I had the honor last Thursday evening of being the dinner keynote guest speaker at the Wyoming State Bar meeting. Some family and friends wondered how I would be received, since I would not hide my Democratic Party loyalty and my progressive views on most issues. After all, Wyoming voters gave Donald Trump the highest popular vote percentage, at 69.9%, of any state in the 2020 presidential election. I wondered, too, how I would be received.

But we should not have worried.

I learned instead that I had much in common with the warm and friendly audience at the Wyoming bar dinner. I saw this clearly in reaction to one of my favorite true stories about my two old friends from my seven years at Yale: George W. Bush, who was my fraternity brother while we were both undergraduates; and Bill Clinton, whom I first met shortly after I graduated from Yale Law School in 1970.  

I described one day that I experienced in the White House – June 24, 2004. I was in attendance at the official unveiling of the White House portraits of President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton, presided over by President George W. Bush and his wonderful wife, Laura. 

The sunny historic East Room was largely divided into two sides – with ardent pro-Clinton staff alumni and friends on one side and pro-Bush, largely anti-Clinton staffers on the other.

Bush began from the podium saying: “President and Senator Clinton, welcome home. … Over eight years … [you] filled this house with energy and joy. … My congratulations to you both.” When it was Mr. Clinton’s turn at the podium, he said, unforgettably: 

“The president, by his generous words to Hillary and me today, has proved once again that, in the end, we are held together by this grand system of ours that permits us to debate and struggle and fight for what we believe is right. … And I hope that I’ll live long enough to see American politics return to vigorous debate where we argue who’s right and wrong, not who’s good and bad.”

Suddenly, forgetting their political differences, both sides of the East Room instantly jumped to their feet and gave a thunderous ovation. President Bush stood up in the audience and gave his predecessor a virtual fist bump. Clinton returned the gesture. And the applause was even louder.

The reaction to that story among the largely pro-Trump audience in Wyoming was just as enthusiastic and warm. Another source of commonality was a willingness to be intellectually honest and consistent about constitutional principles. 

For example, I mentioned in my speech that I was disappointed in the 2022 Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to overturn Roe v. Wade, holding that there was no U.S. constitutional right to an abortion and, instead, that such policy should be left to small “d” democracy at the state government level.

Afterwards, several anti-abortion members of the audience told me they supported a national ban on abortions by Congress. But, I asked: Wasn’t that inconsistent with the Dobbs decision, which valued state governments making that decision vs. an exercise of federal mandatory powers?

I was surprised at the response by almost everyone: “You have a point, Mr. Davis.”

Finally, I was heartened by the reminder that the decency instincts were still prevalent regardless of preferences to vote for Trump over Biden. Almost every Trump voter I met volunteered that they didn’t like Trump’s personal attacks or his demonization of anyone who opposed him. They just didn’t like Mr. Biden’s or the national Democratic Party’s over-reliance on big government in Washington telling them what to do in Wyoming on too many issues.

I was reminded of Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural speech in 1861, predicting that the American people would ultimately be guided by the “better angels of our nature.” This reinforced my belief, held for a long time, that ultimately, with some exceptions, the decency vote in our great country will prevail. 

So thank you to the Wyoming State Bar and the friendly and fair audience that heard me speak for reminding me to continue to have faith in the decency vote. And to my fellow Democrats: We cannot give up on any red state voters, including Wyoming’s. We must talk to them, listen to them, respect them, and when we do, some day we might win them back.

Lanny Davis is the founder of the Washington, D.C., law firm, Lanny J. Davis & Associates. He is one of the first to use the concept of legal crisis management to solve client problems – operating at the intersection of law, media, and politics. He is a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton in 1996-98 and served on a privacy and civil liberties panel appointed by President George W. Bush. He has been writing his “Purple Nation” column for more than 13 years.

Reprint From Real Clear Politics –https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/09/11/wyoming_may_vote_dark_red_but_its_part_of_a_purple_nation_149741.html