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It’s time we ran Mike Tyson for president. Yes, I know he’s a convicted felon but obviously that doesn’t matter. When all you hear on these incessant, nauseating political advertisements is how the candidate is going to “fight,” it makes you wonder. Why not elect arguably the greatest fighter of all time?
The question is, just who are they wanting to fight?
Government is supposed to be a process of compromise for the benefit of us all. A process where the majority rules, but the rights of the minority are respected.
One of our greatest presidents, (Yes, I know the right thinks he’s a liberal and the left think he’s a racist oppressor, but I don’t care) Thomas Jefferson had this to say about the democratic process in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801.
“All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
If you’re a follower of the “Freedom Caucus” I’ll try to simplify it for you. “The will of the majority must be followed, but it can’t tread on the rights of the minority.”
America’s greatest humorist, and arguably the greatest social commentary novelist we’ve ever produced had this to say about majority rule.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain was correct.
I for one, am exhausted by the incessant rhetoric of “fighting” when it comes to political campaigns. That’s not how it works.
When the only one of the first 10 Amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights you can quote is the second, you don’t have a clue. Sadly, that’s the only platform for many of Wyoming’s candidates. Make no mistake, there is NO chance we’ll ever have guns taken away.
We’re not fighting anyone, we’re all in this boat we call the United States of America together. That’s why the “Freedom Caucus” is such an annoyance.
We’ve been here before. The “Know Nothings” were a political party of the 1850s. Officially called the Native American Party, they were known as the American Party after 1855.
Their political stance was fear of foreigners, hatred of intellectuals, and a belief in conspiracy theories that in the twisted minds of their minions had the Catholic church trying to place the Pope in charge of the United States.
Sound familiar? It should, it could easily be the platform of the “Freedom Caucus.”
The “Know Nothings” were pro-slavery, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish, anti-German and vowed to kill every Native American and steal their land. Sounds alarmingly like the extreme-right wing of America today and their Project 2025 goals.
Jump ahead a century and you see “Tail Gunner Joe,” Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, spreading the same vile hatred, fear and conspiracy theories. There was a commie behind every tree with Joe’s adoring public.
He was wrong, the Know Nothings are now a historical joke, and eventually, the “Freedom Caucus” will be regarded the same way.
That doesn’t help us today. The clowns that comprise the “Freedom Caucus” are about to take control of the Wyoming State House and Senate.
Friends in the media who must interview these goose-stepping ideologues have their work cut out for them. They are devoid of individual or original thought, they just follow a script provided by their national puppet master, refuse to debate issues, and don’t have the slightest idea on how to solve local problems in Wyoming, much less here in Fremont County.
They’re about to get their chance.
It’s easy to bitch from the cheap seats, it’s quite different to coach the team.
The “Freedom Caucus” is about to see how it feels to lead.
No, it’s not about “Fighting Obama” as they profess. It’s as if they didn’t realize that Barack Obama hasn’t been president for eight years, yet they’re still going to “fight” him.
There is little the state legislature can do to override federal mandates. They can squirm, postulate and cry, but they won’t change anything. If they could, they’d have to be careful. Wyoming is the second biggest welfare state after Alaska among all 50 states.
We take in almost three times as much in federal aid as we pay in federal taxes. That makes us a welfare state, dependent on the good will, or rather the taxes of other states just to survive. You’ll find that true in almost every “Red State.”
Like it or not, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Oregon pay Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and all the southern states aside from Georgia and Florida for their very survival. It’s a tough pill to swallow for those believing the diversionistic rhetoric.
You can profess (when you’re brave enough to speak in public) that you’re going to “Fight Obama,” but the reality of the state legislature is vastly different.
The newly elected “Freedom Caucus” leadership will soon discover that most of their time spent in Cheyenne will be in committees that have nothing to do with “Fighting Obama.”
They must conduct the mundane business of the state.
When you think you’re going to get to “Fight Obama” and you find yourself in a liquor commission hearing on distribution of liquor licenses or have to sit through hours of data on mining claims, irrigation rights and public access roads it won’t seem so glamorous as your dream of repealing everything good in the federal government and denying personal freedom to minorities across the country.
The view from the cheap seats when the “Freedom Caucus” tries to hold a public meeting on wolf management, grazing rights or grizzly bear management will be worth the price. They’re incapable of compromise and compromise is what these issues require. Think of Mount St. Helens with the political backlash.
The entire process will be depressing to these wannabe autocrats.
They will implode, they’re not capable of efficient fair government. We can only hope the damage they create is minimized.
Governing through fear and hatred just doesn’t cut it. There must be compromise.
Where is the Republican party of Dwight Eisenhower? For that matter, where is Nixon’s GOP? Even Reagan and Bush I and Bush II would be called “RINOs” today.
We need a contrasting voice to the extremism of the left, but it can’t be in the clown car that is the “Freedom Caucus.”
You’ll note that I’ve italicized the term “Freedom Caucus” because it is a play on words worthy of George Orwell’s “double-speak” in his classic “1984.” Words have power, and the “Freedom Caucus” is double-speak at its best, offering freedom to no one and denying it to the majority.
If you’re on the side of these book burners, “double-speak” is saying something that means precisely the opposite. Freedom has nothing to do with the “Freedom Caucus.”
It’s been 40 years since the imagined date of the fascist takeover of the world as written by Orwell back in the 1940s, but it’s trying desperately to rear its fetid head.
We can do better, we deserve better. We need a conservative voice, and a liberal one, that’s how great things are done in this country.
For now, let’s sit back and watch, maybe with a little popcorn, as these incoming “Neo-Know Nothings” fall all over themselves.