"... Wyoming would not last five minutes as an independent political entity. One can only marvel at the power of an artificially created matrix that is completely divorced from reality."
From a letter to the editor — citing, among other things, the Citizens United case — published in the Casper-Star Tribune.
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17 comments:
No doubt someone who proudly declares that they watch Comedy Central for news, and Fox for comedy.
Jesse Walker's United States of Paranoia has this guy (and lots of others) covered.
Wyoming is an oligarchy, as opposed to which other state?
"Too much power and wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of too few at the expense of the many."
I've never understood why some people who think the government is controlled by an "oligarchy" also think the answer is to give the government more power.
One can only marvel at the power of an artificially created matrix that is completely divorced from reality.
(in sing-song voice)...Pro-jeeeecccct-shunnnnn!
"In the United States today, the five conservative Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court auctioned off the United States to Wall Street, Citizens United Decisions. More over those same five justices drove another nail in the coffin when they gutted the voting rights act. Now the Republicans around the nation are laboring tirelessly to keep many average citizens from voting."
Wow! Where was this auction? I never heard of it. Is this auction nothing more than leftie lies passing as serious commentary? Why yes! That is exactly what it is.
The problem is that the lefties tell these lies so often that "average voters" actually believe them. Who are these "average voters" by the way. Certainly not our exalted leftie commentator who claims to speak for them. From the patronizing attitude towards "average voters" one must assume that the "average voter" is too stupid or too lazy to obtain an ID. In Texas which is one of the states in which "average voters" are suppressed the drivers license works just fine for voter ID. Therefore we must assume that the "average voter" doesn't drive. Wow! Just WOW! If the "average voter" doesn't have a drivers license just who are all those people causing all the traffic jams in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston? Are they all above average? Voter suppression of "average voters" is nothing but more leftie lies
What I think a lot are missing here is that this is rural Wyoming, and not downtown Madison. I would suggest that this is more an example of extreme libertarianism than anything. Part of libertarianism is distrust of government and the corruptibility of politicians. Just imagine their views on the federal govt, if there is so much negative sentiment against the WY state govt. remember, this is one of the states that gave GW Bush over 70% in 2004, and almost assuredly would still have if their favorite son, Darth Cheney, had not been on the ballot. These are primarily fiscal conservative/libertarian Republicans, rather than the social conservative type. Sure, they may not like gay marriage, but, then again it mostly isn't their business.
As an interesting aside, Wyoming native Dana Perino, on The Five the other night, in response to a question about their parents' politics, said that in retrospect, her father was probably the first libertarian she had ever met. Not the least bit surprising to me.
I've never understood why some people who think the government is controlled by an "oligarchy" also think the answer is to give the government more power."
Bob very well said. What's fascinating is the inability of those people to connect the dots.
Let me go on about Wyoming and libertarians. Spent the bulk of my life just south of there in CO, and six months a year now in W MT on the other side. Add to that that my father's parents were Okie farmers, who ended up with a small ranch (and girls camp) in CO. I expect that pretty much everyone in that part of WY is heavily armed, and probably always has been, but even more so with the libs periodically trying to disarm them. When it may take the sheriff's office an hour to respond, you have to be able to take care of yourself and your family. And that is in recent years - might have taken a day or so for their grandparents. So, we are talking extreme self reliance.
Esp with the Obama Administration, the level of distrust of the govt, and the federal govt, has gone through the roof with many libertarians. I know multiple people who won't buy their guns through a dealer, and are burying them, along with thousands of rounds of ammo, for the time when the feds come for their guns. Not "if", but "when" (I try to point out the logistical unfeasibility of this, to little avail).
The Obama Administration, along with Congress, has made this significantly worse by being fairly openly for sale. Google is spending north of $10 million a month on Congress, and Feinstein's husband's company seems to end up mysteriously as the prime contractor on multiple billion dollar government contracts. Harry Reid goes from dirt poor growing up in Searchlight, NV, to being a multimillionaire through government "service" where he never made more than a middle class wage. The Clintons are now worth north of a hundred million, despite coming to the WH almost broke - and millions of this came from Gulf oil money, and people wonder why the State Dept under Hillary! moved so far from supporting Israel to supporting Islamic countries opposed to Israel? The government is for sale, and there are two sets of rules these days - one for the elite and insiders, and one for everyone else.
I've never understood why some people who think the government is controlled by an "oligarchy" also think the answer is to give the government more power."
I don't think that is the problem in fairly rural Wyoming. There is a long term distrust there of most govt, along with money, dating from the cattle wars of the latter 19th century, where independent ranchers fought hired guns of the cattle barons - the corporate interests of the time. There is still debate as to whether Tom Horn was guilty of the murder he was hung for (but it is acknowledged that he likely was guilty of such that he wasn't tried for).
The extreme libertarians you find in rural WY mostly don't fall into the category of giving more power to the govt to rein in the oligarchs. Their preferred solution is massive govt downsizing. Rather, you are more talking about the "Occupy" types who tried to occupy Wall Street, but never thought to occupy the Capital and WH in DC. They are the ones who don't understand that they are the necessary dupes who are instrumental in keeping the corrupt in power, and who allow themselves to be heavily utilized and co opted by precisely the powers that they rail on about.
Bruce Hayden said:
"I don't think that is the problem in fairly rural Wyoming."
I agree.
I was referring to the guy who wrote the letter.
"I've never understood why some people who think the government is controlled by an "oligarchy" also think the answer is to give the government more power."
"Bob very well said. What's fascinating is the inability of those people to connect the dots."
progressives, liberals, leftist, whatevers are blind in intellectually incapable of connecting the dots. I have done it for them in small step by step detail
Citizens united is a perfect vehicle.
The intent of the govt intervention by statute was to limit money from influencing (read Bribing) elected politicians
The leftist solution is to reduce the amount of bribe, not reduce the power of the elected, not to redistribute to power to smaller more managable govt at state and local levels more visible by the electorate. Reduce the power to constitutional enumerated powers.
That is the solution. (Exploding head alert)......TeaParty solution!
So the leftist are convinced that they can manage the institutional corruption in DC despite the fact they have no idea exactly what is going on or how it works.
Willful, blind, self delusion and ignorance.
@iowan2: With a small edit, your description of those who are "convinced that they can manage [something] despite the fact they have no idea exactly what is going on or how it works" reminds me of someone in Washington, but I can't quite put my finger on who it is.
Oh, yes, "Willful, blind, self delusion and ignorance". Now I remember.
Individuals have freedom of speech. Disorganized groups of individuals also have freedom of speech. However, the law in many jurisdictions state that if you are a group you must organize in an official matter. Once organized, you then lose your freedom of speech.
And, once again, why are liberals so afraid of free speech?
It's an interesting essay. The writer had points to make, and they were in his last three sentences. He stepped back, though, and thought about how to best make them pointy, so he started with whimsy and worked his way up to dynamite.
I think he struggles with a problem I have: one-track-mindedness.
It is an oligarchy. That's completely accurate. It's not a bad oligarchy, compared to Chicago, but it isn't an open system.
Bruce Hayden: I agree with what you wrote, but this passage from the editorial reads like standard left-wing boilerplate, suggesting to me that the writer is indeed a leftie--maybe one of those lefties that can be found in Jackson Hole:
"More over those same five justices drove another nail in the coffin when they gutted the voting rights act. Now the Republicans around the nation are laboring tirelessly to keep many average citizens from voting."
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