Op-Ed: Conservatives are getting tired of being right

Whenever conservatives in the Wyoming House push back against the destructive policies coming from Washington D.C., we are told that we can’t question the feds. When we fought in February to protect Wyoming parents from the “social transitioning” of their children while at school, we were told “that isn’t happening here.” When we tried to protect state and national security interests by preventing agricultural land from being acquired by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other state sponsors of terror, we were told that our fears of hostile enemies buying up our land were unfounded.

Conservatives are getting tired of being right about such terrible things, and it appears that others in the Wyoming Legislature are getting tired of being wrong.

First, representatives who laughed at the idea of an oppressive federal government on the House Floor are now calling on Biden’s Bureau of Land Management to give up its plan to lock humans out of millions of acres of “public land” in Southwest Wyoming. Secondly, after allegations of a Wyoming school district referring to a student by transgender pronouns without informing the student’s parents, legislators are scrambling to protect parental rights in education. All this, despite killing a measure that would have protected these rights just a few months ago.

This week it was revealed by the New York Times that federal intelligence agencies are closely monitoring a Chinese bitcoin mining operation located one mile from F.E. Warren Air Force Base. This base in Cheyenne is one of three strategic missile bases in the U.S. The operation is owned by a series of shell companies, typical of CCP-run operations of this nature.

If the same intelligence agencies who allowed a CCP spy balloon to travel over the continental United States unimpeded find an operation like the one in Cheyenne worthy of monitoring, we should all be concerned.

It is not just Wyoming. Intelligence agencies are monitoring similar entities all over the country. In Arkansas, a CCP entity under federal monitoring was just ordered to divest itself of agricultural land in the state by Governor Huckabee Sanders.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do in Wyoming. Members of the Uniparty have left us defenseless to this kind of encroachment by dangerous entities by killing two bills aimed at preventing our land from being purchased by the CCP.

Prior to 2023, 14 states had legislation on the books banning foreign ownership of certain types of land. Last year, 10 more states (including Arkansas) joined the effort to protect themselves and the nation- but not Wyoming.

We are getting tired of being right about such terrible things. Hopefully, by the time the next legislative session arrives, fellow lawmakers will debate policy for what it is rather than dismissing bills outright based on who brings them.

Representative John Bear is from House District 31 and is the Chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Representative Pepper Ottman is from House District 34 and is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.