By Rod Miller, columnist
Rod Miller is a life-long Republican and Wyoming native. Born into a ranching family that has been in the Cowboy State since 1867. He ran against incumbent Liz Cheney in 2018.
For a couple of years now, Wyoming Gun Owners (WyGO), that prickly practitioner of confrontational politics, has beaten their chest for Second Amendment rights and against “cancel culture”. Aaron Dorr, their spokespiece, has pontificated that cancel culture is a tool of commie goons and left-wing RINO/Pelosi stooge tools of the Swamp, conjured up to silence voices on the right.
Cancel culture is loosely defined by the political right as the political left getting its nose out of joint over something that a business, group or politician says that offends their dogma. Cancel Culture Warriors then go after the offender’s sponsors, trying to shut off the flow of money, hoping to silence the offensive voice.
WyGO and its sycophants have raised their struggle against cancel culture to an art form, dolling it up in First Amendment finery. They pearl-clutch and chant “Free Speech, Free Speech” when anyone criticizes their scorched earth message. And God help any leftist pinko that goes after WyGO’s sponsors who open their wallets at the first mention of guns.
So, I was surprised (or not) to learn that WyGO was mounting an attack on sponsors who support David Iverson’s podcast, Cowboy State Politics. Apparently, WyGO was incensed that Iverson had said some less than complimentary stuff about their choirboy, Sen. Anthony “Romeo” Bouchard.
And I also don’t think that WyGO was pleased with Iverson’s response to a gun bill recently passed by the Wyoming Legislature. Unless I miss my guess, WyGO now considers David Iverson some sort of RINO.
My WTF moment came when I learned that WyGO’s #1 fangirl is threatening to go after Iverson’s sponsors because he doesn’t measure up to some sort of standard of doctrinal purity. Michelle St. Louis posted on the private Facebook page “Be an informed, conservative voter, Wyoming” the following:
“Just sayin’ if these sponsors support the crap Iverson is spewing, I will make sure there’s no question in anyone’s mind why I won’t give them a dime… If you think Iverson’t childish attack in (sic) WyGO is getting old, I encourage you to contact these sponsors and ask them if they support what he is using their money to do.”
She goes on, “Do (and she names Iverson’s sponsors) approve of the way David Iverson has spent his last several podcasts attacking Wyoming Gun Owners, the only no compromise gun rights organization that has been fighting for our gun rights for over a decade? Because if they do, I’ll make sure I tell every one not to spend a dime at that (sic) those places.”
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes Iverson says stuff in his podcasts that makes me want to pull my teeth out by the roots. But like Voltaire or somebody said, “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
Further, David is a bona fide resident of the Cowboy State, living in Buffalo, having coffee at the Busy Bee. Aaron Dorr, on the other hand, is from Iowa or Ohio or someplace, and couldn’t find his way to the Beacon Club if his life depended on it.
And David and I are kinda in the same business…making people think.
So, I’m gonna jump to a competitor’s defense right here and solidly protect his six from backstabbers. Iverson is about the best friend that gun owners in Wyoming have. A RINO he sure as hell ain’t.
By attacking a voice that should be its greatest ally, WyGO comes off like blithering idiots. And when they go after Iverson’s sponsors, they jump out of the closet as Wyoming’s queen of cancel culture.
And they call to mind that great scene in “Tombstone” when a dying Doc Holliday says, “My hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
