All politics aside, the million-plus of us in Montana have only one person to represent all of us. The key word here is represent. In this election, we’re choosing between two vastly different life experiences and world views.
It’s a question of which candidate can best understand – and care about –the full range of lifestyles, local living conditions, and struggles that differ region to region, community to community, and person to person in Montana. Our issues are not best served by political philosophy and party name-brand loyalty. They are best served by caring about the variety of people across this state and understanding the variety of landscapes/cityscapes where we live and work and play.
For my part, I find wealth is a great protector—a resource which helps insulate oneself from fear and worry when faced with income, health, and/or social and cultural problems. What I am looking for to represent me, and my neighbor, is empathy: the ability to understand the particular issues I face, to care about them, and to fairly consider how deeply those issues impact all of us as a whole, as a state.
That’s why I’m voting for the man who is a neighbor, who comes from this land, who has managed to make a living by understanding and appealing to people from one corner of this state to another, a man who knows what it means to vulnerable in the face of adversity. I urge my neighbors to consider who can best understand and relate to the life they live, and who can most accurately represent it to the rest of the nation. I hope they’ll find it’s our neighbor, Rob Quist.
Eileen Bech
Kalispell