Dan Brophy

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By Dan Brophy, guest columnist

 Like a lot of Wyoming folks, I am upset with recent non-actions by our U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and U. S. Rep. Liz Cheney when it comes to maintaining a blind eye to the obvious fraud that occurred in the Nov. 3 presidential election.  

At least incoming U. S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis has seen the light and has signed on with Sen. Ted Cruz and a dozen other senators to protest the election of Joe Biden. 

 In my recent Cowboy State Daily column, I didn’t mention another privilege which is the most consequential of all: Rep Cheney holds the third most powerful position in the House minority. Sen Barrasso holds the third most powerful majority position in the Senate. This is real power. As Wyoming voters who put them in office, how does their power translate into our lives in the home state? As I think about the question, I don’t like what I see.

 Let’s consider their actions in the present crisis: allegations of widespread fraud (on a breathtaking national scale) which snatched away in dark night the huge vote margins in favor of Trump we all saw late evening November 3 in the “swing states.” 

 For me, the allegations are no longer allegations, but proven fact. From my own research, I knew within ten days that stunning fraud had been committed in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Thousands of our Wyoming neighbors figured it out too. Nationally, millions of others were equally convinced, some sooner and some later. These numbers grow by the day. We are not foolish dupes. We are witness to the naked theft of our republic!

 So why can’t Sen Barrasso and Rep Cheney see what is so obvious to us? Why did they declare a legitimate dispute over this election to be moot, to be a Biden win. This was weeks ago. Usually, generals don’t wave the white flag until there’s been fighting. But not with these two. 

 Sure, they are busy people – demands on their time accompany the burdens of their power. Grant them tiny leave for their tight schedules. I still say: so what? I’m busy too, you’re busy too. We don’t have staffs to assign to ask questions and do our work when we are short of time. None of us have access to the information about this election they could have had at their fingertips with one phone call to President Trump’s legal team. Yet they came to their conclusions without investigating the other side. There was no fight in them. Not for President Trump, and not for their constituents.

 They blared their opinions as though what they say would bring a public and congressional close to the matter, as though the weight of their words would convince us we are all wrong, or nuts. The mighty have spoken. We’re all supposed to shut up. 

It doesn’t work that way. Not this time. 

 During this period, they made time to vote for a “COVID relief” bill they couldn’t possibly have read, which just happens to award millions to idiocies like Pakistani “gender studies” and floods of money for Nepal, Egypt, Venezuela, Jordan. What about helping our own citizens and our own country? We should call the bill the “Foreign Countries’ Relief Act”. Why not? Rep. Cheney made time as usual for her digs at President Trump. Sen Barrasso, ever in fealty to Sen McConnell, jumped when McConnell said “frog”.

 These are our representatives?

 Leadership requires judgment. It requires honest assessments which must be divorced from self-interest and political positioning. It requires sanguine recognition of what’s best for one’s country, and in the case of a representative in Congress, what’s best for one’s state. 

 Is it really in the best interest of Wyoming to help sweep President Trump from office, ignoring a disputed election as though his claims are merely self-centered rhetoric? Why not ask for the evidence? Listen. And then, what about our views about his claims? Do those matter to our representatives? We have a bigger stake in this outcome than they do – we depend on private sector prosperity, we  have no government salaries, benefits or fat staffs.

 It is utter foolishness to welcome a Biden administration which openly plans to destroy the fossil fuel energy business on which so many jobs in Wyoming depend. Yet these two officials would hasten to turn out the one President in my lifetime who has defended Wyoming values, my values and American values every minute in office. Betrayal, in favor of a man and administration who will implement the Chuck Schumer plan, “now we change America forever”.

 I credit Sen.-elect Lummis for signing on with colleagues objecting to recognizing electors seated by fraudulent elections in these swing states. Sen. Barrasso had his chance earlier, but instead was in favor of fraud, against the will of his own constituents. Rep. Cheney did the same.

 Let’s hope for their belated enlightenment. Sen Barrasso in particular might want to take a look at the online petition demanding he join Lummis and object. As I write, I see 1,400 signatures in support. The PR “rule of thumb” is one signer represents about one hundred unexpressed views in agreement. So, 140,000 of his constituents think what I think.

 Maybe one of them will see the light today, or by Wednesday. For my part, it’s too late. Their leadership has collapsed. They will never again have my vote.

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By Dan Brophy, guest columnist

Wyoming citizens have the privilege of three federal representatives (John Barrasso, Liz Cheney, Mike Enzi, and soon to be Cynthia Lummis) who hold more power in Washington per person and per square mile than any state other than Alaska.

That privilege is reciprocal – our federal delegates represent a population no bigger than that of a medium-sized American city. Easy home state duty compared to their colleagues. Privilege all around.

In these circumstances, shouldn’t communication with constituents be open and flow easily?

After all, each member of our delegation has staff in multiple offices across the state. Shouldn’t our messages get through to our representatives? Shouldn’t we reasonably expect prompt and honest replies?

Senators from California, Texas, Florida, New York must respond to millions of constituents; Senators Barrasso and Enzi must respond to 560,000, a fraction of the demand on their colleagues.

Rep. Cheney must respond to about half the number of constituents as almost all her House colleagues. All three have large staffs in DC and ample staff here. Privilege.

Wyoming voted 70 percent in favor of President Donald Trump. Polling is expensive and rare in Wyoming, outside election campaigns.

So, grant me a guess, based on my personal circle of contacts, to say that 80 percent of those Trump voters believe the Biden victory in six swing states came about through fraud. 

I don’t have to prove the accuracy of my guess – a percentage error is irrelevant. Factually, there is no question Trump voters here and nationwide are convinced of widespread fraud.

Don’t read the so-called Mainstream Media outlets (whose bias, suppression and censorship are increasingly making themselves into Side Channel Rivulets).

The story of voter outrage reveals itself in giant rivers of commentary on Parler, Twitter, Facebook (when it escapes censorship), and in dozens of new podcasts and websites which gain subscribers in the hundreds of thousands by the day.

One fairly new podcast boasts 25 million downloads, up more than nine million in five weeks. The conviction of fraud is implanted indelibly in the mind of about half of the American citizenry.

Returning to privilege: our princely Washington delegation have all declared publicly that Biden is “President-elect.” They have loudly congratulated him in public for his “victory.”

To them, what of facts like 200,000 more votes in Pennsylvania than registered voters? What of videos from Atlanta showing suitcases of ballots retrieved and counted multiple times in voting machines starting within minutes of Republican observers being ordered to leave.

What of tens of thousands of dead people voting in Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin; more tens of thousands of votes in these and other states, cast by persons no longer living in the locations of their registration. I could go on for 50 pages, but you already know.

In my small circles, I could name dozens of Wyoming friends who are infuriated by the fraud, who are now even more infuriated by the public statements of Cheney, Barrasso, Enzi, and, yes, Senator-elect Lummis. Count me among them.

Like me, these people all have tried fruitlessly to communicate with our delegates to express their anger, to demand they recognize the mountains of accumulating evidence of fraud, to ask them to rescind their support.

Just like me, they have encountered the firewalls which suppress direct accountability. If you can’t get the message through, did you even leave it?

If you wish to ask Rep Cheney or Senators Barrasso or Enzi to explain why they ignore the evidence of fraud, try calling their offices, only to get no answer or no honest reply from a staffer.

Reach out in writing, but you may only submit comment on a form – forget direct communication of past years, “that’s so yesterday.”

We must presume these messages go to staffs instructed to filter the few (perhaps large donors?) deserving a direct personal response (which includes not a single person within our circles) and those who get the bland, non-genuine form-letter reply.

Heck, I didn’t even get a form letter reply to throw away. No replies, no explanations, nothing due to people like me, who believe we are witnessing the theft of our country in front of our eyes. 

For our DC representatives, it’s “we see nothing, that means you see nothing, so let’s all just move along…”

Privilege extends only so far with Wyoming voters. We still see our federal representatives as servants of the people who elected them. Public servants in the traditional meaning of this term.

The question now in my mind is whether our representatives see us as public servants in the new sense of that term – the public serves them. The plumb line is unfortunately tilting in the direction of that new sense.

So, Rep. Cheney,  Sen. Barrasso, Sen. Enzi (and now, Sen.-elect Lummis): since you have all reached your conclusion that the fraud, of which we are all convinced, does not exist, that “there is no evidence,” let’s do things the old Wyoming way.

Tell us why. Publicly, openly. Give us YOUR evidence. Explain to us why our frantic concerns have no validity. Tell us what you know that we don’t. Explain that you asked the Trump legal team to brief you on their evidence, or if you did not make this request, exactly WHY you did not. 

Duty and obligation accompany privilege. We see you living under the umbrella of your privilege. Now step outside it and do your duty to us, your constituents who awarded you the privilege of your office. January 6 is a few days away. Tell us today.

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Dan Brophy is a retired professional commodities trader, farmer and investor who lives in Wilson.