Representative Liz Cheney is a political example of The Greater Good

Wyoming is a tough state to find journalism that I happen to  agree with.  Therefore, I was delighted to find this opinion published in Rocket Miner news, for my echo to post in this Maine Writer blog.  

In my opinion, this opinion is an example about how to bravely stand up to support The Greater Good: Definition- Benefit of the public, of more people than oneself; that which is better and more correct.

I agree with Mr. Gagnon in Wyoming!  

Let's support Representative Liz Cheney because she is demonstrating integrity during a time when Republicans have clearly lost their moral compass by protecting the sedition led by #TheFormerGuy

Debasing myself politically, I’ve joined the Republican Party. I never thought I would do this. The first time that I could vote in a primary, in New Hampshire in 1980, I voted for Jerry Brown. At Winter Park, Colorado, about 1984, I registered as a socialist. The election official was shocked and became angry. She nearly had a heart attack. Later, she told me it was the altitude. I knew better. A few years later, in Durango, I registered as a Green. My vote for Ralph Nader put George H.W. Bush in the White House.

For the next several decades I was a moderate and boring Democrat, but in presidential contests, at least as far as the popular vote goes, I never lost. There was that snafu in 2000, where Al Gore got more votes than George W. Bush, and should have given Gore Florida’s winning electoral votes, too. Unaccountably, democracy sank, oil companies continued stealing Middle Eastern petroleum, and airliners crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These were evil yet eloquent warnings and expressions against the United States.

Had Gore become president, the rationale for 9/11 just wouldn’t have been there, and by now we would be off our addiction to fossil fuels.

“I will pay your legal fees!” Trump shouted in March of 2016, as a man punched another who was critical of Trump, and the nation slid into a pattern of increasingly fascist violence. This culminated in the Insurrection of January 6, 2021, and I, very oddly, suddenly gained respect and admiration for Wyominy's Representative Liz Cheney.

The reason for my party-registration change is to enable me to vote for Cheney in the Republican primary, and maybe in the November election, too, but by that point I’ll have to see who is out there. 

Some of my Democratic partners disagree with what I have done. One says she will no longer have lunch with me. Another explained that the Democratic Party in Wyoming is much better organized than the Republicans, and that we have better data. 

Later, I wondered if his data also shows that we never win?

Why do we bother with politics, and become angered and have heart attacks, especially, I tell you, at these Rocky Mountain altitudes? 

The reason is usually so we can have a positive influence within our society. In the state or regional context, such as here in Wyoming, some of the issues are specific to us, others are national or global.

The candidates come as a part of a parcel. That is, we can expect Democratic candidates to promote things that require cooperative societal efforts, and are often complex, such as the Paris Climate Agreement, free public education, fair taxation, the protection of wilderness and wildlife, including protection for wild horses, and responsible resource extraction, to name a few. To achieve these things, it’s usually taken for granted that government will be the guarantor and enforcer, until they become self-enforcing parts of “The Social Contract.”

The Republican parcel of characteristics includes axing environmental regulations on resource extraction, getting rid of wildlife, including wild horses, so as to have more cattle and sheep on public lands, forced school prayer, making abortion illegal regardless of any threat to health or specific circumstances, and restricting “what kinds” of people can vote. An interesting socialistic twist on this, of course, is an insistence on keeping the federal government out of our business, yet an equal insistence that they pay Wyoming vastly more than we contribute. OK, so nobody is perfect, but that’s how it looks.

Back to the top of this editorial, people like me intend to join forces with moderate Republicans and make Liz Cheney the official Republican candidate. Democrats have much on which they can disagree with Cheney, but she has impressed us with her honesty and courage, and we can therefore work with her. Also, she’s vastly better than the alternatives.

The far-right Republican extremists, also known as, fans of Donald Trump, the people who are currently running Wyoming’s Republican party, don’t have, in reality, anything enforceable to say about this. Their deplorable attitudes and interference are completely inappropriate. It was never intended that they should get to tell politicians what to say and how to vote. They are promoting a condition that might be called Fake Schizophrenia, the supposed belief, but really just acquiesce, in The Big Lie*.

Democrats, please join me in some temporary self-abasement; we can blame it on the altitude.

From - Tom Gagnon,  Rock Springs Wyoming

*Baseless Claims! The Big Lie and the Big Liar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cECFj989vvs

Thank you from reasonable Wyoming Republicans and Democrats

Echo opinion letter published in the Wyoming newspaper the Rocket Miner, reporting the state news since 1881.

Imagining yourself standing in the shoes of another is a good way to understand that person’s point of view, and the motives and rationales for the decisions they make. Try picturing yourself as a U.S. congressperson in the Capitol on January 6th. 

You’re doing the things that you were elected to do. 

Rep. Cheney: What Trump did 'is a line that cannot be crossed'

Guiding your actions and decisions are the upbringing you have had, your years of education, an understanding of your constituents, The Constitution and U.S. history, also the travel, relationships, financial dealings, fighting and loving, reading, and the spiritual experiences you’ve had. This is a lot, but it never seems to be enough for any of us.

At first it was just a minor distraction, perhaps another text message. There seemed to be some commotion and movement coming from Trump’s rally up at the Lincoln Memorial. There’s some word about a throng of people carrying flags and banners and chanting various things. They’re heading right for the Capitol. Some vague news comes in of other groups encircling the building. 

Of course, there was nothing to worry about, because there are metal barriers, and lots of Capitol policemen protecting the building.

But wait, what’s this? Another message, a rumor goes through the House Chamber that some protestors have shoved the barriers aside and overpowered the guards. Weirdly, the rumor, now a bit of a panic, has it that loud and angry protestors have actually entered the building. What? This can’t be. How could they? Why would they? Who could they be, and what or who might have set them in motion to act this way?

January 6th insurrection enabled by the #FormerGuy, a threat to American Democracy

Those were gun shots in the hall. Guards draw guns. Doors are locked. In a House of leaders everyone is shouting orders while taking defensive positions on the floor and under desks. “Quick!” someone shouts, “Out this way!”

It’s not a movie about zombies. UFOs have not invaded. They were not even foreigners or radical leftists. In varying degrees, the invaders were white Republicans and Christians and conservative and thought of themselves as patriotic, blessed and authorized by their beloved leader Donald Trump. On the walk down The National Mall they were 100% certain of themselves. When the cameras zoomed in on their faces there were no doubts, there was no humor, they were not kidding.

It was the eyes, though, where one could see into their very brains and beliefs, however demented, and that was the scary part. In the eyes was a determination to kill or be killed. This was completely justified because their president had ordered it. Everything was unfolding as QAnon had prophesized. The traitorous vice president would hang! The leftist speaker of the House would be shot in the head. Many would be arrested, tortured, and executed. It was a day of reckoning.

Had you been there, how could you have viewed what had happened as anything but a very scary and dangerous invasion? People died, after all, and frankly, it’s amazing that hundreds didn’t die. Certainly, if the invaders had been African-American, or “Antifa,” the defenders would have let lose fusillades. The whole world looked on and they were appalled. They must have said, “It’s nutcase’ism over there. So much for looking to them for leadership.”

On that evening, one would have thought that the craziness had reached a peak, and rational heads would prevail. Liz Cheney viewed and analyzed with a clear mind, along with other responsible law makers, and drew on all her years of upbringing, education, talking and listening and thinking, and experience in life, and called the day’s events exactly what they were: an insurrection against the government and Constitution of the United States, and it was ordered by the deranged, cult-like president, Donald Trump.

All Wyoming Democrats have had many issues with Representative Cheney, but if she were up for re-election right now, we would vote for her. Given that a primary will be involved, we would all have to at least temporarily become Republicans. 

Statewide, we are 30% of the voters. Also, all moderate and rational Republicans are in agreement. Together we vastly outnumber nutcase Republicans, who are boisterous and fist pumping, but they are cowardly bullies, and they are outnumbered. Together, Democrats and mature Republicans will reward Liz Cheney with another term in the House, or higher office, because she made the right decision to protect The Constitution, to defend free and fair elections, and to vote for Trump’s impeachment.

From Tom Gagnon, Rock Springs