Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion
When Liz Cheney ran for the House the first time, a prominent Wyoming far right politician came to my door campaigning for her. I was opposed to her, in favor of one of the two actual Wyomingites who were doing well in the primary that year. I pointed out to the person who came to the door, whom I now realize was a relocate from the Rust Belt, that Cheney wasn't wasn't a Wyomingite. She insisted she was. We were polite, but I was correct then and opposed her partially for that reason.
She only gained the nomination because the two Wyomingites split the vote.
Cheney had run for office in Wyoming the prior cycle, for the Senate. It was thought that Mike Enzi was going to retire and she relocated to Wyoming and started to campaign. Enzi seems to have been insulted, and ran. She withdrew from the race when it started to go badly on what was probably a pretext.
The long and the short of it was that I thought, and still think relevant to that time frame, that she was a carpetbagger.
For that matter, I was never a fan of her father at any point, and I'm still not. I thought his adult connections with the state were thin, which was probably being judgmental, and I've always had a problem with the numerous politicians who were of conscription age during the Vietnam War, like Donald Trump, who found a reason not to go.
Anyhow, Cheney surprised me even in her first term. She turned out to be a good Congressman. I didn't always agree with her, but she was always independent, and moreover, smart, and I often did. Of the post Enzi Wyoming Congressional delegates, she was pretty quickly the most admirable. In her last term she proved to be highly independent and not part of the Trumpist isolationist/surrender crowd that was taking over the GOP.
With her break from Trump, which cost her the election, she became heroic.
Ahh. . how amusing.
Back when I thought the Cheney's carpetbaggers, they were the darlings of Wyoming's GOP, including the far right. A local stadium was named after Dick Cheney, as was the local Federal Building. An inhouse joke around here is that everything was being named for Dick Cheney. He was loved, beloved, and admired. The same is true of Liz Cheney, at first. The same voices now that decry her absolutely adored her.
Now, of course, in the fawning perverted love of Donald Trump, things have really changed. And now that Liz Cheney, and Dick Cheney, have endorsed Trump, the howls of "carpetbagger" have come out. Observe this from Twitter.
Cowboy State Daily@daily_cowboy
Longtime Republican and former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney announced Wednesday she’ll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Surprise (Or Not) — Liz Cheney Says She’ll Vote For Kamala Harris For…
From cowboystatedaily.com
Ja@
She's the biggest carpet bagger and an embarrassment to Wyoming and Wyomingites. She grew up the overwhelming majority of her life in DC and claims residency in Jackson Hole Wyoming. A place where there's the most wealth per capita of any other place in the US. She's not one of
Ky@
I'm so embarrassed I voted for her the first time...
Jas@Ja
Well a lot of people did because at the time she had a solid pedigree and last name. Dick Cheney was an original Wyomingite. Grew up in Casper, graduated from UW and was are representative for our state and represented our values. Then he went bat poop crazy along with his daughter and lost all credibility.
In other words, they loved her until the Dear Donald episode and she stood for something.
I don't know about these individuals, but it's been impossible for me not to note that the biggest Donald Trump fans in Wyoming are relocates. The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is thickly populated with imports. I don't know about now, but early on the majority of them may have been. Some of the loudest and most controversial of their members are not from here. Jeanette Ward, whose constituents ejected her this go around, had arrived in the state so recently when she ran for her single term that under Wyoming's current election laws, she would not be eligible to run.
The point? Well, maybe its just an observation. But a lot of Wyoming natives I know aren't keen on Trump, which doesn't mean they're keen on Harris either. The real fanatics in the political for Trump around here contain an awful lot of folks who brought their politics in with them, even though there are definitely local pro Trumpers. Nonetheless its the importation of politics out of the South, Texas and Oklahoma, and the Rust Belt, that's made Wyoming's current politics what they are. If the imported citizens returned to their homes, we'd take a big swing towards what we had been.
That's not likely to happen, but the cries of "Carpetbagger!" Well. . . we didn't mind earlier, and before crying that, if you came into the state for some reason yourself. . . well maybe you ought to leave before you make that claim.
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