THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 124, May 18, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
REVENGE OF THE "RULING CLASS"
By Christopher G. Adamo
POLITICS, GOVERNING ELITES, & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN A CONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC SUCH
AS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT & POLITICS AT THE NATIONAL, STATE, & LOCAL
LEVELS -- WHAT IS THE KEY TO RESTORATION OF THE GREATNESS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY & THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC?
HOW SHOULD WE REGARD THOSE WHO STRIVE AGAINST THIS GOAL? WYOMING STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS -- THE
WYOMING REPUBLICAN PARTY -- THE RULING ELITE IN WYOMING -- THE CONFLICTING ATTITUDES OF ASPIRING POWER
BROKERS PITTED AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE ULTIMATELY FORCED TO LIVE UNDER THE LAWS & REGULATIONS IMPOSED
ON THEM -- HOW THE REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT DIFFERS FROM THE CONSERVATIVE GRASSROOTS ACROSS AMERICA
FULL STORY:
On May 10, 2011 a Wyoming grassroots organization created a political firestorm within the State’s Republican Party by
sending an e-mail to its officeholders that asked two highly inflammatory questions, along with a declaration of its
intentions to publicize any responses to those questions. Furthermore, having dealt for years with the standard Liberal
tactic of officials who dodged queries of this type by simply ignoring them, the organization also advised recipients that
non-responses would be regarded as negatives.
The reactions from within the Wyoming Republican Party were immediate and furious. Some Republicans accused the
grassroots political organization of engaging in “bullying and intimidation,” while others threatened legal action against
it. Still others, straining the boundaries of credibility and severing any tenuous ties with reality, asserted that the
organization was engaged in some manner of moneymaking scheme and that the letter was an integral part of it.
So just what was the nature and motivation of this insidious organization? And what were the provocative and malicious
questions that caused all of the uproar? “WyWatch,” the group that undertook this evaluation of the condition of the
Wyoming GOP, is a totally volunteer organization of citizens who have become concerned with the degradation of their
society, and the seeming inability of their State’s ostensibly “Conservative” government to forestall or reverse this
ongoing decay.
As to the questions, in their entirety they were “Do you agree that the [Wyoming Republican] Party platform establishes
terms under which elected and appointed officials exercise their power?” and “Do you agree with the principles
enumerated in the Party Platform?” Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the correspondence contained a space in which
respondents could elaborate on their sentiments, whether in support of or opposition to the questions.
While some who received the e-mail did indeed merely answer the questions in the affirmative or state their contentions
with certain concepts suggested therein, others clearly construed a mere request for information regarding their personal
stances as an affront and an outrage, whereupon they caterwauled their opposition to it.
Though seemingly an isolated event in a single low population state, it would be wise for the Conservative grassroots
across America to take note of this occurrence and recognize its ramifications for the rest of the nation. As the nation
undergoes the current political upheaval, similar incidents are unfolding in a thousand different settings from one coast
to the other, all bearing witness to the same set of conflicting attitudes among aspiring power brokers pitted against
those who are ultimately forced to live under the laws and regulations imposed on them.
Once one wades past all of the hysteria, it becomes apparent that the single element of the WyWatch inquiry which
generated so much resentment was its demand for accountability. For years, public officials in the Cowboy State have
remained relatively unaccountable to the citizenry, with the sole exception being a necessity to steer clear of any frontal
attacks on the Second Amendment. But apart from that, a wholly self-serving and autocratic Republican Party has
coalesced over the years, and has been relatively free to drift inexorably to the Left, delving ever deeper into bureaucratic
bloat and governing excess, all under the rubric of Wyoming being America’s “most Republican” (and presumably most
“Conservative”) state.
As a result, freedoms are regularly being encroached upon, and cultural norms are disappearing while the State
Legislature and the Executive Branch of the State Government fritter and chatter. Wyoming is now one of only two states
west of New York that has no defense of marriage statute on the books. And State Government spending per capita is
among the highest in the nation, with no consideration of any serious effort to reverse the trend. Over the years, the State
Legislature has, instead, seen fit to studiously protect the public from the horrendous and burgeoning menace posed by
whole milk taken from privately owned cows.
No doubt, those at the “inner circles” of power in Wyoming had expected their unchecked revelry to continue indefinitely.
Private citizens are expected to put out the yard signs when instructed to do so, and on the appointed days go blindly into
the voting booths and pull the lever with the “R” next to it, no questions asked. But, with the advent of such organizations
as WyWatch, the prospects of a future so devoid of accountability is definitely in jeopardy.
Back in Washington, D.C., the same mindset can be observed among the Republican “establishment,” albeit on a much
grander scale. Last Fall, in one of the biggest electoral upheavals in U.S. history, Congress was returned to Republican
hands as a direct result of Tea Party fervency and devotion to the cause of rescuing America. But now its time for the
peasantry to sit back and leave those newly empowered professionals in the U.S. House of Representatives to carry on
their business as usual, continuing the funding of Obamacare, accepting the Democrats’ new baseline of trillion dollar
budget deficits and, in a sad likelihood, raising the nation’s debt ceiling to whatever point Obama and his minions find
comfortable.
For some, the elections of 2011 were the opening shots in a battle for the future of America. To others, however, they
merely represented a high water mark in the political ebb and flow that occasionally favors one side and then, often
capriciously, shifts to the other.
This time, far too much is at stake to accept such a cavalier assessment of the nation’s precarious condition. Definitively
constitutional questions are being juggled by courts with outcomes entirely determined by the political leanings of judges
and the ideologies of the particular Presidents who appointed them. Boundaries on political activity are no longer
constrained by the quaint precepts of the “rule of law,” but are instead imposed or ignored as a direct result of their
benefit or liability to the current administration and its lackeys at the Department of “Justice.”
Accountability for all political officeholders, from the national down to the local level in the smallest townships, is key to
any restoration of the greatness of America. And those who strive against it, regardless of the party affiliation they find
most convenient, must be relegated to the ranks of “unfit” to hold office, whether they be wolves in sheep’s clothing, or
are merely naive and sufficiently unprincipled to sacrifice their core values for a proverbial “place at the table.”
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government -- State Government & Politics
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, Special Interest Groups, & Political Corruption
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a resident of southeastern Wyoming. He has been involved in politics at the local and state level
for many years. His contact information and article archives can be found at www.chrisadamo.com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity