Lawmakers weigh in on political extremism

CHEYENNE — When former Wyoming lawmaker Rodger McDaniel wrote the story of former U.S. Sen. Lester Hunt’s death, it was a story that hadn’t been told before.

The story is one of suicide, blackmail and how divisive politics permanently changed the lives of a Wyoming politician’s family.

“When I wrote the book ‘Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins,’ very few people knew (the story),” McDaniel told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “They were shocked to learn that there was a time in Wyoming history when politics was so divisive that it resulted in a suicide of a very popular Wyoming politician.”

Politics has taken “a circular path” back to the McCarthy era under former President Donald Trump, McDaniel said. Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., was popular in Wyoming, and he often accused his political opponents of being communists. In the 1950s, the John Birch Society was a right-wing group that had a “heavy influence” in Wyoming, McDaniel said.

“There was kind of a lull in right-wing extremism in Wyoming until 2016,” McDaniel said. “And Trump has reignited that to what we have today and with the influence of things like the Freedom Caucus and Moms for Liberty.”

The future of America’s democracy is dim, in McDaniel’s eyes. Whether Trump wins the presidency again or loses, McDaniel could only describe a bleak future.

“If (Trump) wins, he’s made it clear that he intends to do great harm to democratic institutions. And if he loses, he will lead the country through what we went through after 2020. Maybe more violence, political violence, certainly a period of time that’ll stress democratic institutions to their limits.”

Groups such as the Freedom Caucus and Moms for Liberty have brought national issues into Wyoming, such as book ban policies in schools and heavier voting rules that restrict people’s ability to vote in elections.

“Do we trust librarians, whom we’ve always trusted?” McDaniel said. “Do we trust that the county clerks will operate a fair and free election?”

He said it all boils down to voter participation.

“There’s really nobody else who can save us from ourselves,” McDaniel said. “There’s no alternative for better-informed voters with more integrity.”

Cycles of bad politics

When Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, invited lawmakers and former Wyoming governors to learn about Hunt’s story, he did so to make a point.

Hunt was a Democratic politician from Lander, who had a successful political career before he took his own life on June 19, 1954. He served as a Wyoming lawmaker, Wyoming secretary of state and was the first Wyoming governor to serve two terms.

Hunt was elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate in 1948, but announced by the end of his first term he would not seek reelection. The announcement on June 8, 1954, came after McCarthy threatened Hunt with blackmail to prevent him from seeking reelection. Eleven days later, Hunt died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his D.C. office.

“Politics doesn’t have to be a brutal contact sport,” Case said last Wednesday morning, during a special program in the Capitol. “In this brutal business of politics, your family is caught up in and victimized by the attacks that are made in the lack of civility.”

Hunt’s son, who is homosexual, was convicted of soliciting an undercover cop in a park. McCarthy used this as blackmail against Hunt to keep him from seeking a second term. Case said Hunt died to “release his family from bondage.”

In an interview after the program, Case told the WTE it was appropriate to remember the circumstances that led up to Hunt’s death.

“The U.S. Senate is almost as divided as it was back then,” Case said. “The opportunity presented by this anniversary, which mirrors the circumstances of the country, are as divisive as they were back then. We think it’s really bad now in politics. It was really, really, really bad back then.

“It was deadly bad.” Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, said politics goes in cycles, and any time it gets bad, it’s easy to think “it’s the worst.” Modern politics aren’t in a good place, Driskill said, “but it also is nowhere near the levels” it’s been in the past.

What helps move out of the discord and chaos of a bad election cycle, he added, is when people start to realize it and act for change accordingly.

“I think people are paying attention a little more now,” Driskill said.

Rep. John Bear, R-Lander, who chairs the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, told the WTE via email that Hunt’s death by his own hands was a “poor” decision, and that suicide is never the answer.

“As far as I know, he did not leave a note explaining his suicide,” Bear wrote. “Having lost a family member to suicide myself, I believe that the Senator made a poor choice. If he was, in fact, trying to save his son some grief, I believe he likely failed at that attempt. Suicide is never the best or even a good answer to the problems we face.”

Demonized Democrats, RINO Republicans

Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers said political attacks have resulted in an endless spew of name-calling.

Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, said some members of the Republican Party, but “by far not all,” have demonized Democrats to the point where it’s nearly impossible to hold a conversation with voters. When he goes door-to-door during a political campaign, Chestek said a voter will shut the door in his face as soon as he tells them he’s a Democrat.

“(Voters have) been told that Democrats are evil, that Democrats are Satanists, and we’re pedophiles, and whatever else,” Chestek said. “I wouldn’t even say it’s the majority of the Republicans or the majority of the voters, but there’s enough of them that we encounter them frequently. And it makes it hard to have a conversation with some people.”

Without specifically naming the group, Chestek said there is a faction in the Republican Party that “have tried their best to poison the well of public opinion against Democrats.” This same faction, he said, is also calling other Republicans RINOs.

RINO is an acronym for “Republican In Name Only” and is used to accuse other Republicans of being closeted Democrats and not staying true to Republican values. These attacks on political ideology have made it “very difficult to get things done in the Legislature,” Chestek said.

“The best decisions that a legislative body can make come after a robust and honest discussion and honest debate,” he said.

Bear told the WTE via email that “normal conservatives are routinely accused of being ‘dangerous,’ ‘far right’ and a ‘threat to democracy.’” “President Biden himself referred to over half of the country that way during the first presidential debate,” Bear said. “And a prominent liberal Republican in Natrona County even referred to grassroots conservatives as ‘cockroaches.’”

Driskill, who’s served in the Legislature since 2011, said he thinks Republican politicians are being intimidated by outside sources. A website called wyorino.com has been scoring Republican lawmakers since 2019 to “expose liberal Wyoming Republicans who violate our Wyoming Republican values.”

Each month, a new lawmaker is declared RINO of the Month. Driskill has been named RINO of the Month three times. The Senate president said a Republican shouldn’t be questioned in their political beliefs just because they voted against a bill they disagreed with. The goal of these groups, Driskill said, is to intimidate lawmakers into “blindly following” their agenda through name-calling.

Freedom Caucus cold shoulder

Several Republican and Democratic Wyoming lawmakers told the WTE there has been a shift in focus from policy to political ideology, which has disrupted their ability to effectively legislate and address Wyoming issues.

Many of them pointed fingers at the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. In response, Bear said an analysis of roll call votes in the Wyoming House showed “the 26 liberal Republicans and five Democrats vote more closely together than the 26 conservatives do.”

“The Freedom Caucus is frequently criticized by the Uniparty that we debate TOO MUCH and that we call for recorded votes TOO much,” Bear wrote. “You tell me which side is attempting to stifle discourse.”

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said representatives who are members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus refuse to collaborate with other lawmakers on policy issues. Zwonitzer said he’s reached out to Freedom Caucus members to co-sponsor three or four pieces of legislation, but it’s always a dead end.

Outside of cordial conversation, there’s no communication between other lawmakers and Freedom Caucus members when it comes to policy issues.

“We don’t talk about issues anymore,” Zwonitzer said. “There’s no reason to.”

Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, recalled her first time in the Legislature as a freshman lawmaker and said there had been a sense of camaraderie. People disagreed with each other, she said, but there was still a sense of companionship between lawmakers. Since then, that feeling “has kind of eroded,” she said.

“It’s probably the fact that I’m stuttering and having such difficulty with this tells you how difficult the situation is,” Provenza said. “And it shouldn’t be that way.”

Bear told the WTE via email that liberal Republican lawmakers are “voting against common-sense legislation based simply on the name at the top of the bill.” This is what he said creates polarization within the Republican Party.

A record number of committee- sponsored bills failed the introductory vote in the 2024 budget session, a WyoFile article reported, 13 of which died “at the hands of the Freedom Caucus.” In the article, Bear told WyoFile this was an effort by the group “to curb state government spending and bring government policy more in line with conservative values.”

“Why did we spend hours and hours of taxpayer money and staff time to bring these bills forward for them to be immediately defeated?” Zwonitzer said. “Even if you don’t like them, you should vote for and try to change them enough. That’s the process, historically. You don’t like a bill, the goal is to be ‘How can I make it better?’ But now the goal is to kill it as quickly as possible. No compromise.”

This lack of discourse and communication is felt in the Legislature’s upper chamber, according to Sens. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, and Driskill.

“In my short nine and a half years, I’ve really seen a change in the body,” Pappas said. “When I got in, it certainly was more civil. And it was more congenial. … I don’t think that the climate today reflects the generations of legislatures that were before us.”