Outside money inside The Big Empty

I recently participated in a panel discussion in Lander focusing on problems we face in Wyoming and how to address them. There were 150 or so attendees from Lander and the surrounding environs in the audience, all well-behaved, engaged and curious. Pretty much anywhere you go in the Cowboy State to discuss the current political atmosphere these days, you can draw a standing-room-only crowd.

One of the questions asked of the panel was, and I’ll paraphrase, “How do we fight the influence of all the outside money pouring into Wyoming, trying to change the state we love?” That is certainly a valid question, and heads nodded throughout the audience when it was asked. Nobody wants to see outsiders shoving their weight around in the Big Empty just because they have wads of cash in their out-of-state bank accounts.

I think I shocked the crowd when it came my turn to answer, and I said, “Wyoming has NEVER been free from the influence of outside money.”

If you don’t believe that statement, go to your bookshelf, and pull down that dusty old copy of T.A. Larson’s “History of Wyoming” (and we’ll all tip our Stetsons when Larson’s name is mentioned) and re-read his definitive work. You’ll see for yourself that Wyoming has never been immune from the effects of outside money. Never!

Furthermore, why would we want to look down our sunburned noses at outside money? It is precisely what made our state what it is today.

If anyone had reason to look askance at the influence of outside money, it was the Native American tribes who watched pale-faced mountain men traipsing up and down frigid mountain streams in search of beaver pelts. The fur industry was Wyoming’s first lucrative commercial enterprise, and it was funded by outside corporate interests — the American Fur Company, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The next splash of outside money capitalized Wyoming’s hardrock mining industry, first in the South Pass gold fields, and later the copper bonanza in the Sierra Madre. Enough of the profits stayed in Wyoming to create local wealth, but most of it was deposited in the financial institutions of the Great Elsewhere.

Outside money from Texas and Great Britain created the range livestock industry, and gave our state its namesake cowboy. The cattle industry is still the most culturally significant part of Wyoming’s past, but it was never homegrown. It came about due to the influence of outside money.

The same offshore capital built the Union Pacific Railroad through our southern counties. That benchmark project was light-years beyond the means of local Wyoming capital, so out-of-state interests stepped up with shady schemes like Crédit Mobilier to get the thing built. That infusion of non-Wyoming money yielded lasting results that still influence Wyoming today.

Pennsylvania wildcatter Mike Murphy drilled the first producing well in Wyoming’s oil patch, and his discovery was quickly followed up by national oil companies that perforated our state to extract her wealth. Our coal industry too, which began to fuel non-resident-owned locomotives, is now dominated by out-of-state corporations.

Today’s emerging industries, from “green” energy to massive data centers, all owe their beginnings to outside money. Simply put, Wyoming would not exist without “outside money” as much as we would like to think otherwise.

Now, perhaps the question posed to the panel was directed specifically at the flood of “outside money” flowing into our state to influence our political thinking. That is a different kettle of fish (or money) entirely.

Lord knows there is plenty of it buying political ads, putting up billboards and packing our mailboxes full of garishly offensive flyers. It represents a tsunami of bullshit and, make no mistake, it originates from every point on the political spectrum.

The motive behind this mountain of dough is not profit, but power. And it is protected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in “Citizens United”, which concludes that money equals free speech, covered by the First Amendment.

As I told the audience in Lander, the best way to insulate ourselves from this corrosive outside money is for every Wyomingite to make sure that their personal bullshit detector is fully charged and the filter is routinely cleaned. Our best defense against the caustic effects of this outside political money is to simply not believe what it says. That is something each and every one of us can do.

A better understanding of our own Wyoming history would help, too.