Wyoming GOP leaders are trampling on members' rights to force them to bow to right-wing dogma

            Editor’s note: This post is in response to recent efforts by the leaders of the Wyoming Republican Party to stifle dissent and punish those who would speak out against their efforts to turn the party into a hard right-wing wing cabal. You can read more about these efforts in a Nov. 21 article in the Casper Star-Tribune, “Inside the Wyoming GOP, critics are silenced as party leadership turns increasingly to the right.” (https://cutt.ly/MeVSYMp) 

BY ROD MILLER

This is an Open Letter to Chairman Frank Eathorne and the Wyoming Republican Party's Executive Committee:

Dear Frank,

I write to you as a lifelong Republican and member of a family that has been involved in Wyoming politics, both state and territorial, for nearly 150 years. If my forebears could speak, and add their voices to those of so many Republicans who I have worked with and respected over the years, I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut that they’d tell you the same thing that I will.

Shame on you! You and your elitist ilk are trying to transform what has historically been a proud, democratic

Wyo. GOP leaders are trying to force members to march in lockstep.

and patriotic political organization into a narrow little cheerleading squad for partisan right-wing dogma. You are attempting to turn our “Great Big Tent,” open to anyone who loves Wyoming, into a cloistered little blanket fort in the basement with room for only a select few. 

Again, shame on you!

What is it about dissent and debate within the

ranks that scares hell out of you? For you to try to suspend both constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and due process in your zeal to instill doctrinal purity, your fears must be deep indeed. For you to try to spread that fear among Wyoming’s voters is not the act of a courageous Republican, but rather that of a banana republic despot.  

Shame on you!

When citizens in Wyoming elect someone to represent them in government, that representative owes her or his allegiance to the voters, not to any political party. For you, or any other party leader (who didn’t receive a single vote in the last election for a legislative seat), to try to replace that with allegiance to a platform is nothing more than power-grubbing and tyrannical. 

That has never been how things were done in Wyoming, so I guess that makes you a Wyomingite In Name Only, a WINO.

Shame on you! Wait, I already said that.

OK, Frank. That’s all I had to say to you. The rest of this is for any Republican running for office, whether incumbent or not.

Dear GOP candidate,

I live on Central Avenue in Cheyenne, a couple blocks from the State Capitol, and it is one of the best locations in town for a yard sign. There must be a million cars that drive past my yard every year.  

So, I have a deal for you:

If you are running for office as a Republican, and you will place the wishes of your constituents ahead of those of the party leadership; and

If you revere the Constitutions of the United States and of Wyoming above the party platform; and

If, when faced with a vote, you will vote your conscience and not a party line dictated to you by others; then

1 – I’ll proudly display your yard sign.

2 – I’ll kick in a few bucks to your campaign and encourage others to do likewise.

3 – I’ll help you in any other way that I can. Just ask.

The Wyoming Republican Party needs you right now, and so do the people of Wyoming.

Any of my Republican friends throughout Wyoming who feel the same, please feel free to make a similar offer to your local candidates. Never let it be said, “Shame on us.”

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