“Conservative”. as a word and as a political ethos, has been bandied about willy-nilly in the world of Wyoming politics since dirt was warm. So much, in fact, that this noble term of civic philosophy is in danger of losing its meaning.
Wyoming is now and has always been a conservative state. We have always taken great pride in our individualism, and we have always shunned control by a powerful centralized government.
It must be something in the water here that makes us believe and behave as we do. It is clear, pure and comes right off the snowbank. Ours is not water for sissies or weaklings. If you want still, calm, tepid water, you need to find somewhere else to live. But, I digress.
Being a conservative state, we all too seldom stop and think about what that word means. And we all too often believe politicians when they call themselves “conservative” to get our attention.
If we don’t have a good understanding of what it means to be conservative, and if we don’t ask tough questions, we run the risk of being suckered in by demagogues who know the right buzzwords to use, and the right buttons to push to get us to vote for them and their snake oil.
I have always relied upon the late senator from Arizona, Barry “Mr. Conservative” Goldwater (and we’ll tip our Stetsons at the mention of that name) for a proper definition of “conservative.”
I have a dog-eared and highlighted copy of Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative” on my nightstand. Ronald Reagan kept the same book close at hand, equally well-thumbed. I have serious doubts that Donald Trump has ever cracked the cover. But, I digress again.
I turn to Goldwater every election season when I hear politicians refer to themselves as conservative. I use his book as my conservative bullshit detector.
In my opinion, no politician can honestly claim to embrace conservative principles until they have worn out a couple copies of “Conscience of a Conservative,” and memorized a dozen or so of its important passages.
Without that depth of understanding, a politician is merely cos-playing as a conservative.
To pique the interest of aspiring conservative politicians to investigate Goldwater’s political thinking, here is how the man himself defined conservatism in a 1962 speech, “conservatives desire a nation whose goal is not just security, or prosperity, or peace at any price, but a nation determined to provide for each citizen a maximum of freedom of choice and to require from each citizen the acceptance of the proud obligations of freedom.”
Now, go read his book and then we can discuss conservatism.
I think that, in large part, Wyomingites agree with Goldwater, and we buy into his brand of conservatism.
I also think that’s the reason Wyoming voters repudiated the Freedom Caucus in the recent primary, recognizing them as folks who lip-synched the word “conservative,” but who favor centralized power.
And whose religiosity prompted them to try to limit our individual liberties - like reading what we want, worshipping how we want, marrying who we want and a woman’s liberty to choose what happens with her own body.
My thesis will be tested on Nov 3 when Republican nominee Eric Barlow faces Constitution Party candidate Rebecca “Checkgate Becky” Bextel in the general election for the office of Governor of Wyoming.
When Bextel jumped ship from the GOP, she said that she wanted to be an outside-the-box “conservative insurance policy” against a Barlow governorship.
Her flowery campaign rhetoric is dripping with the word “conservative”, and she’s mouthing all the right slogans.
But she rose to prominence by handing out hefty campaign checks on the floor of the Wyoming House to the same faux-conservatives in the Freedom Caucus who were hell-bent on squashing the individual liberties that she espouses.
Bextel is still firmly ensconced inside the Freedom Caucus box.
My copy of “Conscience of a Conservative”, my personal political bullshit detector, is blinking red, and sounding the alarm at her double-speak and opportunistic sleight-of-hand.
What is your bullshit detector telling you about Checkgate Becky? Your vote will determine how Wyoming defines the word conservative.
Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com
