Wyoming's GOP leadership has lost its way

BY ROD MILLER

At the GOP Lincoln Day Dinner in 2018, the party’s state secretary, Charles Curley, was witnessed publicly assaulting Executive Director Kristi Wallin. Several other GOP officials had to restrain him. Curley was reportedly upset with arrangements for the dinner and lost his temper, pushing and shoving Wallin, tearing her dress in the process. 

For weeks the state party apparatus kept the incident under wraps while it struggled to come to terms with a violent assault by a man on a woman within their ranks. It was not

until BetterWyo.org, an independent news organization, broke the story that the shameful incident was exposed to the light of day.  

The toothpaste was out of the tube at that point, and the GOP hierarchy was cornered into dealing with Curley’s assault.  He was forced to resign and later pled “no contest” to a subsequent assault charge. After weeks. Of silence.

Fast forward to a few days ago when Dani Olsen, chairwoman of the Laramie County GOP, penned a blog taking the party leadership to task for what she considered to be under-handed dealing in apportioning delegates.  

The GOP attack dogs were unleashed immediately, within hours. Olsen has been subjected to days of badmouthing by everyone from rank-and-file GOP apologists to the entire officer corps of the party because she had the temerity to criticize them publicly.  

This happened immediately. And loudly.

To recap: a male member of Republican Party leadership manhandles a female colleague at a party function and the wagons are circled and mum’s the word. A female official pokes the party with a sharp verbal stick and the hounds of hell are unleashed on her to teach her a lesson.  

I’ll try not to use the term “double standard” in this rant, but I may not be able to help myself.

I used to be a proud Republican.  Now I’m just a Republican.  My party, the de-facto single political party in Wyoming, has the capacity to be much bigger than the above. I think that is our responsibility, too.  

Here is a case in point.  During the last legislative session, where there were so many issues on the table that required good political leadership, the party hierarchy gave its marching orders to its elected members in the House and Senate: The highest priority of the Wyoming GOP during last session was to put a stop to crossover voting.  Forget economic diversification. Forget rural health care. Forget education funding. Forget everything else. Just put a stop to pesky Democrats and RINOs polluting the primary elections. 

Wyoming’s GOP, under the much-touted “new guard” leadership, seems to have its eyes on nothing but further consolidation of power. Not power to do good for the state of Wyoming, but that caustic kind of power that is its own justification, the kind of power that Lord Acton warned “corrupts absolutely.” 

Having said this, I’ll predict the hate mail that I’ll receive as a result.

“Miller, if you don’t like the party, leave it.”  Does that sound familiar?  It’s the parroting of the national GOP party line, the rote response to just about everything they don’t like. It echoes that sad line from Yeats’ Second Coming: "the best have lost all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

But I think I’ll decline the offer to leave the GOP, thank you very much. I think I’ll stick around and try to bring the party back to its roots, back to when it was a gracious political organization, that Big Tent With Room for Everyone, back to being a party that Cliff Hansen and Al Simpson would be proud of.  

And I don’t want to miss my chance to work with Dani Olsen and other young, sincere Wyoming Republicans to do just that.

When our party protects men who whup on women and vilifies women who speak their minds, it’s clear we have a lot of work to do. Why don’t you join us?

Rod Miller is a citizen, father and grandfather and a proud former Rawlins Outlaw living in Cheyenne.