Dear Editor:
    
The GOP calls itself the ‘Values Party’. Their candidates eagerly attend the Value Voters Summit and CPAC every year, touting their support for ‘values.’  Now, nearly a year into an all-GOP led government, what have they shown to be their guiding values?
n Character doesn’t matter:  With the election of Trump - a man who publicly and boastfully cheated on both of his previous wives, cheated investors, vendors and employees, and boasted about not paying taxes – we learn that character isn’t important. Also note the support by evangelical Christians for credibly accused pedophile Roy Moore, a man who thinks his religion is supreme to the constitution, something for which he was twice ousted from the Alabama Supreme Court when he refused to obey the law of the land.
n Rewarding donors is priority #1: With their tax bill, they prove their priority is to do the bidding of their donors rather than the will of the voters.  Ultra-wealthy donors are getting nearly a 100% return on their investments in Wyoming politicians.

n Corporations are super-people: ‘Corporations are people, too,” but somehow, they get special and permanent tax breaks. while actual – real – humans only get them for a few years.
n Poor and sick people deserve their lot in life: Somehow luck and opportunity are ignored because people who drew lousy cards in the life game are somehow deserving of their fate and wicked for asking for assistance from their fellow citizens. Hungry kids, old and disabled people should instead beg for help from churches or neighbors.
n Science is irrelevant: Despite towers of evidence showing human responsibility for altering the climate, the GOP dismisses it all in their thrall to the petro and coal dollars that fill their campaign coffers. Economic data showing the ineffectiveness of supply-side theories is tossed in the trash heap while they shower tax dollars on the wealthiest. Meanwhile public education is discouraged and defunded.
n Truth doesn’t matter as long as you get what you want: All the fact-checking outlets agree: Trump lies. He lies a lot, an average of 6.6 public whoppers per day.  See also the previous ‘value’ about disregarding evidence.
Are these the values of Wyoming? Not in the Wyoming I know; we’re far better than that.

Marci Shaver
Torrington