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Dear Editor:
Whenever I hear Gov. Mark Gordon or any other elected official use the term “personal responsibility,” I think of it as shorthand for “There are no rules. Or if …
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Dear Editor:
Whenever I hear Gov. Mark Gordon or any other elected official use the term “personal responsibility,” I think of it as shorthand for “There are no rules. Or if there are they won’t be enforced.” It amounts to the same thing.
In a State of the State speech riddled with misdirection and misinformation, one of the most disingenuous statements I heard the governor make was about how he goes to bed at night praying for the more than 670 Wyoming citizens dead from Covid-19 and their families, wondering what he could have done better to prevent this horrendous catastrophe. The answer is simple: He could have instituted some rules and enforced them. Officials have responsibility, too. Isn’t that why we elect them?
As lax as Wyoming has been in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m frankly surprised the death toll is as low as it is. Wyoming has been lucky.
Republicans generally seem to be opposed to rules. A favorite theme, deregulation, is by definition the elimination of rules — an odd stance for a party paying lip-service to the Constitution, which is essentially nothing more than a rule book. I’m reminded of one interpretation of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Of course, if there are no rules one can’t be accused of cheating …
The Texas power grid as it exists was created so that Texas wouldn’t have to abide by federal regulations overseeing power grids. “That really worked out well,” this writer comments sarcastically.
America has just endured four years of a president that openly flouted rules and norms, culminating in a mob that felt empowered to break rules to such an extreme as to cause death and destruction — which, I might add, is a predictable result of breaking certain rules.
For those of your readers who are still under the impression that it was the Biden candidacy who broke the rules, I would remind them that, in fact, over 60 failed court cases and a number of Republican election officials prove otherwise. Meanwhile, I have yet to hear of any suspects charged with crimes committed during the insurrection of Jan. 6 say “Yes, I did that. I’d do it again!”
So much for accepting personal responsibility.
Phil Anthony
Powell
