Kaleb Poor
Speaking in the Ag auditorium, Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) delivered his address titled “Socialism Sucks: and the Defense of Capitalism to Save our Republic” Thurs. night, which focused largely on the failures of socialist government in Venezuela and Biteman’s support for capitalism and “rugged individualism.”
“Are we going to stick with free market capitalism, or are we going to drift toward socialism?” Biteman said in his opening lines. “When you hear ‘democratic socialism,’ all you’re doing is voting for communism because that’s where it’s going to end up.”
The speech was rife with factual inaccuracies and divisive rhetoric. Biteman referred to liberals and Democrats as “lefties” in his presentation and referred to socialist countries as “hellholes.” Additionally, Biteman mused that young people are more supportive of left-leaning policies because they have “lived most of their lives in peacetime.” That is despite the fact that the longest-running military conflict in U.S. history – the war in Afghanistan – began in 2003 and is still ongoing.
“I think a lot of that has to do with what we see with kids wanting socialism,” said Biteman. “There’s a lot of envy going on, there’s a lot of class warfare stoked by the media and stoked by politicians to get votes, pitting one American against another.”
Later in his speech, Biteman displayed a visual which he said to have made himself. The visual depicted a photoshopped tick embedded in human skin, which he said represented the relationship between capitalists and socialists.
“Here’s my sweet little drawing I made last night,” said Biteman. “The capitalist is the dude, and the tick is the socialist. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”
Biteman also said countries with more social welfare programs, like Sweden, would be incapable of providing modern healthcare without the United States’ capitalist economy because “Sweden hasn’t invented anything since Ikea.”
Among the innovations created by Swedes are the artificial pacemaker, a heart rate regulating device used by millions worldwide, the three-point seatbelt used in all mass-produced American vehicles and the zipper. Pacemakers alone are embedded in roughly 600,000 patients every year, according to the Swedish Institute.
Biteman said he also blamed high healthcare costs, low wages and the rising cost of education on government interference in free markets, which he sees as socialist behavior.
“Is more government the answer?” Biteman asked. “They already screwed up healthcare, the VA [Veteran Affairs], higher education and the healthcare system. Why not screw up the rest of the economy?”
At one point in his speech, Biteman said a country must have “virtue” and “faith” to achieve “freedom.”
“I don’t know where the breakdown is. You know, the United States is a judeo-Christian based society since our founding. Back in the 1600s, 1700s, faith was very important,” Biteman said when asked where countries fall short. “If you don’t believe in a higher power and you don’t have that virtue, it’s very hard to, just to have the Ten Commandments come out of nowhere.”
Perhaps most notably, Biteman delivered a warning about American embrace of socialism, where he said the following:
“It’s liberty versus tyranny. I’d rather be dead than red, and there are a million Americans like me who would rather be dead than live under the tyranny of socialism. I do not want my kids to suffer like they are in Venezuela. I will fight to the death to prevent that happening. Want to see another Civil War? Try instituting communism in America.”
While taking questions from the audience, Biteman was asked about the failing fossil fuel industry in Wyoming.
“You’ve got Washington, California and Oregon completely dictating our energy policy. They won’t let us ship coal out of Washington, they’re trying to put coal out of business by not burning coal in their power plants even though it’s safe and reliable and everything else, we have clean coal here,” said Biteman, who does not believe in climate change. “We’re pretty much subsidizing our slitting of our own throats, basically… just so the liberals in California can feel better about themselves because they think they’re going to fight climate change.”
Biteman was later asked whether he believed that divisive rhetoric was a threat to the Republic, to which he answered that he did. He was then read back some of his statements that evening, including part of the one above, and was asked if his rhetoric that evening could be called divisive. This was his response:
“My point is, there’s millions of Americans who will never give up their freedom. That’s a fact. That’s not divisive rhetoric. I’m one of ‘em. I was speaking from the heart, I will die for my kids’ freedom. You come to try to take my property from me, you’re going to be met at the end of a gun, sorry. That’s just the American way.”
Biteman was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 2016, representing House District 51 before moving to the Senate in 2018. Biteman won the election with 5,125 votes, (64.5%) and is not up for re-election until 2022.
A fierce supporter of President Trump and an advocate for far right-leaning convervative policies, Biteman has received a 90% favorability rating on wyorino.com, an anonymously-run site that ranks Wyoming’s Republican lawmakers by party loyalty.
“What are you so afraid of?” Biteman asked while taking questions. “Are you so afraid of hearing something that might upset you that you can’t take it and you’ve got to shut it down? So scary. How can we have a functioning Republic if we can’t debate ideas freely? And shouting people down, completely trying to censor people, it’s terrible.”
