There is an apocryphal story that, when Rome sacked Carthage to end the Punic Wars, the Romans plowed salt into the Carthaginian soil so that it would never again yield wheat to feed their enemies. The irony is that Carthage was “the breadbasket of Rome”, and fed more Romans than Carthaginians.
I spent a couple of days in Tunisia (that’s what Carthage is called now) a long time ago, poking around to see what was left of that ancient civilization. Damn little, as it turns out. The countryside around Tunis is still barren, sorry ground. Rome’s revenge has lasted more than two thousand years.
A scorched earth strategy has been used in other historical wars, when an invader wants to defeat an enemy and leave that enemy powerless to rise up again. The elements of civilization are wiped out, and the enemy is “bombed back to the Stone Age.”
The political term “scorched earth” derives from those examples.
We are witnessing, in real time, the application of scorched earth politics under the new Trump administration. Elon Musk and DOGE are deconstructing and de-funding entire agencies of the federal government in the name of government efficiency.
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater doesn’t come close to describing it.
But then, Trump was elected by a populist uprising of folks who distrust government. They are tired of the slow pace of incremental change, the undue influence of an entrenched class of political elites, and a feeling of disconnect from government.
They elected Trump because he promised to tear it all down, and put common folks in charge of government again. He promised to cut the Gordian knot with a saber, rather than take the time to untangle it. Plus a political bloodbath makes for great theater, and stimulates the glands with a satisfying sense of revenge.
It’s taken a few years for us to get to this point, but here we are.
Nor is Wyoming immune to scorched earth revenge by angry populism. The same political forces that put Musk in the Oval Office gave the Freedom Caucus the majority in the Wyoming House, and midway through the current session, we are seeing the results of that decision.
The Freedom Caucus’ Nickel and Dime slate of reforms easily passed the House and, if enacted into law, will realize their misguided populist dream to fundamentally alter the political institutions of the Cowboy State. They lent their own impatient saber to the pesky knot.
Beyond that nickel-and-diming, the Freedom Caucus, in the name of “government efficiency” through property tax reform, is placing at serious risk Wyoming’s small counties and towns.
The “chairman emeritus” of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. John Bear – a transplanted dry cleaner from Missouri – said during last year’s session that our small communities should dry up and blow away if they require state financial assistance to survive.
By strangling the lifeline for local services such as fire and police protection, water and sewer infrastructure, local elections, schools, libraries, clinics and other essential elements of civilization in the Big Empty, the Freedom Caucus will turn our landscape into a scorched earth of ghost towns and cheatgrass. All brought to you courtesy of the MAGA wing of the Wyoming GOP.
When called out for these destructive policies, the Freedom Caucus stands up on its imported soapbox, pounds its chest, and proclaims, “This is what the people voted for.”
This will be an important point for “the people” to remember in less than two years, when the next election rolls around. Voters will need to remember the Freedom Caucus members and their words and actions when we look around at the scorched earth they created, still smoldering from uncontrolled wildfires, and ask ourselves perhaps the most important question of our generation -
“Did we vote for this?”
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
