Red squirrels are hurling pinecones onto metal roofs. The mountain ash has turned orange. It’s hot and smoky; it’s the middle of Montana summer.
It’s no time to talk about voting, the Legislature, or Congress. It’s time to get outdoors and enjoy the last throws of summertime.
Yet in mere weeks, mail ballots will be on kitchen tables across Montana. It’s time to choose what kind of country you need.
Most of us don’t vote in midterm elections. That’s hard to believe. Many have bought into the misnomer that nothing matters, and all politicians are the same.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I’ve met many state legislative candidates over the season. Local Flathead people like Dave Fern, Zac Perry, Diane Taylor-Mahnke, JoBeth Blair and Bob Keenan live in the valley.
Sure I disagree with some of these Montanans on stuff, often plenty of substance. Yet, we deserve local citizen leaders willing to work toward solutions.
People like Dave Fern and Bob Keenan are very different individuals. They’re from opposing parties, they live on opposite ends of the valley, and yet auspiciously they’re real people with real families.
I’ve seen both Dave and Bob at the Whitefish Farmer’s Market. They attend the funerals of our friends. They’re Montanans. We deserve leaders willing to work things out for the rest of us.
If you believe everything nationally is going according to plan, you’re likely not looking for solutions. You likely want to dismantle or disrupt politics. Maybe that’s an oversimplification, but hopefully you understand my point.
Politics is the civil discourse that keeps us united as a people. It’s the bond that assures that we can disagree, yet get stuff done. Politics is accountability and the uniqueness that keeps America great.
Without politics, we’d be in a world of hurt. The roots of the word originates from “of the city,” “of the people.” We’re designed to work things out. There’s plenty of room for everyone.
If you don’t vote for the next state Legislature the worst likely to happen is that our governor will veto more bad policy bills that will undoubtedly be enacted next winter.
Yet other good stuff won’t happen.
In the forthcoming months, when that ballot is sitting on your table, it’s time to set the tone for next year’s politics.
If you don’t vote in the congressional race, the guys who control Congress will bring a world of hurt your way. Don’t believe me? Check your gut, read a newspaper.
The national debt is out of control. One-party rule, where the same party controls all of Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court, isn’t going great for regular Montanans.
There’s one guy, a farmer, a Montanan who stands in the way of Congress dismantling health care and retirement programs. There’s one Montanan in Congress willing to assure that our national retirement age is not increased.
There’s one farmer in Congress who actually gets that working together intermittently means holding the other party accountable.
Come January, there’s big plans to do away with consumer healthcare protections like preexisting medical conditions. There’s a plan to rip away federal healthcare funding for 90,000 Montanans. And there are plans to dismantle Social Security and Medicare as we know it. And put less federal funding into public education.
You’ll be left to work harder, longer, and for less money.
Hold Congress accountable.
Join me in voting for a farmer, a true Montanan, a productive senator like Jon Tester who understands that our economic prosperity is interwoven with humanity.
We all hold the threads of society together.
Those squirrels will keep chucking cones onto our roofs, and come fall, the Grosbeaks will devour those post-frosted mountain ash berries.
My friends, you decide our political future. It’s your country.