U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-AR), then the ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Scruggs enlisted Hammerschmidt and others, including US Sen. Charles Mc. Mathias (R-MD) to successfully enact legislation to provide space on DC’s Mall for the memorial. Scruggs, after a slow start, raised tens of millions of dollars. No public money was used to construct it. The unassuming Scruggs proved to be a force of nature, and Lankford credits his leadership not only with the creation of the Memorial but also with inspiring a change in public attitudes towards veterans of all wars.

If you’ve been on or in an airport terminal welcoming an “Honor Flight” of veterans, and Lankford and I both have, you know what I mean.

Veterans aboard an Honor Flight to Washington, DC

Lankford’s book wonderfully weaves biblical passages and personal and family stories as examples of how “everyday” Americans, when they choose to engage instead of complain and bicker, can achieve extraordinary things. He had me nodding at several observations about working in Congress, with a focus on how outrageous and angry behavior is often rewarded in both politics and the media. As I’ve said ad nauseam, what gets rewarded gets repeated. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any ideas on how to fix that, but then again, I’m not sure anyone does, since so much of the delusional woke legacy media seems uninterested. He correctly notes that Americans have lost faith in the “institution” of the press as alternative sources arise, and the legacy media seem oblivious to their plight.

Lankford comes across as the everyday American he’s writing to throughout this very accessible and well-written book. I chose to listen to an audio version on a long drive this past weekend from central Illinois to Northern Virginia. Lankford has the best voice in Congress, and books read by the author always seem more engaging than those read by professionals, punctuating their words and thoughts with inflections and emphasis that professionals can’t replicate.

“Turnaround” is part memoir (Lankford is 57), part commentary on the Senate and the media, part policy book on immigration, energy, and abortion, and part personal testimony of his faith. He blends them all seamlessly.

I remember the first time I met Lankford, as a lobbyist working the halls on the first day of the new Congress in 2011. I made it a habit to walk the halls of Congress on the first day of a new Congress every two years by dropping in on open houses for “swearing-in day” and especially those of newly elected members with whom I might have a connection. As an Oklahoma native, I wanted to meet the new Congressman from Oklahoma City, where I spent many formative years in the city’s southwest before an unpopular court desegregation order prompted my parents to relocate to the small town of Washington, Oklahoma, in McClain County, 45 minutes south. My best friend and his family soon followed us.

Lankford didn’t appear to have organized anything for his first day on Capitol Hill. The staff member who greeted me in his fifth-floor Cannon Building office - known as “the bat’s belfry” by Hill veterans - asked me to wait in his sparse and understaffed lobby, as he was headed out for an appointment. Lankford bolted out of his office, unsmiling as he walked towards me. He stopped, intensely looked me in the eye, reached out his hand, and got right in my face. The intensity in his face almost startled me, his eyes boring into me like an oil field drill bit. “Nice to meet you,” he said, after I gave my 15-second spiel, turned, and walked out of his office. I’m sure the day was a total blur to him. I’ve worked for two freshman Members of Congress, so I understand the feeling.

I recognize that look.

I’m also willing to extend to him the same grace he showers on others, especially the angry constituents he references. Lankford discloses his strategy when confronted by one by working to find something to agree on, anything, even if it’s only Oklahoma City Thunder (2025 NBA Champions) basketball. He shares many lessons he has learned from those and other encounters.

Lankford appears to have lost much of the intensity that I saw in 2011. He has cruised to reelection after reelection with well over 60 percent of the vote. And by virtue of his election to GOP Senate leadership, he’s not only respected and liked by Oklahomans, but especially his colleagues in the Senate. That’s no small feat. I’ve never heard a negative word said about him. That’s saying something, especially in politics and Congress. Nor does he ever speak negatively about a colleague. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his detractors. I’ve heard them, mostly in reference to the aforementioned immigration compromise.

I don’t know how far up the ladder Lankford, an unapologetic conservative, will climb if he chooses to remain in leadership and the Senate. John Thune, my friend from South Dakota, is just 64 (a remarkably youthful presence in today’s US Senate) and has a long future ahead of him as the GOP floor leader, a position to which he was just elected. But Lankford’s outstanding communication skills, his marvelous baritone voice, and uncanny ability to turn phrases make him an excellent candidate to eventually chair the Senate Republican Conference, the chief communication arm of the leadership, or perhaps as the Assistant Leader, or whip, where powers of one-on-one persuasion are tested to the max.

His book leaves you with the impression that he possesses genuine humility, never thinking himself smarter or better than others —a rare trait in Washington’s insidious swamp. He’s neither preachy nor sanctimonious, but earnest, honest, and open.

The next step up the leadership ladder is chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, where I served as staff director for US Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) more than three decades ago, whose Oklahoma Senate seat he now occupies. The RPC chairmanship is now occupied by West Virginia’s Senior Senator, Shelley Moore Capito. His chapters on energy and immigration demonstrate a solid ability to grasp challenging public policy issues and communicate them clearly. His work on the immigration compromise, although unsuccessful, also indicates impressive negotiation skills. All Senate GOP leadership positions, except that of the floor leader, are term-limited to six years, so he’s likely to move up the ladder as long as he serves Oklahoma in the US Senate.

That’s pretty impressive for an ordained Baptist minister and former career youth camp leader. He models the faith and civility that he speaks of throughout his book and in real life. He participates in a regular bipartisan Senate Bible study on Wednesday mornings and, in 2017, co-chaired the National Prayer Breakfast with U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). Both hold Master’s degrees in Divinity and are close personal friends, despite their vast political differences.

US Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), left, visits Campbell Soup’s test kitchens in Camden, NJ, a couple of years after his election to the US Senate in 2010. Photo by the author.

“There’s an old joke you hear occasionally during the weekly Senate prayer breakfast,” Lankford says: “It’s harder to stab someone in the back in the afternoon after you have prayed with them in the morning. Not impossible, but harder.”

Chapter 12, entitled “Neighbors and Enemies,” expertly outlines what it means to “love your enemies.” It had a powerful effect on me, reminding me that it’s okay to admit having enemies. Lankford does. He even provides an example of one unnamed Senate colleague with whom he was at war for several years until they found an issue they wanted to work on. Lankford reached out for a meeting in his office. They resolved some of their issues, and the relationship remains a work in progress.

I bet you have people like that in your life. I certainly do. And sometimes, they write you off even as your door remains open to them. It saddens me that some have taken their mostly political animosity towards me to their graves, even as I’ve tried to reach out. As Lankford documents, it reminds me of a favorite Bible verse from Matthew 5, known as the Sermon on the Mount.

In the meantime, Lankford has added a new title: author. His book is written not just for frustrated or angry everyday Americans, but to be discussed in small groups. It’s eminently practical and a reasonably quick read, but I recommend the six-hour audio version. It’s the first book I’m aware of from a bona fide conservative on civility, a field surrendered too often to people of The Left™, most of whom seem focused on trying to out-moralize, convert, or marginalize “deplorable” supporters of Donald Trump without regard to the “issues” on their own side, or bothering to understand opposing views.

The best message I take away from “Turnaround?” You can be civil without compromising your principles.

Given the book’s focus on civility, I hope his Senate colleagues will read it (from my experience, most Senators are pretty good about reading their colleagues’ books). Add it to your reading list. For those in small group Bible studies, this book is a perfect addition, especially for those in the Senate Wednesday breakfast group.