During the late 1950s, Chairman Mao told the Chinese people to “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.”
Plank #22 of the Wyoming Republican Party Platform states, “Freedom of speech is a fundamental right secured by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Wyoming. Freedom of speech includes the freedom of the individual to express his or her beliefs, ideas and opinions without fear of retaliation…”
Both edicts are examples of a cruel bait and switch tactic intended to root out and punish dissidents and voices of opposition.
Here’s why.
When Mao told the Chinese intellectuals that it was fine and dandy to think for themselves and to say what they thought, opponents of the authoritarian Communist Party did just that. And, in so doing, they identified themselves as threats to Mao’s regime. When they spoke up, the Party arrested them and imprisoned or killed them.
So much for Freedom of Speech in Communist China.
Perhaps emboldened by Plank 22 of the Party’s platform, and maybe naively believing that his party would protect his First Amendment rights to free expression, Fremont County GOP chairman Scott Harnsberger openly criticized some of his local Republican candidates for refusing to engage in open debates during their campaigns.
Apparently, some Fremont County GOP candidates felt that the League of Women Voters would not be “impartial” enough to conduct the debates, so they tucked their tails between their legs, and refused to debate.
Horseshit!
The League of Women Voters is a stalwart participant in Wyoming politics and has been for decades. The truth of the matter is that some GOP candidates are simply too cowardly to defend their positions in a structured public political discourse.
So the Fremont County GOP fired Harnsberger from his chairmanship for his temerity in pointing out this fact.
So much for Freedom of Speech in the Wyoming Republican Party.
It is hard to see any difference between the GOP and Mao in this regard. They both said one thing, then did the opposite. Hypocrisy is not confined to the Chinese Communist Party.
The only difference is that Mao didn’t cloak himself in the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Wyoming.
But Mao’s goal and that of Oral Eathorne’s Wyoming Republican Party appear to be the same. Both want to silence internal dissent and voices of opposition in order to consolidate power. And neither is reluctant to use subterfuge and sleight-of-hand to get the job done.
The powers that be in both China and the Wyoming GOP appear to want only a single flower to bloom, and only one school of thought to prevail. Neither outfit seems to want to tolerate any intellectual or political challenge to their iron-fist grip on things.
And neither outfit hesitates to remove any voice that has the cojones to speak truth to that power.
For my money, it is Cowboys (capital C) like Scott Harnsberger who may be the only thing that saves the Wyoming Republican Party from spiraling down into an authoritarian abyss of gnarliness that would make the Founders of the U.S. and Wyoming, both of whom cherished plurality and free speech, puke.
His courage should be celebrated, while the cowardice and hypocrisy of the Wyoming GOP deserves to be ridiculed.
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
