The radical left is at it again. This time, their proponents employed by the Billings Gazette are trying to cancel a sitting legislator for exercising freedom of speech. The story gets even more predictable, when you understand that they are operating on fake moral outrage sparked by the Democratic Party misquoting me. Where this predictably goes off the rails happens when their editorial board just recently called for my “forced removal” from office.
Seriously? This all began because I had the courage to say the hardest part of taking my oath of office was my understanding that the Montana Constitution has so many flaws. I have never violated that sacred oath, as it is to God and the people of Montana. For a long time, I have advocated that we should vote YES in 2030 to have a call for a Constitutional Convention.
My choice of words calling the Montana constitution a “socialist rag” (Nov. 17 Beacon) was perhaps too aggressive in an attempt to start this dialogue. I have also said that the Montana constitutional right to privacy (which I have never claimed wasn’t a God given right) doesn’t give you the right to an abortion. Those two separate positions were impossible to resist for the Democrats in Montana to create a cancel movement, where they combined those two quotes incorrectly in an intentional misquote.
Add that with an illegal use of a press owned photo and the broad brush of bigotry lumping an entire group to create a meme that says, “all MT Republicans want to DESTROY our state constitution and let the government INVADE our lives.” This message that was foremost designed to fundraise, fire up their base and attempt to cancel an effective “unapologetic conservative,” now has been trumped by the Gazette calling for my “forced removal.” I don’t even need to remind the Montana reader which party is invading our lives right now and working outside of the Federal Constitution. Typical of them for attempting to redirect that legitimate outrage to an illegitimate target.
Should I call the sheriff and report this threat made against me? Are there some in the misguided and uninformed radicalized left that will read it as a call for violence? This is why the Gazette and the Democratic Party are on the verge of financial and moral bankruptcy. Both have abandoned the principles and responsibilities of a free press, and everyone knows it.
Rep. Derek Skees
R-Kalispell