An incredibly graceful act of political statesmanship occurred in Wyoming the other day, and we all should know about it. And we should all think about it.
In Senate District 4, incumbent Tara Nethercott had a single primary challenger, political newcomer Gregg Smith. Smith was one of the first candidates to announce. His first foray into electoral politics was against a solid officeholder, but he tossed his hat into the ring much to his credit.
With less than a month before the primary, however, Smith withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Nethercott. Smith’s decision came after he and Nethercott met for coffee to discuss the campaign and the issues at stake.
Another topic over coffee was the tenor of politics in Wyoming these days...the scorched earth nature of campaigns, the deluge of misinformation presented to voters, the intensely personal attacks and the overall feeling of nausea that results from seeing our political process degenerate into a gutter fight.
Smith, not wanting to contribute to this political angst, withdrew and endorsed his opponent.
I’ll correct myself. There are two examples of political statesmanship evident here.
The first being two political rivals setting differences and all the attendant bullshit aside to sit down over coffee and pick each other’s brain. That is almost a revolutionary act of civility in today’s atmosphere. It should be applauded by voters and emulated by other candidates.
The second act of statesmanship is Smith stepping down. This took courage and suggests that both candidates were motivated by reason instead of emotion. Politics in Wyoming needs a lot more reason and a lot less emotion these days. And this act, too, deserves to be applauded and emulated.
So, my sweaty ol’ Stetson is tipped to both Tara Nethercott and Gregg Smith. There will always be space in my yard for campaign signs of politicians who display that brand of courage and civility.
Having said all that, I predict that the reaction to Smith and Nethercott’s civility from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and their ilk will be anything but civil.
They and their trolls will whine that this is just another example of the Good Old Boy establishment rolling over patriots. They’ll stomp their feet and claim that it's another case of uniparty RINO puppets bowing down to the Deep State.
Any expression of civil discourse and reason over hair-on-fire emotionalism and obfuscation cuts directly across the grain of the Freedom Caucus playbook.
A case in point is the right wing/libertarian group Young Americans for Liberty, a Freedom Caucus youth front from the U.W. campus, persisting in canvassing SD4 with a message to voters to hunt down Nethercott and take her out.
I really don’t think anything will blunt the angry zeal of the Freedom Caucus except a public ass-whuppin’ at the polls. And even then, they’ll probably dispute the results and whine that George Soros controls Wyoming’s elections.
But I hope that the voters of Wyoming see the stark contrast in the political statesmanship exhibited by the candidates in SD4 and what is going on in the rest of the state. I hope that folks in the Big Empty see that Nethercott and Smith have shown us a more constructive way to deal with our political differences.
I have great confidence in my neighbors in Wyoming when they are presented with adult behavior as opposed to childishness, and with mature reason against adolescent emotion, to be able to choose wisely, regardless of the strident voices dripping in their ears and warning them not to behave like sheeple.
We citizens of Wyoming owe a debt of gratitude to Sen. Tara Nethercott and Gregg Smith for making that choice crystal clear.
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
