The final weeks of the 67th Legislature brought to light the tension within the Republican Caucus. It is clear to any follower of the Legislature that Republicans are divided by two different world views: for purposes of this column, these sects will be referred to as the “conservatives” and the “uniparty.”
From a Cowboy State Daily editorial by Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams
Uniparty?
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, a highly conservative legislator from Park County, has chosen to refer to the factions in the GOP by these newly minted terms.
I'd question her perception in coining them.
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams is highly conservative. I don't know what her overall views are, but on social issues, there's no doubt of that. Frankly, I'm also highly conservative on social issues.
Most of the establishment GOP in Wyoming is pretty darned conservative, but traditionally not all that conservative on social issues, which may surprise a lot of people and which was probably a definite surprise to Freedom Caucus freshmen. Somebody like Jeanette Ward, fresh off the Interstate from Illinois who made sounds about Illinois being "fascists" and how she was glad to be in a maskless state was probably pretty surprised to find that anti mask legislation bit the dust, and by now she's probably surprised to learn that while she was fleeting The Prairie State for the Equality State to avoid having her children mask up, we were making children mask up too.
Well, Texas is still open for those wishing to so relocate. . .
Anyhow, "Uniparty" would mean, by linguistic derivation "One Party". Why is the more traditional conservative to moderate conservative wing of the GOP, which has been the dominate party here since the 1970s, the "Uniparty"?
Indeed, arguably, that term would better apply to the insurgent populists who have taken over the GOP organization here and who hold the position that a person dare not question Trump in any fashion, lest ye be tossed from the warm hearth of the Republican fire and tossed out into the cold domain of the wolves in sheep's clothing, the Democrats?
Her overall editorial isn't bad, but this demonstrates something I posted on just yesterday. The GOP here traditionally hasn't been populist. They're the new arrivals.
Uniparty, I learned, is a new Trumpist word, whic his the height of irony, as the GOP since his mid term has taken pretty much the Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Führer approach to things. Trump is not to be questioned and we are to work towards the leader and apply the führerprinzip. Use of term, therefore, suggests that the speaker is tapped into Trumpist populism. A Political article notes:
“The Uniparty” is the latest populist buzzword to seize the imagination of the drain-the-swamp crowd, those who see grand conspiracies in the machinations of the “deep state” and globalist-corporate forces. It has a crisp clarity, instantly conveying the idea of an establishment cabal, Democrat and Republican alike, arrayed against their outsider hero, Donald Trump.
So, in using the term, Rodriquez-Williams essentially asserts that the populists, who aren't really clearly conservatives (more on that in an upcoming post. . . after first discussing the Democrats. . . who originally were a populist party), are the real conservatives, where as the other folks in the GOP are part of a joint Democratic/Republican establishment mob.
You know, the one where Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney agree with Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi as demonstrated by. . . . um, well, anyhow.
At least Rodriguez-Williams didn't resort to the grossly inaccurate name-calling that some in the populist camp do, and for all I know, she may not be a populist. Consider, instead, the Cowboy State Daily editorial by Rep. John Bear:
Liberals, who had maintained control of legislative leadership during the interim, formulated committee bills taking advantage of the growing revenue surplus while failing to provide a long term solution which would require the government to to tighten its own belt.
Liberals maintain control of Wyoming's legislative leadership?
Ummm. . . in order to take that seriously, I'd have to be willing to accept that Elvis is alive and running a flower shop in Portland, Jim Morrison actually didn't pass in Paris but changed his name and joined the U.S. Navy, following in the footsteps of his father, Amelia Earhart didn't disappear in the Pacific, but flew on to Chile in jet stream winds and became a barista, George Armstrong Custer didn't die in Montana but joined the Sioux and spent the rest of his days on the Reservation, and that Bigfoot works in the coop in Laramie.
Okay, the last one of those is true, but not the rest.
There are some liberals in the legislature, but they're few, and they're all Democrats.
Of minor interest, Rodriquez-Williams is from California, which is a bit ironic as her article protests against Sommer's complaints about out of state ideas. Bear is from Trenton, Missouri.
Which points out again, a lot of the Wyoming far right, came from far away.
Does it matter? Certainly it doesn't legally. A person is free to run and be elected, as long as they qualify for office, which doesn't require much. Indeed, Jeanette Ward didn't even qualify to hold office until after she won the primary.
But here's the thing. To a very large degree, a person's Weltanschauung is formed in their formative years, and the things you worry about or care about tend to be ingrained in you then. Rodriquez-Williams is from California, although she came here as a highway patrolman and worked in that role for a while. Chuck Gray is from California and was schooled in Pennsylvania and has very little connection with Wyoming. Foster Freiss, the hard right's recent, darling here, was from Wisconsin and kept a second home in Arizona. Bear is from Missouri. Ward is from Illinois. Bouchard is from Florida.
None of them went to high school with the sons and daughters of local welders or oilfield workers. Probably none of them ever worked on a drilling rig, or served in the local National Guard to help pay for school. None of them probably worked on a ranch or cut hay. None of them grew up in a state where a raging blizzard meant your parents told you to put on your rubber overshoes and then shoved you out the door.
Populism is supposed to bring the wisdom of the people to politics. But if you aren't part of the people, whose wisdom are you bringing?
Related threads:
No comments:
Post a Comment