Dear editors:
Rod Miller recently published a column regarding the Laramie County GOP officer elections on March 18, 2023. He was there, and listened to the candidates, so I know he knows what we said. I was one of the candidates.
He said I spouted “hyperbolic bullshit”, but didn’t give any examples. He then called me a secessionist, likening me to Confederate General Pickett at the Battle of Gettysburg. I was given a scant two minutes to make my case, but even in that short time, I was able to stick to issues and principles without name calling.
It’s not the first time I’ve been called a secessionist. During the special session in 2021, Rep. Landen Brown said we were secessionists for daring to question Joe Biden’s unconstitutional mask and vaccine mandates.
The Civil War was fought over secession, when some states said they were no longer subject to the US Constitution. Wyoming residents, on the other hand, called for the special session because we wanted our state legislature and governor to follow the US Constitution, and not allow the federal government to claim powers that it doesn’t have.
Recent studies have proven that masks accomplished nothing. The CDC had already admitted back in 2021 that the vaccine didn’t stop transmission of COVID. So, was that “hyperbolic bullshit?”
I was part of a group that met with the Governor and State Health Officer three years ago. A psychologist advised Dr. Harrist that masking children would cause speech and learning problems, and untold mental health problems later. The CDC just admitted a few months ago that this was correct.
I pointed out to Dr. Harrist that her own website showed more influenza cases than COVID as of August 2020. She said her data was “incorrect.” The CDC recently admitted that COVID cases have been inflated for the entire pandemic. A disaster response officer pointed out to the Governor that he was not even following the state’s pandemic plan.
A Wyoming business owner told the Wyoming governor how he lost his Wyoming restaurant because of arbitrary social distancing requirements and forced closure. So, not “hyperbolic bullshit.”
In my speech at the election meeting, I said I didn’t believe our platform principles required us to stay silent as Grace Smith was handcuffed and arrested for not wearing a mask.
Our own Laramie County commissioners wanted the sheriff to arrest Laramie County residents for mask violations, prompting the previous Sheriff to have to issue a refusal to do that. I don’t recall anyone accusing Sheriff Glick of “hyperbolic bullshit.”
It must be easy to debate people you disagree with, when you can just make clever names like “platformicators”. I don’t even know what that means. I don’t think that supporting the platform is extremism, or “fiery political rhetoric.” I don’t think debate is divisiveness – although grade-school insults are.
Rod Miller and I are both duly elected members of the Laramie County GOP central committee, so I don’t feel this is the kind of “civil discourse” that would be required on the debate floor. I don’t think disagreement is “hyperbolic bullshit.”
Of course, I accept the results of the election, contrary to what Mr. Miller implied. I’m far from a “zealot” as he claims, and I’ll continue to make my case with facts and reason. Mr. Miller cited the ratio of votes as some kind of validation of his name-calling. But I believe that absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority. I read that somewhere.
Patrick Lucas, Cheyenne
