Moderate Listed as Endangered

Twenty-five years ago this month, when celebrating his 95th birthday, legendary Montana statesman Mike Mansfield expressed concern about the rising political polarization in this country and on Capitol Hill in particular.

“I’ve always felt that the true strength of the Senate lay in the center, not on the right and not on the left, but with those people who could see both sides and were not so convinced of their own assumptions that they wouldn’t listen to the other side,” Mansfield said. 

“Differences can be bridged, solutions can be found, concessions can be made.” 

The long-serving U.S. Senate Majority Leader, who frequently frustrated hardline members of his Democratic party when reaching across the political aisle, would take keen interest in the ongoing 68th session of the Montana Legislature.

Amid its blazing red supermajority, he would applaud the dozen centrist Republicans, including members of the “Conservative Solutions Caucus,” who at the start of the session broke from their party to advance a less heavy-handed set of rules to govern the body through spring.

And there have been other occasions of finding common ground, like when moderate Republicans, at their own peril, sided with Democrats to defeat a controversial proposal to nix Montana’s voting process and appoint judges legislatively. 

Not that the GOP hasn’t succeeded in advancing much of its fiscal and social 2023 wish list, from income and property tax rebates to curtailing access to abortions in Montana and banning minors from drag shows. 

They’ve even empaneled a “Freedom Caucus,” its carefully chosen ultraconservatives identifying Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) as a bigger threat to Montana than the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, given the duly elected 68 Republicans to 32 Democrats in the House and 34 Republicans to 16 Democrats in the Senate, one would expect the minority to stick together. Think again.

In the spirit of Mike, Democrats proposed seating members alphabetically rather than by party affiliation. And when that olive branch snapped, the minority moved (also to no avail) that the body be grouped by allegiance to the University of Montana Grizzlies or Montana State University Bobcats.

Oh well, as Mike might say, it was worth the old college try.

Then came the Valentine’s Day massacre, when the Flathead County Republican Caucus showered anything but love on two of its own: GOP Reps. Courtenay Sprunger of Kalispell and Tony Brockman of Evergreen. 

The caucus issued a protracted complaint, signed by eight fellow Flathead lawmakers including House Speaker Matt Regier, charging “in the name of being ‘fair’ to our minority colleagues,” Sprunger and Brockman “divided the Republican party.” 

A curious ambush from within, considering Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte only one week ago praised both parties for putting aside party labels to work collectively in the best interests of Montana.

“I’m optimistic about what we’ve accomplished together, both Republicans and Democrats, in the first half of this legislative session,” Gianforte told a press conference.

Days before Montana’s session convened in January, Thomas Kean, board chairman of the Carnegie Corporation, recalled a decades-long period on Capitol Hill when Blue Dog Democrats and Rockefeller Republicans compromised on stalled legislation until it became law.

“Every important bill for a period of almost thirty years had their fingerprints,” observed Kean, a former New Jersey state legislator and two-term governor.

“Political parties [today] are not talking to each other. They are not looking for agreements; they are attacking each other instead of compromising with one another,” he continued. “In these circumstances, democracy is in trouble.”

I recall Kean’s concerns because upon being elected one of this country’s youngest-ever state general assembly speakers he told both parties he wouldn’t post any bill unless it had a Republican and Democratic sponsor.

“This was unprecedented, but it turned out to be one of the most effective legislatures in the history of the state,” he said. “Everybody had to get along, because if they wanted a bill passed, they had to find someone on the other side of the aisle to do it with them.”

Today, Kean concluded: “The center no longer exists. Moderates are almost extinct.”