In what will turn out to be an issue in the Secretary of Public Instruction race this year, which is not yet decided in spite of the way it may be generally regarded, and in a year which saw the Wyoming legislature swing sharply to the "no spending", "less government" right, the Wyoming Education Association, the state teacher's union, has sued the State maintaining that current funding is not meeting the state's duties under the state constitution.
The suit was filed in the 1st Judicial District in Cheyenne.
This is another major case that will make its way to the Wyoming Supreme Court in the next year or so, which will really have to decide the issues it presents. And it's another instance in which the Court is positioned to potentially rule contrary to the current flow of state politics based on constitutional grounds.
I should note that I don't expect this suit to be a deciding factor in the election this year. But the issue will come up, particularly if the 1st Judicial District issues a ruling before November.
When this post goes live, the polls will be opening seven hours later. Twelve hours from that, they'll close, and the results will start to come in. Depending on how things go in various races, we may not know who won some races until tomorrow, or the day after, or, if they're really close. . .
No primary race in Wyoming's history has been followed anywhere near as close as this one. And while some elections could claim to be equally or more important, particularly the one that followed the 1892 Johnson County War which resulted in the Republicans briefly losing power in the state, none have been as existential since at least that time. Indeed, in some ways this race and that race are loosely, but only loosely, comparable, as that race was over whether big monied interest would dominate the state's life in every sense. That isn't as true, but it's partially true, of this race as well, although that's been very little noted.
Hanging over everything is whether a radical populist right wing of the GOP, which has been up and coming in the state's politics, and which has had monied backing, shall complete the process of taking over the party or not. In some races, such as the Governor's, it clearly will not succeed. In others, however, down at the legislature and county level, it stands a much better chance, and that may stand to make more of a long term difference in real terms.
This contest, however, certainly has filtered up to other races. The contest for Congress is certainly one, with the issue being whether the radical populist right will prevail over the traditional party, with Harriet Hageman ironically acting as the stalking horse for the radical right in spite of a lack of history of an association with it. The Secretary of State's office features the same contest, with radical right populist Chuck Gray, who lacks any qualification for the job, squaring off against attorney-legislator Tara Nethercott. Even the race for the Superintendent of Public Instruction features it.
It should be an interesting day.
April 16, cont.
With 45 minutes left to go, the national news has been reporting on the stakes in the Wyoming, and Alaska, primaries. Wyoming is reporting record turn outs.
April 16, cont.
So, as of 9:46 p.m., it appears fairly certain that:
Harriet Hageman won the GOP nomination for Congress, taking about 63% of the vote to 32% of Cheney's, actually a little lower than polls had predicted. So, Wyomingites voted for loyalty to Trump and bought off on his lies rather than principal.
While she's a long shot, as she's a Democrat, Lynette Grey Bull was nominated in the Democratic contest.
Chuck Gray, another big lie candidate, beat out Tara Nethercott for Secretary of State 48% to 42%, with the balance going to Armstrong.
Mark Gordon was nominated for a second term for the GOP with a big lead over his contenders.
Theresa Livingston, who might as well not even be running, was nominated for the Democrats.
Curt Meier was nominated in the GOP contest for a second term as Treasurer.
April 17, 2022
An extraordinary, and frankly an extraordinarily frightening, election.
Let's start with the statewide elections.
Congressman
GOP Nominee: Harriet Hageman.
Democratic Nominee: Lynette Gray Bull.
Hageman won in spite of large numbers of Democrats, to the extent that Wyoming has large numbers of Democrats, and independents registering to vote in the GOP primary. The only real issue was loyalty to Donald Trump.
This is, quite frankly, a frightening anti-democratic result in the GOP, evidence of the extent to which democratic principles are being abandoned in the rank and file of the party, or of the degree to which Trump's fables about the election being stolen have been bought by the GOP rank and file. Wyoming will now exchange a conservative GOP Congressman with outsized power for a freshman stalking horse with no power at all.
This assuming, of course, Hageman wins in the Fall, which she almost surely will. Still, this does put Gray Bull in a unique position as the first Democrat to actually have a chance at winning, albeit a small one.
Governor
Governor Gordon took the GOP nomination and therefore the office.
One might hope that gadfly Rex Rammell, who did not even poll 10,000 votes and therefore polled about a fifth of that of his Bien, who trailed Gordon massively, would finally knock it off, but that's unlikley.
Theresa Livingstone took the Democratic nomination.
State Auditor
GOP Nominee: Kristie Racines was running unopposed for reelection.
Democratic Nominee: None.
State Treasurer
GOP Nominee: Curt Meier running for reelection came out the victor, although his opponent took about half the number of votes he did, an interesting result ni that Meier was running to be reelected and had been endorsed by Trump.
Democratic Nominee: None.
Secretary of State
GOP Nominee: Chuck Grey
Democratic Nominee: None.
Grey, with little in the way of qualifications, goes on to become Secretary of State after taking a minority of the vote. Nethercott and Armstrong combined took slightly more, with Armstrong taking ly about 8%.
Here too, the issue turned out to be the 2020 election and the elevation of Grey to this office is more than a little worrisome.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
GOP Nominee: Megan Degefelder. In a very tight race against appointed incumbent Brian Schroeder, Degenfelder pulled out in front to take the most votes, but not over 50%. The strength of the appointed Schroeder shows the strength of far right candidates this year.
Democratic Nominee: Sergio A. Maldonaldo, Sr.
From here will turn to some interesting legislative races.
Senate District 25.
Long time conservative Republican from Fremont County Cale Case won the GOP nomination, and will run uncontested, but he only barely survived a challenger. Case, whose conservative credentials are unimpeachable, had come under fire from the far right earlier this year.
Senate District 29
Long time Natrona County Senator Drew Perkins was defeated by far right challenger Bob Ide. Perkins had barely survived a challenge from Ide the last time he ran, in this atmosphere, he did not, although the margin may have been closer than the last election.
House District 2
GOP incumbent J.D. Williams, serving out his first term, lost by about fifteen votes to challenger Alan Slagle in a vote in which county residence seemed to be the deciding factor.
House District 9
Moderate Republican Landon Brown survived a challenge from the right easily in the GOP contest.
House District 35.
Incumbent Republican Joe MacGuire was defeated by challenger from the right, Tony Locke.
House District 43
Incumbent Dan Zwonitzer, who has been heavily attacked from the right for some time, easily won renomination to his GOP House seat.
House District 57
This district saw the rise of Chuck Grey and now has nominated Jeanette Ward, his endorsed successor who is every bit as far to the right as he is, and who moved here only recently from Chicago.
House District 58
Long serving Patrick Sweeney went down in defeat to challenger Bill Allemand in this district, whose boundaries were heavily redrawn this year. Allemand challenged from the right. Sweeney had always been a moderate in the GOP.
Natrona County Commission
In the GOP race for the four-year seat, voters mad over local assessments tossed out the incumbent, Paul Bertoglio, but preserved that of incumbent Jim Milne, who trailed third in a race which will only advance three candidates to the general. In that race, they'll be joined by Dr. Tom Radosevich, who was running as the only Democrat. Milne barely did better than recent Democratic cross over Terry Wingerter. Recent appointee Peter Nicolaysen gained renomination.
In the two-year contest, Steve Freel defeated long time commissioner Rob Hendry.
As a result of this, the Natrona County Commission is going to be seeing mostly new commissioners.
Natrona County Assessor.
This position has been hotly contested seemingly forever, and this time former assessor Tammy Saulsbury took the nomination over current assessor Matt Keating.
Elsewhere
Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, a target of Trump ire like Liz Cheney, survived a challenge from the right.
Commentary
In this election, Wyoming blindly embraced the far right in what might be regarded as a Trump fueled sense of rage over a stolen election that wasn't stolen. Beyond that, however, this reflects a steady drift to the far right fringe to the degree the state has largely crossed over into the extreme right.
We can look for the next legislature to back measures that Wyomingites will ultimately find horrific, including measures to grab the state lands. The state's rank and file population will grow upset with what they've voted in, but only in rare years will they remove incumbents, this being one of them, so this development likely defines the next ten to fifteen years.
While overall predications are difficult to make, generally the nation is likely not to head in this direction, meaning that politically, and likely economically, the state will be marginalizing itself but unable to appreciate that, and in turn will retrench even further. Comparative eras for Wyoming would be difficult to find, but politically in the US the best analogy would likely be the post Reconstruction American South of the late 19th Century and early 20th, an era which saw the same at work in the American South and which operated very much against the interset of the common people.
The big race, but certainly not the only one, is the Republican race for the U.S. House of Representatives. In that context, it's hard to get over this spectacle here.
That race, as viewers can see, pits incumbent Liz Cheney against challengers Anthony Bouchard, Robyn Balinskey, Denton Knapp and Harriet Hageman. Having said that, it's well known that the race is really between Hageman and Cheney.
The Democratic race features Lynette Gray Bull against Meghan R. Jensen and Steve Helling. Gray Bull was the Democratic candidate last time and almost certainly will be again.
Casey Hardison is running as a doomed independent.
Here's the other races.
Governor's Race.
Republicans for the Governor's Office.
Mark Gordon: Gordon is the incumbent. He's going to get the nomination, and he's going to win the General Election.
Harold Bjork. Who Bjork isn't really clear, but he's started a Facebook and internet campaign for Governor.
Brent Bien: A challenger from the right.
Bien in this race, like Knapp is the Congressional race, is a retired military officer. Knapp was in the Army and retired as a colonel, Bien was a Marine Corps aviator.
I have nothing against the military at all, but I'm really baffled by the concept that people who were in government service so long that they could retire from it know anything about how regular businesses operate. I note that as Knapp and Bien both are basically in the position of having known the government as their primary employer while coming in and claiming that they're going to reign in the government.
Rex Rammell: Rammell is a perennial and unelectable candidate who ran last time and will again. His views can be characterized as being on the fringe right/libertarian side. His signs have a more fossil fuel theme to them, which raises the question of how the State of Wyoming could conceivably do anything more than it current is to promote fossil fuels.
Democrats for the Governor's Office.
Rex Wilde: Wilde previously ran for the Senate as a Democrat and has no chance.
Theresa Livingston: Livingston previously ran for the State Senate and stands no chance.
Secretary of State
Republicans for Secretary of State.
Dan Dockstader. He's a longstanding member of the Legislature who stands a good chance due to that service.
Tara Nethercott: Also a member of the Legislature. Nethercott has not been in the legislature long, but she was the subject of misogynistic attacks last session, which she weathered well. She also stands a good chance.
Chuck Gray: Also a member of the legislature who has been frequently in the news due to his far right populist positions. Gray clearly has his sights set on higher office and probably views this as a stepping stone. His earlier attempt to replace Cheney drew little support.
Mark Armstrong: Former candidate for the U.S. Senate. His run for Senate drew very little support, and his run for Secretary of State will fail.
Democrats for Secretary of State
Pathetically, none.
State Auditor
Kriti Racines. She's the incumbent and the only one running. She's effectively won the race at this point, absent something bizarre occurring.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Republicans for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
This race is also newsworthy as the incumbent, Brian Schroeder, is generally regarded as the least bad of the three names that were submitted to Governor Gordon when the prior occupant stood down.
Brian Schroeder. Schroeder is the presumptive nominee.
Megan Degenfelder. She has an education background but who has been working in the petroleum industry, announced for Superintendent of Public Education.
She was once employed as the department's Chief Policy Officer.
Thomas Kelly: Kelly was one of the three finalists who was not chosen for this office by Governor Gordon.
Jennifer Zerba: Zerba announced late. She's from Casper and is an education professional, which is all I know about her.
Robert J. White. White is from Rock Springs, which is all I know about him.
Democrats for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Sergio Maldonado: Maldonado is a longtime figure in Fremont County politics and is, I believe, also an enrolled member of one of the Wind River tribes.
July 7, 2022
In a major shakeup in the Secretary of State race, Dan Dockstader has dropped out and endorsed Tara Nethercott.
Nethercott received a warm endorsement from Dockstader. She's the only one of the three candidates who isn't maintaining the 2020 election was stolen.
Dockstader indicated he had been in contact with Nethercott before dropping out, and to some extent his decision has the appearance of a very sober analysis of the seriousness of this race, and the risk that their two campaigns would give the race to Gray. Armstrong is such an outsider that he has no real chance.
Dockstander is a long serving politician and is President of the Senate. Nethercott is a lawyer, like the current occupant of the position, Buchanan. The office itself deals with a lot of day to day business matters, but it also deals with elections, and across the United States, Secretary of State positions have been targeted by Trump loyalist who claim the election was stolen. There's a real fear that this move is intentional and part of an effort to nullify elections in the future. Gray, who is a Wharten School of Business graduate, like Trump, but who has had a career in radio since graduating that institution, working in a family owned radio station, has participated in the stolen election myth by becoming involved in the Arizona circus over the same thing, something that has nothing to do with Wyoming at all. Given all of this, the race is now taking on an outsized importance.
July 11, 2022
Congressman Cheney's new advertisement puts in sharp focus the Constitutional issue that has become the center of her campaign.
July 16, 2022
Poll results show Hageman with a commanding lead over Cheney. Well-placed rumor mill information holds the same thing.
July 23, 2022
Rex Rammell, who has no chance whatsoever of being elected Governor, announced that Dr. Taylor Haynes, a previously failed gubernatorial candidate, shall act as his senior advisor if he's elected, which he won't be.
July 24, 2022
A poll found Governor Gordon to be tied with the Governor of Vermont for most popular governor in the United States.
July 27, 2022
Texas Senator Ted Cruz endorsed Harriet Hageman.
In his endorsement, he referred to her as "Constitution loving", which is ironic in that the Wyoming election, as Cruz well knows, is principally over whether Donald Trump should have been given a second minority vote Presidency via coup, based on the lie that he won the election, and facilitated by urging the Vice President to exceed his authority. Cruz, who barely hung on to his seat in his last election, has embraced Trump heavily as well, and is probably contemplating another run for the Oval Office himself should Trump not do so.
Candidate for Secretary of State Chuck Grey is taking a similar approach to that election and is sponsoring a viewing of the discredited 2,000 Mules in Douglas.
All of which gets into a couple of recent posts regarding this election that we posted the other day.
July 28, 2022
PBS will broadcast a debate of the gubernatorial candidates tonight, at 7:00 p.m. The debate is being hosted by Casper College.
July 28, 2022
I forgot it was on, and haven't viewed it yet, but this race is basically over already. Gordon will win.
The highlight of the news on the debate was gadfly candidate Rex Rammell's claim that Brent Bien, recently retired Marine Corps officer, should drop out of the race as Rammell apparently thinks he doesn't qualify as a resident. Bien maintains that he maintained his Wyoming residency the entire time he was in the Marine Corps, which he would be legally entitled to do. That resulted in a Rammell spokesman stating:
It’s rich that Rex Rammell talks about being a westerner. Brent was born and raised in Wyoming and served his country honorably. While Brent was serving our country and protecting freedom, Rex Rammell was poaching elk and carpetbagging his way into Wyoming. He made it clear tonight that he has disdain for our military and service to the country.
I don't support Bien, but I am glad to see somebody take a shot at Rammell's past, which I don't fully recall. Rammell came here from Idaho. He later told the Trib that he's concerned that he and Bien are going to split the vote, which need not be a concern of his as he has no chance of winning whatsoever. Neither does Bien.
Cont:
Since I posted this morning, I listened to and viewed the debate while doing my regular morning routine. For the most part, I found it really unremarkable, as their positions are all much more aligned than not. A big difference was that for many questions two challenging Gordon acknowledged a problem as a problem, without offering any solutions, and Gordon tended to note what he had done, which was often sponsoring a group to study it. Nobody was really willing to deal with any existential problems that will impact the state no matter what, although Gordon did a better job of creeping up on answer those questions.
Rammell did a good job of not appearing too far off in the stratosphere until the end, when he dove off on his arresting Federal officers promises, which is downright goofy and illegal. He also tried to camouflage that he's not originally from Wyoming which lead, at the end, to his attack on Bien whom he claims, wrongfully, to be in eligible to run as he was out of the state in the Marine Corps. Attacking a veteran for his service is really foolish, to say the least.
Rammell also lashed himself to Taylor Haynes, who is originally not from here either, which was odd. So you have two figures who are not from here attacking somebody who is, but who served in the Marine Corps. For that matter, he attacked Gordon for being born in New York, which is truly basically an accident of birth as Gordon is a Wyomingite.
No matter anyhow, Gordon has already won this race.
August 3, 2022
Former Wyoming Secretary of State has filed charges with the Federal Government against Chuck Gray allegeing that loans that Gray reported as self funding were not the same. This pertains to his run for House of Representatives, which he abandoned when it drew little support and which Harriet Hageman effectively put an end to.
The charges are revealing as they deal with Gray's reported income, which is blisteringly low. This points towards family money, of course, but as very little is publicly known about Gray's personal life, including such matters, they give a rare view of the same.
Of course, this tends to be the case with nearly all Wyoming candidates. Assumptions are widely made, but realities are rarely known.
Thomas Kelly dropped out of the Superintendant of Education race in support of Brian Schroeder.
Kelly had been one of the three finalist for hte position which resultedin the choice of Schroeder, with Schroeder widely regarded as the least extreme of the three candidates forwarded to the Governor's office for selection of the position.
August 4, 2022
In an election event in Casper on August 3, Harriet Hageman called the 2020 Presidential election "rigged". Anthony Bouchard said it was stolen.
Hageman has avoided making such a statement up until now, having previously stated she didn't know who won the election. The fact that she would now do so, in spite of being ahead in the polls, is interesting in that it might tend to indicate that she feels she needs to draw closer to die hard Trumpites. It has been noted in recent weeks that Democrats are clearly joining the GOP to vote against her and GOP membership is climbing, in part due to that, but possibly also in part due to independents who are joining for the same reason. This might be part of a calculation to draw whatever votes are going to Bouchard away from him and to also encourage the Trump diehards to come to the polls.
Her statement does have a distinction with Bouchards as she's left an out to claim systemic rigging, i.e., allowing for widespread mail-in voting during COVID, etc., rather than outright fraud. I've noticed in recent weeks some Republicans who want to remain loyal to Trump have been using this as an out as they know there wasn't theft, but can convince themselves that the measure to allow voting during COVID were somehow improper. This is the angle that Victor David Hanson took early on, claiming that Americans had always gone to the polls in person on election day, something that hasn't been true in many places for years. Some of these individuals hold that there's something existentially wrong with not having in person voting on a single day.
Interestingly, that ignores the fact that older Republicans had long participated in mail-in voting and Trump's own efforts to discourage it probably took away from his overall vote tally. The real overall question is, in the 21st Century, if the evolution of technology and patterns of living make a system of requiring everyone to go to a polling station on a single day obsolete.
August 5, 2022
Former perennial Idaho candidate Rex Rammell, and now perennial Wyoming canidate, has announced that he's going to sue the Secretary of State for failing to take up his charges that Bien does not meet the legal residence requirements.
Neither Rammell or Bien are going to win, so this is just a bizarre sideshow, but it's helping make Rammell, who has some really extreme ideas, look pretty bad.
In Arizona, Trumpite candidates won the GOP primary contest for the Governor and Secretary of State position.
August 6, 2022
Donald Trump endorsed Chuck Gray for Secretary of State, Brian Schroeder for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Curt Meier for Treasurer.
It's a surprise that Trump has gone down into the Wyoming political weeds this deep at all. Having said that, given that he has, Gray, who is campaigning on the imperiled election fable and who is a fellow Wharton graduate, isn't a surprise. Indeed, at one time there was some thought that Trump might endorse Gray for Congress.
Schroeder is more of a surprise, but he is from the far right.
Meier is the incumbent Treasurer, so this is a real surprise. He doesn't need Trump's endorsement, and the fact that it was made will undoubtedly cause a few to vote against him.
A debate among the Democratic candidates took place last night, which I only learned of today.
I haven't viewed this yet, but apparently candidate Steve Helling nearly universally took Republican positions during the debate, which makes his candidacy odd to say the least, giving it the appearance of one by a Republican who didn't feel he could compete in the GOP primary.
August 7, 2022
WyoFile, the Trib reports, has revealed that a host of Wyoming candidates and political figures took PPP money in spite of their generally anti Federal Government positions. This includes Frank Eathorne, Robin Belinskey, Rex Rammell and Anthong Bouchard or their businesses. There were more, but these were the ones for statewide offices that were notable due to their positions.
Harriet Hageman was not among them, but the WyoFile went deeper and noted that members of her family had. A spokesman reacted accusing WyoFile of "journalistic malpractice".
PPP money was in the form of loans, but generally they were loans that were subject to be forgiven and were more often than not.
August 8, 2022
Cynthia Lummis endorsed Hageman, Nethercott and Dergenfelder in an article in the Cowboy State Daily. The stated basis of her endorsement is that all three were "home grown".
Her relationship with Cheney is undoubtedly strained since January 6, but it appears to at least a degree it stretches back further than that. Cheney may have been contemplating running for Senate again, when Enzi stepped down, but Lummis' announcement for that office frustrated that.
It's also interesting in that Lummis didn't go full Trump in her announcement and didn't come out backing the far right candidates save for Hageman.
August 9, 2022
The volume of mailings, and now Facebook and Twitter ads, in this election is at the truly oppressive level.
Aug 9, cont.
There was a recent Secretary of State candidate's debate, which I only learned about after the fact via the net. I have not watched it. The YouTube video of it is below.
August 11, 2022
The Trib ran an article on this date on campaign donations and the various candidates.
Perhaps the most remarkable figures were for Secretary of State, where Chuch Gray has raised $528,000 to Nethercott's $333,000. Of that, $500,000 of Gray's money was donated by his father and $10,000 from himself, meaning he's really raised $18,000. Nethercott loaned her campaign $95,000.
August 12, 2022
A new poll puts Cheney 29 points behind Hageman.
The Atlantic published an article on Cheney calling her "The Republican From The State of Reality", referring to her positions in regard to the insurrection.
August 14, 2022
The Trib declined to endorse a candidate for the House GOP race in its final edition prior to the election. Frankly, I'm stunned.
And disappointed. On a major race such as this, I'd have thought that the state's largest newspaper would wish to do so. Perhaps it felt that attacks on the Press by Trump would only aid Hageman.
Hageman ran a long op ed in the paper, which was also surprising. The op ed disclaimed that the race is about the insurrection but rather takes the position that since the insurrection Cheney has been so diverted by her efforts to keep Donald Trump from regaining power she's been ignoring the state. That is, quite frankly, baloney, and would presume that Cheney could single-handedly stop measures coming through a Democratic controlled House.
Hageman of course knows this, and should the House remain Democratic, of which there's a growing possibility, she'll be less effective than Cheney in the same category as she'll have been elected as a January 11 fableist.
The same edition has an article about Wyoming needing to elect candidates who don't live in a fantasy world. This is, quite frankly, a problem that's been growing in the state for some time, but which is particularly pronounced now.
In one of the constant stream of internet (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) rants on this topic, a highly right wing friend of mine who has been posting anti Cheney stuff for quite some time, drew a reply from another Republican friend of mine who termed Hageman a "stalking horse", without naming her by name.
I hadn't quite thought of Hageman in exactly those terms before, but that title is pretty applicable, it seems to me.
Indeed, Hagaeman herself has a difficult time describing, even in her Trib essay, exactly how she's different from Cheney in her views, other than being a repetitious voice of Trumpites regarding Cheney.
A stalking horse, of course, is simply a vehicle for somebody else. Hagaeman's motivations in this race are really a mystery to me to some degree, quite frankly, as I at one time vaguely knew her. She was once a Cheney fan and supporter, and it's pretty hard not to agree with Cheney that this is an example of "tragic opportunism".
In regard to that, it's interesting to note in her essay she accuses Cheney of having Presidential ambitions. Well, who in Congress doesn't? But does it make sense for a former friend of Cheney's to come out swinging at her in this fashion and complain that she has ambitions for higher office?
As I've mentioned before, when I vaguely knew Hageman years ago, indeed decades ago, I mostly did because I was friends with some of her circle of friends, and those individuals were left leaning. It's not as if you can't have friends outside of your own political views, but my assumption was that she must be left leaning as well. At least one of those friends of hers was in the paper just the other day supporting one of the abortion plaintiffs in Teton County and has had a very left-wing legal career, something she could afford to have due to her personal circumstances.
Maybe Hageman was always far right and just kept it to herself, or maybe I just didn't know her well enough to know what they were. She was quiet back in those days, or at least my perception of her at the time was such. Her father was a very far right wing legislature from Wyoming's wheat belt, which ought to cause concern to Wyomingites who live outside of it in and of itself.
I'm sure that Hageman doesn't think of herself as a stalking horse, but then live stalking horses just think of themselves as horses, I'm sure.
"Elk don't know how many legs horses got".
I fear that a lot of Wyoming voters are not more well-informed that elk are in regard to stalking horses. Many don't seem to be.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
We ran this just the other day, and then the WyoFile revealed:
August 7, 2022
WyoFile, the Trib reports, has revealed that a host of Wyoming candidates and political figures took PPP money in spite of their generally anti Federal Government positions. This includes Frank Eathorne, Robin Belinskey, Rex Rammell and Anthong Bouchard or their businesses. There were more, but these were the ones for statewide offices that were notable due to their positions.
Harriet Hageman was not among them, but the WyoFile went deeper and noted that members of her family had. A spokesman reacted accusing WyoFile of "journalistic malpractice".
PPP money was in the form of loans, but generally they were loans that were subject to be forgiven and were more often than not.
Which gets back to our original point.
Indeed, that point was already sort of made in regard to Chuck Gray, who the news earlier revealed somehow exists on next to no reported income. That does matter as right wing Republicans have a sort of rugged individualist, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, ideology, and if you are getting by without having to pull on those, your authenticity, as well as that of your point, is certainly in question.
And here we have something like that.
A whole host of candidates has been campaigning on the evils of the Federal government and its money. But then they take it. Earlier, Wyoming GOP head Frank Eathorne had been shown to take some substantial money from the Federal government in his livestock operation. He declared that to have been a mistake and that he now eschews it. But it turns out that when PPP loans were there, the bulk of which have been forgiven, he was ready to take it as well. And Rex Rammell, who is ready to expel Federal employees of some offices by force if he's elected Governor, which he will not be, didn't have to be forced into taking PPP money.
This gets to an interesting phenomenon that's evident in this race on all sorts of level of various candidates loudly proclaiming that the Federal government, and indeed all government, needs to get out of the way, unless they rely on the government somehow themselves, in which case that personal reliance is somehow fine. Without getting into it too deeply, any candidate who is campaigning on the "hate the government" or "get the government out of the way" is really open to examination on this topic. If they're backing a pet law, or rely on the government for enforcement of something that aids their personal interest, business, or well-being, well. . . .
Indeed, there are entire industries in the state and nation which complain about regulation, but basically exist only because the country subsidizes them in one fashion or another. Agriculture gets slammed that way but really basically doesn't fit into this category, or at least not much, but other industries most definitely do. We've dealt with it before, but we're so used to it, we can't recognize the subsidies but would be in a world of hurt if they were gone. For example, Wyoming couldn't pay for its highways and airports but for Federal funds, and it only just begins there.
And certain industries exist only due to Federal license, with those licenses having become more and more in the nature of private property over the years. Work, in some fashion, at a family radio station? Well that radio station exists only because the Federal government lets you treat it like property, rather than regulate it to keep it local, or open it up to bidding every few years.
Indeed, taking just one, radio licenses for commercial stations used to be subject to a set of regulations that, for competition purposes, basically required them to be local. Not anymore.
Would Chuck Gray be for that?
In reading the article, the one anti-government crusader who didn't show up in the PPP list, as noted, was Harriet Hageman. Frankly, I thought the WyoFile article was a bit of a cheap shot, partially, in that regard, as it mentioned her husband's law firm, but that firm is a firm and the fact it took PPP money doesn't really say anything about him or her.
Her family's ranching operations, on the other hand, taking PPP money. . . .
Anyhow, Hageman is a lawyer, and she keeps campaigning on taking on the Federal government. Mentioned in the list of Federal terribles are such entities as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife. An article endorsing her by former Congressman Barbara Cubin cites that she's quick to sue.
Frankly, in many of these instances average Wyomingites would probably come down on the other side, if they knew the issues. Agencies like the U.S. Fish & Wildlife help keep Wyoming what it is.
And Hageman hasn't limited herself to just matters such as that. She represented Susan Gore in a lawsuit that included a claim against at least one local contractor. Maybe the suit had merit, but we shouldn't really buy too much into the common lawyer propaganda that they only represent the innocent, just and virtuous. A lawyer with a practice like that would starve. Lawyers represent their clients and their interests.
The ultimate point on all of this is this. At some point, a person has to be honest about these things, and a person can in fact be honest about taking government money while opposing it. That defense is, "well, this is the system and I have to operate within it, but I'll vote to take it down even if it hurts me."
And frankly, with some of these offices, that would mean basically destroying the highway system and wiping out airports.
Indeed, how far along on the "less government" path is anyone really willing to go? Not all that far, I'd wager. Wyoming didn't have driver's licenses until the 1950s. Would we propose returning to a non license state of affairs? Wyoming's liquor trade was unregulated right up into Prohibition, and the current licensure system only came about after Prohibition's repeal. Would we be willing to return to an unregulated liquor trade? Wyoming was a pioneer in wildlife and hunting laws, but that means that there are laws. Would we want to go back to unrestricted taking of wildlife?
And on property "rights", they exist solely because the government says they do. One candidate campaigning against the government is a significant landlord, an occupation that you actually can't have unless the government lets it happen.
Indeed, quite a few of the "anti-government" candidates that have a problem with the Federal government don't otherwise have a problem with the government at all. That shows in how they'd handle the Federal domain, they'd transfer it to Wyoming. Wyoming is a governmental body, rather obviously.
Of course, they feel that Wyoming would regulate things less than the Federal government does, which isn't all that much to start with. Some of them would just transfer that domain to private landowners, with it often being the case that those in the agricultural sector think it would simply be given to them, rather than being sold to somebody with a rich hair dressing chain in New Jersey.
Which brings us to the point that most of us only feel the government is being too restrictive or intrusive if there's something we personally want to do that it's impinging on somehow. Otherwise, we're fine with it.
Which also means that a person needs to be pretty careful what they wish for.
Earlier this past week, Wyoming's voters learned, if they're paying attention, a little about the personal life of a candidate that they otherwise probably know very little about. More specifically, due to news reporting on former Secretary of State Max Maxfield filing an election claim against Representative Chuck Gray, pertaining to his dropped bid for Cheney's seat, we now know that Gray only reported around $10,000 in income from a recent tax year. Maxfield's point is that his reported loan to himself makes very little sense for a many who has such a dismal income.
And, truly, that is odd.
What that points to is fairly obvious. He has family or personal money in a fairly substantial amount.
Does that matter?
Well, maybe, maybe not.
It's worth noting that two of the nation's richest Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, were champions of the poor. Indeed, it's a rich irony of modern political life that the beloved Republican Theodore Roosevelt would have been regarded as a Socialist RINO by lots of today's Republicans. But their wealth was hardly a secret at any point.
It's also worth noting that Donald Trump, the hero of the Republican far right, is also a very rich man, although we don't really know how rich, for whatever that's worth.
But none of that is the question. The question is do we really have a right to know these things? I.e., The Roosevelt's wealth was not an accurate predictor of their political inclinations, so does this sort of thing even matter?
Well, it might.
Let's take the current Secretary of State race. The Secretary of State is in charge of elections, as we know, but on a daily basis he's more involved with the relationship of businesses to the state. Uniform Commercial Code filings, corporate registrations, etc., are the business of the Secretary of State.
Indeed, at least two prior Secretaries of State have had huge impacts on corporate registrations in Wyoming, one massively encouraging out-of-state entities to incorporate here and another very much discouraging it. The Limited Liability Company, now present all over the country, was a Wyoming invention that came out of Kathy Karpen's stint as Secretary of State.
A person with some relationship to business would presumably be the best occupation of that sort of position. Elections are, quite frankly, nearly a side show with the office.
Gray has a BA/BS from the University of Pennsylvania from 2012. More specifically, he's a product of the Wharton School of Business, one of the country's best business schools, which is coincidentally also where Donald Trump graduated from. One of my cousins did as well. According to a 2016 letter to the editor, at which time he was running for the state House of Representatives, he's single and an only child, and grew up in California. He's associated with a series of media outlets (at least radio) owned by his father located in Natrona County, and according to the letter he came here to run them. At one time he had a very right wing radio commentary show on one of the stations, although I've never heard it. He's a Roman Catholic, which is publicly available information, but I knew it anyhow, as on rare occasion I've seen him at Mass. I'll note it's rare not because he rarely attends, I don't think that's true at all, but because I don't attend any of the numerous Masses offered every weekend that he does.
Does any of that matter?
Well, it probably does, to some degree. The Wharton degree is impressive, but it's also the case that he seemingly remains in what we might regard his tender years to some extent, for a position that requires some expertise with business on a practical level, or at least I'd argue that it does. His primary opponent's qualifications include being a practicing lawyer, and being in the business of law (it is a business) for a decade or so. She's been in the State Senate for about as long as Gray has been in the House. She grew up in Riverton (and like all candidates with long roots here notes that she's a "fifth generation" Wyomingite). She's also married.
It would seem pretty clear that qualification wise, Nethercott has Gray beat hands down. Gray's only real campaign point is his view that the 2020 election was stolen, to add to it, and he seems to be part of the GOP right wing strategy to seize Secretary of State offices for the far right. He's been showing 2,000 Mules at his events.1
That actually gets to the religion point. I don't know Nethercott's religious views, and in a normal year, I wouldn't really care. I'll be perfectly frank that if a Shiite Muslim ran for the office who had built up a good personal business and held degrees in accounting and law, I'd vote for him or her, and you can substitute the "Shiite Muslim" there for Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto or what have you, for this office. But I do note that if you have a known religious adherence, and you are seemingly departing from it, that raises questions.
Catholicism takes an extremely dim view of lying, and for a person in a public office if it's a significant lie it can be a mortal sin. All mortal sins can be forgiven, but for a person in that sort of role, doing what you can to rectify the impact of the sin is necessary. It may be that Gray really believes the fibs he's telling about the election, or at least implying, but that alone would raise real questions about his fitness for office. If he doesn't believe them or is willfully fooling himself, that's another matter.
What about being single?
I can't see that it matters for this office at all, nor does being married.
I would note that for other offices it sort of might. I'm not going ot delve into it but on the GOP races family values are frequently cited, and the GOP has made strong points about being pro family and pro traditional definition of family. That's all fine and provides a reason to vote for them. Social issues matter.2
Yeah, these couples again. The point is that if you are pro family, but lack one in this sense, it at least raises some questions.
But if you are a strong proponent of family and are lacking some traditional aspects of one, that raises questions. They are questions that can be answered in ways that satisfy voters or not, I suspect, some of which may be downright painful to provide. If you frequently mention family, your love of family and children, it's legitimate to ask why you don't have any. A life that seemingly was principally devoted to work in which children were absent may reflect a personal tragedy of some sort, or an intentional avoidance of children. Answering one way implies something quite a bit different from another. Yes, it's personal, maybe painful, but it's personal in the same way that advocating for prohibition while being a closet drinker, or advocating for banning abortion and then having one, or advocating for gun control while keeping guns yourself, etc., etc. are.
What about residence claims?
I mentioned that just above, twice really, and this is one topic that candidates bring up constantly themselves. Candidates whose families have very long histories here always mention it. When Cheney first ran, those running against her mentioned it, and her defenders, many of whom are now her detractors, had some pretty fanciful answers for why she was in fact a native.3 Many of the same people who now accuse her of being a Virginian were really ready to ignore that up until now, but will cite that her main opponent, Harriet Hageman, has a family that's been in the state for "four generations".4 As noted, Nethercott cites her family beating out Hageman by an entire generation.56
Does this matter?
Well, it may and may not, once again, depending on up what that might really mean.
I'll be frank that I’m pretty nativist. But I certainly don't think you have to have a family going back to the retreat of the Ice Sheet here in order to run. I'd prefer candidates to be from Wyoming, and indeed that's one of the reasons I wasn't keen on Cheney the first time she ran. But I don't think this has to go back two, four or more generations, or really even any. I'd also note that this is the case, only Lynette Gray Bull has any right to be in the race at all.
Indeed, what I think it really boils down to is being "native to this place" in the way that Wendell Berry referred to it, quoting Wes Jackson. Some people not from here, are, and some from here, aren't.
Indeed, going further, what I think that opens up in the topic of provincialism and carpetbaggerism.
Charges of being a carpetbagger are easier to look at. A carpetbagger is, of course, somebody who moves into a location just to take advantage of it for personal gain without having any real connection to it.
Cheney was open to that criticism the first time she ran, but while in office she pretty steadfastly represented what most Wyomingites held to be their interests most of the time, and was loved by the GOP. In being willing to sacrifice her career for the Constitution, which she clearly is, she's immune to any charges of being a carpetbagger at this point.
This is much less clear in the cases of Chuck Gray and Gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell. It's easy to wonder about Gray, who is still a political toddler in some ways, as he was only here for two years when he first ran for office in 2014. And the fact that his work connection with the case is thin has to make a person wonder. Rammell, for his part, is originally from Idaho, where he also participated in a series of gadfly campaigns. Normally, quite frankly, a person from the region can't really be accused of being a carpetbagger as they're from the region, which is extremely similar to being from the state. Rammell is an Idaho native. He moved in to the state in 2012, just like Gray, citing a veterinarian position he wanted to take as the reason why, but after a string of failed campaigns in Idaho launching off on new ones in Wyoming does make a person wonder.
It doesn't make a person wonder as much, however, as it does when the Idahoan accuses a person actually from Wyoming as being inelgible to run, as he had a Marine Corps career that took him out of the state, and who takes a shot at Governor Gordon as he was born in New York as his mother happened to be there when she went into labor, both of which Rammell has done.7
A person might wonder about Anthony Bouchard, who is from Florida originally, but he seems to have had a public life in the state prior to having a political one, which you really can't say about Gray or Rammell, but he points to something else that is disturbing to natives, which is the influences of migrants into the state.
Migrants into the state have always been a feature of Wyoming's demographics, but it hasn't always worked the exact same way. Frankly regional migration has always been very common and from this prospective looking at Wyoming as part of an overall region is helpful. Nebraskans, Coloradans, Montanans, Dakotans, etc., come into the state, and we go there, pretty routinely. This is part of the natural mix of demographics of the state, especially one that has borders that look like a big box.
The state has always taken in migrants from long distances too, but often these same people flowed back out when the economy turned. But more recently the state began to take in the very wealth from elsewhere who very often have radically different views than natives or regional natives do, and to add to that the state has taken in an influx of people from what, for lack of a better way to put it, had been part of the Confederacy at one time, or part of the Rust belt, or from the Pacific Coast.
Wyoming's politics had traditionally been conservative, but middle of the road as well, if that can make sense. To a large degree, the central defining feature of much of the Wyoming view traditionally has been "I don't care what you do, as long as you leave me alone." Wyomingites were pretty laissez-faire on social issues for the most part, and pretty patriotic. Wyoming of 1982, rather than 2022, would have been shocked and appalled by Donald Trump. In a state in which up to 50% of the population is from somewhere else, it's folly to believe that the state's current politics isn't a reflection of the politics of elsewhere, right now, to a pretty strong degree.
As a strong recent example of this, the amendment to the state constitution back in the 90s to prevent Obamacare from telling us what to do with medical treatment probably wouldn't have passed in the 70s or 80s. And efforts to restrict abortion in the legislature, and I do oppose abortion, fell flat in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Something culturally changed to bring us where we now are.
As part of that, big money has come in from various sources to fund really extreme right wing politics, which was coincident with a migration in of people who held very strong far right views. One old time Wyoming politician publically stated that this had corrupted the state's politics when he got out.
Probably nothing symbolizes this better than Susan Gore and Foster Freiss. Gore is an import with Goretex money and has been a major factor in the Wyoming Liberty Group. The group's views are really imported ones, not ones that rose up here locally. Freiss, as a politician, was a good example of the same thing. Extremely wealthy and very conservative in a non Wyoming sense. When he ran, his campaign struck me like something out of Alabama, more than Wyoming.
Of course, that doesn't mean that nativism doesn't have its own problems when taken to excess. We've really been seeing that recently as well.
Truth be known, Wyoming has a very long and pronounced history of our politicians having moved in. This doesn't mean that every politician has moved in, but more than we might suppose. Certainly, early in the state's history this was practically the rule for higher office. Francis E. Warren, for example, didn't grow up here.
Being from here does, or rather might, given you insights you'd otherwise lack if you didn't. I've thought for some time that if you haven't lived through a couple of petroleum depressions, you really don't know anything about the state. And if you don't identify with the land itself, you aren't qualified in my view to run. But the claims about being a "x" generation Wyomingite have a danger in that to a certain degree certain people almost assume that this makes you a type of royalty.
Indeed, just because your ancestors homesteaded in 1898 doesn't mean that they were benighted souls of Arthurian Legend. It probably means they were dirt poor. Rich people didn't homestead. And being part of one of Wyoming's traditional occupations means something, but it doesn't mean everything, particularly if you aren't doing it. "Grew up on a ranch" tends to mean that you aren't ranching anymore.
Indeed, this gives rise to what we'll coin the John Wayne Effect, which is that I dress like a cowboy and claim a tie to ranching, I must be just like the Ethan character in The Searchers, as that's just like John Wayne was really like, right?
Ummmm. . . .
This may sound silly, but there's all sorts of people who run around assuming that John Wayne was who he portrayed in the movies. No, he was an actor. Yes, he bought a ranch at some point with his movie money, but he wasn't actually a 19th Century cowboy, but a 20th Century actor. And to make the point all the more, he wasn't a Marine Corps Sergeant in the Second World War, either. He didn't even see service in the war.
This really shows up this time of year as people will cite they're "from a ranching family" or in some cases appear in campaign photos like gunfighters or cowboys. Gunfighters, I'll note, is a new one. Cowboys isn't.
Now, don't get me wrong, dressing like a rancher is okay if you like to dress that way, but if you appear in campaign ads dressed like a cowboy and with ranching things and stuff, you probably better really be one. Otherwise, it suggests, or should suggest, that you somehow want to keep your real means of making a living sort of secret or are somehow not too proud of it. Or, there's some disconnect between your means of making a living and how you imagine your real character, probably identifying with the "rugged individualist".
Well, I've punched cattle. . . and still do, and I love it. But it's hard work, truly.
So what of all of this?
I guess these things cut both ways, but what it comes down to in the end is the extent to which you really identify with the state on an existential basis. And by that I mean the whole state. If you can't walk into the Hines General Store in Ft. Washakie and identify with the occupants there, and their problems, at least a little, you probably aren't qualfied to be there. And by the same extension, if you can't walk into the Hines General Store without looking like a goofball to those there, you probably ought not to be running.
We'll call that the Hines General Store Test.
Footnotes.
1. As an aside, all of this makes Gray's early Congressional race ads in which he appeared at oilfield locations wearing a hard hat pretty silly, really. Gray isn't from here, hasn't been here that long, and has never worked that kind of job in so far as we can tell. Those were of course supposed to show his support for the oil industry, but he hasn't even been here long enough to experience what its like when we have a real industry collapse.
2. Or at least they should, as we note later on in this essay, to a large degree in Wyoming's history they really have not.
3. I was told by one of them, at the time, that hte fact that her mother had gone to grade school in Wyoming made Liz a native even if she wasn't born and raised here.
I'd bet dollars to donuts now that the same persion was her fan all the way into 2020 and then now probably calls her a "RINO".
4. And some of those same people are supporters of Chuck Gray, who is not a native and who hasn't been here all that long.
5. It may be just me, but I wonder how people tally the count for generations. My family has been in the region since the 1860s or so, but that's only three generations in reality in terms of families. I guess that may say something about my family marrying late or something, but four or five generations is a really long time for Wyoming and its a little hard to add up. In pondering it, however, part of my wife's family which arrived later would make her the fourth generation, and one that arrived in the region earlier would make her something like the sixth or seventh.
I'll note that some people take liberties with this, although I'm not saying any of the current politicians do, in counting a prior ancestor as a generation even if their kids packed up and moved to California, where your parents were born, and then you moved back in.
6. It's also worth noting that the Democrat Lynette Gray Bull has the best claim to ancient ancestor status in the state and region, as she's a Native American.
7. Both of Gordon's parents were ranchers in Kaycee Wyoming and he grew up on the ranch. As an odd fact, Gordon is the grand nephew of Gen. George S. Patton.
As it happens, the Tribune's article is on the same topic, singling out the current, appointed, State Superintendent of Education Brian Schroeder and legislature running for Secretary of State Chuck Gray specifically. Schroeder is referenced for his claims about a Federal requirement preventing students from being denied lunch services due to gender issues, which he has claimed is about something else related to that topic, and Gray for making "election integrity", or words to that effect, the centerpiece of his campaign even though there have only been four instances of voter fraud in the state over the past 22 years.
Wyoming takes in more money from the Federal government than it contributes to it.
The Federal Government pays for runways, highways, all sorts of projects and innumerable things people use every day.
I note this as in this election season, it seems there are those who are campaigning on their absolute hatred of the Federal Government.
Most interesting in this context are the candidates who have worked for the Federal Government, in the form of long military careers, who are now campaigning on how messed up it is and how they will fix it.
If they hated the Federal Government so much, or knew it was messed up, why did they serve in the military until they could draw a pension?
Campaigning on a reduced Federal Government is fine. . . if you are honest about it. I see some candidates who are campaigning on "taking" the public domain from the Federal Government, but I don't see any who are campaigning on taking over the highway funding system.
Hmmmm. . . .
Nor do I see any who wish to take over the Bureau of Reclamation.
On the Bureau of Reclamation, a television advertisement is pointing out that Harriet Hageman, who is campaigning on "fighting" the Federal Government in her legal career, represented an interest which, it claims, sent Wyoming water to Colorado. I don't know the details, but that does point out the danger of using your legal career to claim you are a crusader of some point.
Some candidates seem to nearly claim they detest all government. Chances are, however, that everyone relies on something from the government, and nobody really wants anarchy, which is no government.
Indeed, it's almost as if people don't like the government to the extent that it tells they what to do, or seems to keep them from doing something, or that it impacts them financially. To the extent it benefits them. . . they're fine with it. A campaign proposition of a government of people just like me, by the people just like me, for me personally, as it were.
For Wales? Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. . . but for Wales!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
I'm more than a little disgusted.
We're less than a month from the primary election, which will likely (maybe, a Hageman victory boost the chance of Grey Bull) decide who Wyoming's Congressman will be, will decide who the Secretary of State will be, and will decide if traditional Wyoming Republicans continue to lose ground to new far right forces in the GOP who regard anyone who doesn't think the way they do as RINO's.
But that's not the point here.
The mail is.
The other day in the mail I received a flyer. . . I've been receiving a lot of them, which when I read it shocked me. Not for the things it revealed, but because it seemed to simply be stating a major lie.
Now, since then I've had time to reconsider it, and I'll back down a bit. Perhaps it didn't contain so much in the nature of knowing falsehoods, but gross exaggerations and characterizations. In doing so, however, it crept up on being brazen enough to have gone beyond hyperbole and into fib territory. So maybe it wasn't outright lying.
I started this post after that.
Following that, I received another one from the same candidate linking the opponent's agenda to one of a despised (locally) national figure of the opposite party, suggesting they were the same.
That's a lie.
Anyone who reads this blog, and it's not as if it's a lot of people, knows that the author is Catholic. Catholics, at least sincere Catholics, take lying pretty seriously. All Christians abhor lies, at least in principle, but the nature of lying is actually something that Catholic theologians have discussed in detail beyond that which some others have. St. Thomas Aquinas regarded all lies, and by that I mean all, as sinful, varying only in the degree to which they were sinful. That position is pretty close to the generally accepted Catholic thinking on lies in general (St. Thomas' opinion is not binding on all Catholics; it's not dogma.), but there are those who hold otherwise on some exceptional grounds, such as a lie to preserve the non detection of the innocent, for example, under some circumstances.
Most average lies are probably venial in nature, but some serious ones are mortal, and some of the stuff I'm seeing out there, if done with proper contemplation of what the speaker is saying, would appear to be in that territory. I don't know the state of anyone's soul, so I'm not declaring them to be in a state of mortal sin, but I am saying that what Robert Bolt set out in his play on St. Thomas More is playing out in a different sort of way in this election. There's a lot of liberty being taken with the truth in some quarters.
And in some of these quarters things are so extreme at this point they really cross into the knowingly misleading. I'm willing to cut some slack for the misled, but not for those who, I know, know better. And self-delusion, which might at best be what is going on with at least one other candidate for state office, isn't really a defense to mistruths either.
If a person wants votes so badly that they send out flyers that depart from the truth in some fashion, that ought to give a person serious pause. Lying is a sin that becomes habitual with people who commit it, and if a person is willing to commit it to obtain office, they're likely to keep it up in office.
There is no room in my house for anyone who practices deceit; no liar will stand his ground where I can see him.
Psalm 101:7
If we support a liar, do we endorse the lies and become liars ourselves?
At some point, surely, unless we make our reasons for doing so clear in the face of the lies.
A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.
Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia.
There are really serious things going on in the world.
Serious.
Some serious things need to be done about them.
Which makes it all the more the shame that 1) television; and then 2) the Internet and finally 3) Twitter on the Internet has seemingly reduced the national legislature to a circus.
Now, there's a lot more than that causing that, and with the release of a recent New York Times article on a related topic, we'll explore it more fully shortly.
Some future generation stands likely to accuse the current ones, and it is more than one, of fiddling while Rome burned. Part of that is the repeated "hey, look at this" distraction.
For weeks, a state politician in national office went on the news to point out the price of gasoline and blame it on the President. Any economist knows that the current inflationary cycle can only be blamed partially on policies of this administration, but to hear the politician speak on it, you'd think the President was personally causing a rise in the price of gasoline
Now that they're falling, he's not giving the President credit.
Not that the President would deserve credit for that. That's independent of what him as well, but to run around blaming the President for gasoline prices and then say nothing as they fall is disengenuine.
This gets to another topic.
I'm not a co-religious with this candidate, but I am with one who ran around supporting the Arizona election fraud fantasy.
Catholics have an obligation to confess their serious sins, but for those who can rectify them, they must.
He hasn't been pointing out that Arizona's election passed muster, which was always known in the first place.
Of course, some people have deluded themselves into believing the lies. Convincing yourself that a lie is the truth as it serves your purpose, however, doesn't really get you off the hook.
RICH I’m lamenting. I’ve lost my innocence.
CROMWELL You lost that some time ago. If you’ve only just noticed, it can’t have been very important to you.
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
In the end, in a democracy (which is what we are, once again, save the silly "oh no, we're a republic line that) gets the candidates we deserve.
If we elect liars, there's no reason to believe that they'll quit lying once they're in office. If they lied to get there, why would they?
_P215_APPROACHING_THE_FOWL_WITH_STALKING-HORSE.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)