CHEYENNE — When former Wyoming lawmaker Rodger McDaniel wrote the story of former U.S. Sen. Lester Hunt’s death, it was a story that hadn’t been told before.
The story is one of suicide, blackmail and how divisive politics permanently changed the lives of a Wyoming politician’s family.
“When I wrote the book ‘Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins,’ very few people knew (the story),” McDaniel told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “They were shocked to learn that there was a time in Wyoming history when politics was so divisive that it resulted in a suicide of a very popular Wyoming politician.”
Politics has taken “a circular path” back to the McCarthy era under former President Donald Trump, McDaniel said. Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., was popular in Wyoming, and he often accused his political opponents of being communists. In the 1950s, the John Birch Society was a right-wing group that had a “heavy influence” in Wyoming, McDaniel said.

“There was kind of a lull in right-wing extremism in Wyoming until 2016,” McDaniel said. “And Trump has reignited that to what we have today and with the influence of things like the Freedom Caucus and Moms for Liberty.”
The future of America’s democracy is dim, in McDaniel’s eyes. Whether Trump wins the presidency again or loses, McDaniel could only describe a bleak future.
“If (Trump) wins, he’s made it clear that he intends to do great harm to democratic institutions. And if he loses, he will lead the country through what we went through after 2020. Maybe more violence, political violence, certainly a period of time that’ll stress democratic institutions to their limits.”
Groups such as the Freedom Caucus and Moms for Liberty have brought national issues into Wyoming, such as book ban policies in schools and heavier voting rules that restrict people’s ability to vote in elections.
“Do we trust librarians, whom we’ve always trusted?” McDaniel said. “Do we trust that the county clerks will operate a fair and free election?”
He said it all boils down to voter participation.
“There’s really nobody else who can save us from ourselves,” McDaniel said. “There’s no alternative for better-informed voters with more integrity.”