Psalm 75 warns the proud not to “speak with your head held so high,” reminding us that God alone “brings one down and exalts another.”
Luke echoes the same truth: the mighty are brought down from their thrones, and the lowly lifted up.
Those passages have been on my mind lately as Wyoming politics has offered a series of reminders of what happens when pride and the pursuit of power eclipse principle.
- When Ambition Overrides Integrity
The first example comes from Jackson, where Rebecca Bextel, a GOP state committeewoman for Teton County and the center of “Checkgate,” has now switched parties to position herself to run against Eric Barlow if he becomes the Republican nominee for governor.
For years she and many others have rightly warned that Democrats re-registering as Republicans to manipulate GOP primaries was unethical.
Yet now she has done what she spoke against: switching parties not out of conviction, but as a pre-emptive strike against her own party’s potential nominee.
This isn’t strategy. It’s hypocrisy. And it’s the kind of political maneuver that reveals a deeper problem: the idolatry of power.
When someone is willing to abandon their own stated principles to maintain influence, it suggests they believe God needs help choosing Wyoming’s leaders, as if the Trinity needs to be a quartet to ensure the “right” outcome.
It’s desperation, and it gives the GOP a bad look.
- The Secretary of State and the Fourth Amendment
As troubling as that is, it pales in comparison to what happened when Secretary of State Chuck Gray voluntarily handed over unredacted private voter data to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Let’s be clear about what this means. The federal government does not run state elections, and the 23rd plank of Wyoming’s GOP Platform explicitly “opposes any federal takeover or interference in federal, state, or local elections.”
It has no constitutional authority to demand private voter information from sovereign states without a warrant.
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. That protection does not disappear because the federal government claims it is “investigating fraud.”
If a crime is suspected and it wants to breach a citizen’s privacy rights, the government must go before a judge, present evidence, and obtain a warrant that is narrow and specific. That is the constitutional order. That is the rule of law.
Instead, Wyoming’s secretary of state simply handed over the data. No warrant, no judicial oversight, no constitutional process.
A state official entrusted with safeguarding our rights instead violated them, empowering the very federal government that Wyoming conservatives have long insisted must be kept in check.
Some defenders argue that “only fraudsters should be worried.” But that logic is dangerous.
By that standard, the federal government could demand a list of every gun owner in Wyoming “to crack down on illegal firearms,” and we’d be told the same thing: “only criminals should be concerned.”
That is how free societies slide toward authoritarianism, one “nothing to hide” argument at a time.
The issue is not whether voter fraud exists. The issue is whether constitutional rights still mean anything when they become inconvenient.
The secretary of state took an oath to protect the rights of Wyoming citizens. Instead, he voluntarily expanded federal power.
That voter information will undoubtedly stay with the federal government long after Trump is gone.
You want a Democratic administration to have that info, especially if they try to weaponize it? They have it now.
This was an incredibly stupid move by our state government under the secretary of state.
And now the attorney general’s office is slow-walking the question of whether to appoint a special prosecutor, despite an obvious conflict of interest.
The attorney general cannot simultaneously serve as the secretary of state’s legal advisor and his potential prosecutor.
Wyoming has 23 county attorneys and two district attorneys who could take this on. The refusal to act only increases public suspicion and erodes trust.
This is not a partisan issue. It is a constitutional one.
- Foreign Money and Manufactured Outrage
While Wyoming wrestles with internal breaches of trust, another threat is emerging from outside our borders.
A recent report traced more than $39 million in foreign funding, from Switzerland, the U.K., and Denmark, to U.S. advocacy groups pushing for a national moratorium on data centers.
Why would foreign donors care about Wyoming’s data centers?
Not because they’re worried about our water. Not because they’re concerned about our environment.
They care because data centers are the backbone of the modern economy, powering banking, agriculture, national defense, and every smartphone in every pocket.
If America slows down its build-out, someone else benefits.
And foreign interests know exactly how to manipulate us: by exploiting our cultural suspicion.
We live in a moment where many Americans are more likely to trust a fear-based Facebook post than the engineers, regulators, and local officials who actually live in their communities.
Fear has become a political currency, and foreign actors are spending it freely.
Wyoming has always balanced industry and stewardship. We’ve managed coal mines, refineries, and power plants safely for decades.
All of those put strains on our environment and pose safety risks. We know how to be productive while mitigating risk and caring for our environment.
What we cannot do is allow foreign-funded narratives to paralyze us or turn us against our own economic future.
Across these issues — party-switching gamesmanship, unconstitutional data sharing, and foreign-funded manipulation — the pattern is unmistakable.
When pride replaces humility, when power replaces principle, and when fear replaces discernment, the Constitution becomes collateral damage.
Wyoming has never been a place that bows to pressure, whether from Washington or from foreign interests.
We shouldn’t start now. But neither can we ignore the ways our own leaders, through ambition or carelessness, are eroding the very freedoms they swore to protect.
The Constitution is not self-enforcing. It requires guardians. It requires courage.
And it requires leaders who understand that power is not something to be grasped at all costs, but something to be held lightly, humbly, and within the limits the Founders wisely imposed.
Scott Clem can be reached at: ScottClem@live.com
