For weeks super-rich donors tried to change the President’s mind about reelection and finally they succeeded. His opponent is already an old billionaire, no tycoons are trying to change his mind. Yet big donors helped select his younger running mate.
There’s little sense trying to do much about how decisions get made in Washington, D.C. They rigged the game and us working-class folks had better just do our jobs, I snarked to myself.
The coastal elites wanted more excitement and chaos, I wisecracked. Sells more newspapers, more bobbleheads on TV. A younger Democrat topping the ticket was sure to provide vitality.
That D.C. hogwash is far removed from the daily lives of rural Montanans. Not that super-wealthy living. It’s thriving in the valley. Over the past several years, the small towns of Montana transformed into playgrounds for the wealthy, like the Copper Kings simply moved across the state. There’s still room for the rest of us, least my generation, I quipped.
Private jets and helicopters overhead, and fancy cars I only saw in magazines now drive our small-town streets. Nothing wrong with it, I like cars. Seem silly though. And hard to ignore. Some folks have it good. Others need help just paying the rent.
All the Republican statewide candidates act like billionaires, self-funding campaigns today or in the recent past. To a worker, it looks like they got bored with living and needed more power heading toward the end of living. Even with good access to healthcare, we only get some 4,000 weeks of living.
Move over Butte, see you later Anaconda, Bozeman’s Republican millionaires now run rural Montana. I was talking about Greg Gianforte, Steve Daines, Troy Downing, and Tim Sheehy. These men, after hitting the jackpot of life, dumped bucket loads of personal cash seeking to win elections. Sheehy reportedly put in nearly $2.5 million of personal money on his political campaign.
Sheehy’s not running things for regular Montanans now, and I’m optimistic dirt-farmer Jon Tester keeps his U.S. Senate seat. Tester is the only local from Montana actually doing anything in Washington, D.C. to make the lives of regular working folks better.
Oddly the Republicans enjoy strong, loud opinions on how the rest of us should live. Republicans raised taxes on working-class folks in the past two Legislatures while Montana’s Copper King politicians got tax break after tax break. That’s not that odd, we’ve seen these new Republicans boot thousands of kids off health insurance, fire teachers by the hundred, and steal fundamental rights away from young women.
The next generation of youth, the 20-Somethings, have a world of hurt barreling down their road unless they suddenly choose to vote in elections, or their parents take notice. We’ll see how the sudden candidate-shakeup invigorates Montana’s youth vote.
Over the past few years, homes in the state became inconceivably unaffordable, jobs can’t pay enough, and Republicans -who’ve run the Montana Legislature since I left office over a decade ago, are obsessed about your private life, what books locals read, and when and if you deserve to become parents.
Montana’s Republican Secretary of State abruptly changed election rules, bumping young, inactive voters from participating in democracy when denying infrequent voters access to the constitutional initiative process protecting their right to choose when and if to have an abortion.
These private matters are not the job of the state and new Republicans are drunk on power thinking only they can make personal decisions for Montana families. Earlier Vice President Kamala Harris asked a Supreme Court nominee, “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”
Fortunately, Montana’s independent judiciary basically told new Republicans to read the state constitutions, citizens have rights, and freedom belongs to all people not just the rich, powerful, or fanatical. We’ll see what Montana’s top court says about the right to amend the constitution.
Living in a political fly-over state nothing we do individually will make much difference to the rich and powerful decisionmakers of Washington, D.C.
For locals our job might be better spent on living our lives, working together to make local-living better. Nationally we’ll have the best success by helping reelect dirt-farmer Jon Tester, sending him back to the U.S. Senate. History shows us that Jon Tester remains impressively productive, working with any President, for the betterment of all Montanans.
Mike Jopek formerly served in the Montana Legislature and is now a farmer in Whitefish.