In a state that calmly sent the same candidate to Congress three times before, this year safety and stability has become noticeably bad in Wyoming.

The incumbent candidate (Liz Cheney) received so many violent threats during her GOP primary campaign that even having a special protective detail wasn’t enough to allow her to speak or meet with voters.

Rep. Liz Cheney’s campaign (R-Wyo.) spent thousands of dollars on private security this year following death threats… according to a new report. Cheney’s campaign spent $58,000 on security from January to March, The New York Times reported Monday, citing Federal Election Commission records. She was also temporarily assigned special protection by Capitol Police while in Washington, D.C., a move the Times noted is unusual for a member of Congress not in a leadership position. The few public appearances Cheney has made in in her home state of Wyoming, where she has spent much of the recent congressional recess, have reportedly not been widely publicized beforehand for security reasons.

And here it is reported again, but this time note the amazing buried lede at the end of the quote.

Due to security concerns, the congresswoman has rarely campaigned in the state, and when she has, it has been so with little to no public notice ahead of time or after. When she has appeared, it has been with a noticeable security detail nearby… Cheney and Hageman do not differ significantly politically.

No real political differences between two candidates, yet one is violently threatened to block her from even speaking?

Threats from within the GOP to intentionally destroy the democratic process and replace it with violence? Sounds familiar to this historian, not least of all because some in the GOP have even dared to bring back “carpetbagger” rhetoric of the KKK to attack Liz Cheney (not so subtlety implying they want to murder her).

1868 political campaigns were literally rife with Americans accused of being “carpetbaggers” and threatened to either quit the election or be lynched by white men. The cover of this history book from the 1960s makes the term painfully clear.

Such 1868 noose rhetoric being waved at political opponents, like the genocidal Nazi swastika or the racist Betsy Ross flag, implies suspension of law and order. It has been a favored symbol embraced by brutal anti-democratic mobs and traitors to America, which is why it keeps popping up lately within the GOP.

Little is known about how a gallows came to be built near the Capitol [during the January 6th violent coup attempt], but the motif has become a favorite among right-wing extremists and white supremacists.

While “carpetbagger” should be raising alarms for dangerous domestic terrorist tactics, it more likely is being overlooked by most Americans as they don’t know their own country’s history. Most likely think such a term and threatening behavior suggests a remote climate of some far away Banana Republic under the thumb of corruption and crime, as I’ve also written about here before.

However, Wyoming clearly has the domestic terrorism hallmarks in a slide away from democracy and towards the rather grotesque origin story of America as an intentionally backwards thinking profit-driven white police state (created to preserve slavery and opposed to freedom).

A long and troubled history of American election tampering (e.g. armed terrorists invading Kansas to stuff ballots and attack election officials) not to mention the long list of violence-backed coup attempts in the USA, seems more relevant now than ever.

In fact there’s many direct precedents for this current news story straight out of 1869 America, as I’ve also written before: “‘First-Class Men’ Torture and Try to Kill Congressman…”