There are a lot of downsides to campaign season - unsightly yard signs, attack ads, and the deforestation due to truckloads of glossy mailers - to name a few. But it also has its upside.
The thing that I love the most about campaign season is that everybody suddenly loves conservative principles. For a few short months, the fringe left goes silent lest they torpedo their favored politicians.
Librarians who shill for the American Library Association’s insistence on smut in the children’s section are making no endorsements. The Wyoming Education Association - one of the most moneyed and liberal PACs in Wyoming- is sitting out of the governor’s race. (Or, at least Chat GTP doesn’t know about it.) Towering male athletes are not out on the campaign trail stumping for the politicians who support their domination of girls.
In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. After University of Wyoming volleyball star Macey Boggs appeared on a Chuck Gray ad, the entire field started climbing over each other to tout their support for women athletes.
And it wasn’t only candidates for the U.S. House. Candidates for governor and state legislature were just as eager to strike a conservative pose.
Before getting embroiled in the argument over who is more authentic in their pro-woman stance, take a moment to savor the victory. It wasn’t very long ago when people who thought it common sense to keep men from bashing in the heads of women and ogling them in the locker room were considered
“draconian.”
Even now, the press covering the WNBA is putting a full-court press on Sophie Cunningham merely for uttering that common sense. And a high-school girl was bullied to tears - by a team owner of the Seattle Storm no less! - for holding a sign that said, “Thank you, Sophie, for speaking up for girls.”
That is not happening in Wyoming anymore. Enough people have endured angry denunciations and being labeled as “haters” that the tide has turned. Now, even the timid can stand with Sophie, without political blowback. That’s an accomplishment worth celebrating. And I don’t care who gets the credit.
While the conservative position on men in women’s sports has taken the spotlight, there are many other examples. At the June 18 gubernatorial debate in Dubois, everybody was for health freedom, everybody was for energy development, everybody was for private property rights, and everybody was for limited government.
At the same debate, everyone was against federal overreach, dictatorial health mandates, and porn in public libraries. What is not to love about that?
The Overton Window has shifted. It shifted because of a few brave public figures who were willing to endure the slings and arrows of the Progressive war machine. They led the charge to retake positions that had been left undefended for fear of the cancel-culture mob.
Now those same positions are crowded with flag-waving politicians. We can appreciate that fact without knowing which of those politicians cowered in the heat of battle - or even turned their guns on friendlies. History will tell that tale.
A grateful nation honors its warriors. In the same way, appreciative voters should elevate those who sacrificed the most in the charge to retake the high ground.
I am thankful that health freedom, energy development, private property rights, and limited government are back in vogue. And I rejoice that health diktats have fallen into disfavor along with porn in public libraries and men in women’s sports. I acknowledge and appreciate that practically everybody is currently united on these principles.
But I am especially grateful for the men and women who stood up to speak for these principles during the legislative dogfights years before they became fashionable. I give honor to those who championed these causes when they were blocked by committee chairman, died in the drawer of the House Speaker or Senate President, or were denied a vote by the Majority Floor Leader.
These champions are often vilified as impolite, combative, feisty, or otherwise deplorable. But when the principles that we value most are under attack, it is precisely the warriors who are needed the most.
That’s why clean and pressed uniforms do not impress me. I will be voting for the soldiers whose uniforms are bloody and torn. They may be too gruff for D.C. dinner parties. But they are most responsible for making Wyoming safe for conservatives.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com
