“The best argument against democracy,” said Winston
Churchill, “is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Sometimes I
wonder why it took him that long. There are other times I think he had it
wrong. The 2018 election produced evidence to both uphold Churchill’s claim and
to debunk it.
As Congress and the Wyoming legislature swears in their
newly-elected members, it’s fair to note that some of our fellow Americans used
their sacred right to vote in frightening ways. Two congressmen, campaigning
while free on bail, received a majority of the votes in their districts. Other voters
chose the deceased owner of a Nevada brothel. A handful of Iowa voters
re-elected a racist congressman his own party condemned.
Around the country, some voters were more thoughtfully democratic,
electing a Muslim and the first female Native Americans to Congress. Coloradoans
chose an openly gay governor, another state elected a bisexual woman to the
governorship, one reelected a lesbian to the Senate. Minnesota voters sent a one-time
Somali refugee, now U.S. citizen, to Washington. Texans chose the first
Hispanic women to represent them in Washington. Across the country a record
number of women won elections.
Churchill should have conversations with Wyoming’s bold
voters who used their ballot to make our legislature look more egalitarian,
representing the state’s great diversity. While candidates who succeed here
typically represent rural, white, conservative Christian values, the state is
more diverse than that. Now the state legislature is.
Teton County voters elected Mike Yin, the state’s first
Chinese-American lawmaker. Representative-elect Yin says he will use his
position to represent the state’s racial minorities and, as he told the Casper
Star-Tribune, to “say that there are other people besides Caucasian-Americans”
in the Equality State. That is a welcomed message among the totality of the composite
of citizens who actually live, work, and raise families in Wyoming.
Fremont County voters crossed over from the white side of
the ballot, electing a Native American woman. Andi Clifford was raised on the
Wind River Reservation and, importantly, continues to work there, serving its
people’s needs. Representative-elect Clifford will offer a thoughtful voice as
she educates colleagues on the urgent, often overlooked obligations of the
state to the reservation.
Perhaps the most improbable 2018 winner was Sara Burlingame.
Sara is one of Wyoming’s most effective, eloquent advocates for gays, lesbians,
bisexual and transgender citizens.
Wyoming has steadfastly refused to join 46 other states in
passing hate crimes legislation. The state legislature is a place where
proposals making it illegal to discriminate against citizens based on sexual
identification go to die and be ridiculed. A majority of the Legislature’s
Management Council recently voted to strip LGBTQ citizens protection from
discrimination.
Those whom the legislature marginalizes have a voice now that
the executive director of Wyoming Equality is State Representative Sara
Burlingame.
Sara’s heart for compromise leads her to seek understanding
rather than conflict on the most difficult issues. She won a seat in the House
because of her ability to develop personal relationships.
She listens. Because of that, she will be able to open the
hearts and minds of LGBTQ opponents to an understanding of the suffering of the
marginalized, particularly Wyoming youth, who often struggle on the margins of
life, suffering rejection from family and bullying from classmates.
Sara’s kindness combines a deep appreciation of differences with
the use good information, rather than sheer emotion, to bring others along on
difficult issues. Before her first 40-day session ends, she will soften the
hearts of the most of her ardent anti-gay colleagues.
Because Representatives Kim, Clifford, and Burlingame are
there, legislators and their constituents will meet people they know only
through stereotypes. They will have an opportunity to consider arguments, and
information to which most of them were never exposed. These Representatives will
leave their marks on a conservative legislature not known for its appreciation
of Wyoming’s diversity.
To paraphrase Churchill, the best argument for democracy is
a five-minute conversation with the voters who chose these three freshmen
legislators.
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