Rod Miller

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By Rod Miller. Guest columnist, Cowboy State Daily

Acting as a self-appointed arbiter of conservative political correctness, WyoRINO is riding herd over Wyoming’s elected leadership, making sure everyone toes their line.

WyoRINO is an anonymous political organization registered with the Wyoming Secretary of State through a P.O. box in a little town in western Wyoming. He/she/they publish scorecards of legislative voting based upon a narrow slice of our collective political life. Those that don’t meet their muster, they term RINOs…Republicans in Name Only.

But there are no names of actual human beings associated with WyoRINO. None. Let me repeat that: they will not tell us who they are, but they want us to listen to them.

WyoRINO is an exercise in political cowardice. To hide behind the mother’s apron of anonymity when discussing politics in Wyoming requires only an opinion and a forum, but is lacking the most important ingredient of politics….courage. Until WyoRINO emerges into the bright sunlight of Wyoming and lays personal claim to his/her/their rhetoric, they remain political cowards.

You might be able to get away with that childish behavior on either coast, but here in the Cowboy State, we aren’t afraid to show our faces when we talk. WyoRINO is behaving like some self-appointed star chamber or political inquisitor, blathering about political purity without any basis for accountability. They are acting like Antifa.

Debates over doctrine and platforms within a political party are very healthy and necessary. WyoRINO seems to disagree. They would rather that our entire legislature be composed solely of politicians for whom the future of mankind is decided by the question of guns, abortion and taxes. Nothing else seems important to them.

And they are certainly welcome to that position. There is a narrow wedge of voters in Wyoming who respond to that argument and agree. But for an anonymous organization to try to force-feed that dogma to an entire state is laughable. And to do so from behind mom’s apron is cowardly.

Both our western myth and our reality require that we show our faces when calling someone out. The gunfights in all those old western movies occurred at high noon for a reason. I can’t remember a single western that featured a sheriff or a cowboy hero hiding in some dark corner and sending snarky notes to the bad buy without signing his name. WyoRINO is trying to write a new script, and this cowboy ain’t buyin’ it.

I’ve already had Alexander Hamilton thrown in my face, so don’t try it here. Hamilton used the nom de plume “Publius” in his commentaries in “The Federalist Papers”, and someone recently told me that his example justifies political anonymity. Horseshit!! Hamilton was no cowboy, but rather an east coast elite. He would have been tarred, feathered and run out of any Wyoming town on rails because he lacked the courage to stand on his own two feet and show his face.

If the Wyoming GOP leadership permits WyoRINO to speak for them, then they are complicit in cowardice. If they do not strongly condemn political anonymity, then they have relinquished their right to call themselves “cowboy”.

My name is Rod Miller. I live at 2803 Central Ave. in Cheyenne. My phone number is 307-343-5527, and my email is rodsmillerwyo@yahoo.com. I wrote the above, and if you, WyoRINO, disagree with it, tell me to my face and give me your name. That’s how we do things in Wyoming.

Rod Miller is an author, poet, and longtime Wyoming political operative.

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