I grew up in the Flathead Valley in the ‘50s. I often tired of explaining to my friends that yes my father was a lawyer but we were not rich. I knew my father was well respected and that many people wanted to do business with him and I could not understand why he was not more interested in making lots of money.
When I railed at our conservative lifestyle his response was always the same. He said anyone could make millions. They did not need to be smart. They needed to be one thing, totally focused on making lots and lots of money. Although he never said so directly it was clear he thought people had too much money because they had too few scruples.
There are lots of voters in Montana who are impressed with Mr. Gianforte’s money. They seem to think this means he is smart and will make good choices about their lives. My father would remind you of the kinds of things people have to do in order to accrue billions of dollars. He would vote for Rob Quist.
I also will vote for Rob. I don’t care how many years Mr. Gianforte has lived in Montana. His vast wealth has insulated him from the reality most Montanans face and he cannot know what it is like to live in Montana on $25,000 a year or even $50,000 or $100,000. He does not understand what public lands access means to Montanans because he buys whatever he wants. He does not worry about minimum wage, health insurance, Medicare or Social Security so how can he be expected to understand these things are vital to the average person in Montana.
Loraine K. Measure
Bigfork