“Gomer” is cowboy slang for a castrated bull, a steer. Gomers are turned out in a cow herd a week or so before breeding season. They have all the bullish instincts, but they can’t do anything about it. They chase cows around, bellow, throw slobber and snot, paw the dust, dry-mount the cows and bother them with their fake masculinity until the whole herd comes into heat and are ready for the bulls to do the real work.
Opinion
After turning gomers into the cow herd, cowboys often sit astraddle their horses and watch the frenzied ineptitude as the neutered beasts try to do something for which they are uniquely unqualified and unequipped. It’s always good for a laugh. Gomers can’t get the job done, but they raise the excitement level in the herd to unfulfilled heights.
Just like the “Freedom” Caucus.
The most recent display of gomeristic behavior was presented to us by Rep. Chris Knapp, a card-carrying member of the “Freedom” Caucus from Gillette. Here’s what happened.
Tom Lubnau, former speaker of the Wyoming House, who has 40 years of experience on the subject, was invited to address the Legislature’s Joint Corporations Committee on Aug. 15, as the committee worked on amendments to the Wyoming Public Records Act. Tom was willing to share his thoughts, and try to make the committee’s work better.
Tom is also a fine columnist for Cowboy State Daily.
Knapp, a Republican co-chair of the committee, pitched a hissy fit over Lubnau’s appearance, whining that Tom had written unkind things about legislators in his column. Knapp worried that things would get “out of hand” and that some politician’s feelings would be hurt, and succeeded in having Lubnau booted from the agenda.
To use another barnyard term, this was a chickenshit move.
Knapp’s childish tantrum affirms that, among the freedoms that the “Freedom’” Caucus pretends to cherish, our First Amendment freedoms of speech and petitioning the government are strangely absent.
It also ignores Plank 22 of the Wyoming Republican Party platform, which states, “Freedom of speech is a fundamental right secured by the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Wyoming. Freedom of speech includes the freedom of the individual to express his or her beliefs, ideas and opinions without fear of retaliation, censorship or legal sanction by government.”
Tell me, with a straight face, that Tom’s treatment was anything other than retaliation.
Knapp and his ilk would rather silence citizens than risk having their feathers ruffled by someone criticizing them. That is a succinct definition of political cowardice.
And it’s par for the course, given the “Freedom” Caucus’ record of promising great things while delivering only punch lines for political jokes.
Hints of this political impotence have been evident for quite some time. A couple of years ago, Rep. John Bear (at the time the Exalted Grand Poobah of the “Freedom” Caucus and self-styled champion of grassroots Wyoming) wondered aloud during a legislative debate whether small Wyoming towns should even exist, instead of just drying up and blowing away. In retrospect, that hint was prescient.
Fast forward to today, past the litany of “Freedom” Caucus faux pas and stumbles, and we have Knapp’s boneheaded political face-plant.
At the time Knapp pawed the dust, slung snot bubbles and demanded Lubnau’s 86-ing from the Joint Corporations agenda, his co-chair on the Senate side and fellow Republican, Cale Case, warned (and I paraphrase) “OK, have it your way, buckaroo. But things won’t turn out like you expect. This will have traction.”
Knapp should have heeded Case’s advice, because he has experience and legislative wisdom light-years beyond Knapp’s.
Perhaps Knapp was relying on the “Freedom” Caucus’ oft-employed tactic when one of their own does something stupid. They circle the wagons around their embarrassed colleague, excuse the miscreant’s stupidity and call everyone else RINOs.
It’s really difficult to gin up any respect for politicians like Knapp and Bear when they can’t keep their feet out of their mouths. The closest corollary I can come up with is gomers.
And that presents the rest of Wyoming with the question of what to do about these gomers. The answer, from where I sit on my horse watching their goofiness, is to remove them from the herd. We put ‘em in there, and we can take ‘em out.
If Wyoming citizens are as sick and tired of their toxicity as I am, no “Freedom” Caucus incumbent should enjoy the comfort of an uncontested primary in the next election. Nor should they receive a single vote or dollar from any citizen of the Big Empty who truly loves their state.
It will take money, time and effort on our part to cull the gomers from our herd. But if we can get it done, we’ll have a productive ranch again.
A “gomer” is a bull which still has testicles but the penis has been disabled so that it cannot inseminate a cow, no matter how hard it tries (mounting and breathing hard without penetration). Breeders use a gomer bull with a chin ball paint marker to mark cows which are in heat, then they bring the cows in the barn for Artificial Insemination. I think that the analogy still works for people like Chris Knapp and John Bear. They are trying to screw us but they mainly screw up.
Very well said! I respect your flare for words!
Fine work with the emasculator Rod. Appreciate your steady hand and the keen edge on your razor. It has been painful to watch as these sad sacks chew their own off. Takes all the fun out of a good nut fry.
We only used the culled as gomers, the ones whose genes surely were unworthy of being passed down. Seems like you nailed it, again!
Another great piece Rod.
I was born and raised in Wyoming and everytime I read something that you’ve written I tend to learn something new.
High praise for an excellent insight to the “Freedom” caucus. We live in times when it is more important than ever to find candidates who exhibit political courage.
Like so many, I am exhausted by the labels like “rinos” that pass for political discourse.
Legislators are tasked with challenges related to a functioning government. When the legislative process is highjacked by extremism, everyone loses.
Yup. That takes care of the Gomers.
What are we gonna do about the Goobers …?
‘Gomer’ is an apt metaphor for membership in Wyoming’s ‘Freedom’ Caucus. However Gomers will only try to silence Mr. Miller, if they understand the metaphor. Thanks again to Rod’s enlightened use of free speech.
Very apt description of the “freedom” caucus. I sincerely hope that the Wyoming people open their eyes to what this lunatic bunch of control freaks represent.
There ever tightening circle of who is repressive enough to be in their club would be comical if it wasn’t so dangerous to democracy.
When you have the “freedom” caucus chair painting Eric Barlow as not a true conservative when he is a dyed in the wool traditional Wyoming Republican is a little much.
The Wyoming I grew up in left plenty of room for free thinking and being yourself. The “freedom” caucus wants us all to be one and the same: repressed and ignorant. Please as Rod said, “we put them in there so we can take them back out.” 2026!
Dave Gustafson
Like Kris said in the song: “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose, and nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free.” If the freedumb caucus were real cowboys the’d know what he meant. Real freedom was paid for with blood and sacrifice, given freely. You can’t sell it, you earn it. Instead, they think you should put a price on it, so if you’re homeless, gay, poor, or not a far-right white Christian, you are not welcome in Wyoming. Is it really Christian to point out the sliver in their neighbor’s eye, when they have a bridge plank sticking out of theirs?
Thank you, Rod Miller for the accuracy and clarity of your message. It is a uniquely Wyoming message. You reminded us RINO’s as defined by the Freedom Caucus are in reality a species whose numbers hopefully are increasing: Thinking Republicans. But let’s not blame Trump or the far right “conservatives” for our fractured political system. The problem is us. So many of us believe fealty to everything Trump is an expression of rugged Wyoming independence. Last election Wyoming gave Trump the highest vote percentage in the nation, and we seem equally happy to elect and reelect spineless members of congress. Are Wyoming voters ruggedly independent as we would like ourselves to believe, or are we just just excellent sheep? Baa! And the bleat goes on.
Well said.
Thanks for explaining that last part Charles.
Now I realize why I woke up with a hangover, having serious doubts about the mental abilities of my neighbors after the last election.
Boy you hit the nail on the head!
The freedom caucus is not about freedom but control.
The freedumb caucuses delicate sensibilities is only outweighed by the stupidity that they subscribe to.
How do these clowns still get support?
Because Wyo voters don’t look past the “R” on the ballot.
This is PRICELESS! I was calling him a “Snowflake”, but “Gomer” is so much more apt.
Yet if people don’t vote the gomers will win again. Thanks Rod.
This is the key. The responsibility is ours to get the vote out for the primary. I was shocked when I saw the numbers from the last election.
Exactly
Terrific piece of work. Your point in regard to freedom of speech makes it clear that the freedom caucus clearly does more t believe in free speech. Perhaps they should more aptly be called the censorship caucus.
With so few Democrats and Independents elected, Wyoming’s future is indeed dim when legislative sessions have devolved into a struggle between the so-called RINOs and the Numb Nuts.
Interesting bovine reference to puffed up bloviating blowhard gasbags, but you might want to correct your definition of a gomer bull. Still an apt definition, as everybody knows what bulls are full of.
Great read. Spot on Rod!!!
Much respect to Rod Miller. He makes me miss the Big Empty.
An example of why steers should not be run with cows. The steers interfere with the bulls work
What a great analogy