OPINION
Readers of the Open Range Record may recall a previous article of mine in which I described a “totally out of the box” idea as to how to prevent the election of Eric Barlow to the Wyoming governorship. Half tongue-in-cheek I broached the idea of what might happen if all the conservative Republicans who had voted for either Brent Bien or Megan Deggenfelder now voted, along with the “crossover” Democrats, for the Democrat candidate, Mr. Casner.
In a Facebook page discussion involving the gubernatorial election, I reminded a poster about the slim chances a third-party candidate usually has in elections based on electoral history. I concluded the post with a line to the effect that there is another way (the one I had previously alluded to about voting for the Democrat) and added, “think about it.”
Well, apparently this was too much for one poster who then apparently contacted a Wyoming governmental agency to report my post (described above) as a “potential threat.” An official from this agency called me just the other day (weeks after the FB posting alluded to above) about the matter and apparently clearly understood that I had in no way even peripherally made a threat to anyone.
After this incident, I began to think about it and realized that this matter, while ludicrous on its face, was itself a clear indication of how far our society has wandered into the weeds of citizens having to walk on eggshells for fear of “offending” those who might disagree with ideas or positions they now somehow perceive as “dangerous” or “threatening.”
It reminded me of how close America came during the so-called “Biden Administration” to adopting governmental policies intended not only to stifle free speech, but actually to punish it. Recent congressional hearings have revealed the fact that a “special prosecutor” (Jack Smith) was found to have issued surveillance warrants on a host of Republican congressional representatives and senators. The reason seems to have been entirely based on political and ideological grounds.
Imagine what might well have happened had Kamala Harris been elected president in 2024. The outrageous censorship of conservative politicians and even people donating to Republican candidates and, believe it or not, just wearing MAGA hats, would likely have intensified to a very dangerous point.
This approach to dealing with people’s freedoms of speech and association is reminiscent of actions of the Soviet KGB and the East German Stasi where government decided who could say and do what. In this regard, Americans would likely be wise to carefully consider whom to support in the upcoming midterm elections.
Being “offended” might already be a crime in Great Britain and Canada, but do we really want or deserve such lunacy in a country founded on personal liberty and God-given rights? Wisdom would seem to suggest that the answer to that is a resounding NO.