A Red State Paradox: Montana on the Cusp

A fair portion of the population is pissed. Rightfully so. Montanans have suffered far too long under the thumb of a conservative majority. First it was the cavalier Governor Marc Racicot, now a rising star within the Republican establishment, who used Montana as a stepping stone for his own political trajectory. More recently they were faced with Judy Martz, a Republican governor who has admitted that she was the “lap dog of industry.”  

Martz earned quite a rap sheet after her election in 2000. She shielded timber companies from litigation. She befriended deregulation as Montanans saw a huge increase in their electric bills. She undermined public schools, gouged taxpayers, destabilized local business owners, and walked all over small farmers. Martz was a political train wreck and Montana reacted appropriately. Her approval rating by the summer of 2004 had reached an all-time low of 30 percent. Martz opted not to run for reelection. A sensible decision. 

Sick and tired of Republican wrath, many rational Montanans voted to replace Martz with Democrat Brian Schweitzer—a wealthy cattle rancher who has operated ranches across the state. Schweitzer is a gifted orator who almost pulled off beating entrenched U.S Senator Conrad Burns, a popular Republican stooge, back in 2000. 

Schweitzer ran on a split ticket this time around, picking moderate Republican state Senator John Bollinger to be his running mate. The choice of Bollinger was indeed pragmatic, as it is well known that Bollinger is a donkey in elephant attire. He swapped parties when he chose to run for state congress in a conservative Billings district in 1992. Bollinger knew his constituents would vote Republican out of habit. He was right and the Schweitzer camp capitalized on their collective ignorance under the banner of “bipartisanship” in 2004. 

In 1999 Schweitzer made his mark with Montana senior citizens as he drove a batch of them across the border into Canada to see how much cheaper meds were for the Canadians. As Gov. Schweitzer recently explained in a radio address, “The purpose of those trips was to demonstrate the hypocrisy of Congress’ trade policies. They passed NAFTA, told us that it would be great for the consumers of the United States. We’d be able to have products and consumer products cross the border from Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and that we would find greater choice. And we have NAFTA and we’re supposed to have free choice for everything but medicine.” 

Not bad for a Democrat. Since his inauguration last January, Schweitzer has been vocal in his opposition to the Bush agenda and has even said he wants Montana’s guard troops to return from Iraq so they can help battle wildfires this summer. Schweitzer is not buying Bush’s call to privatize Social Security, either. “Today we’re talking about Social Security, something that might happen 20, 30, 40 years from now,” Schweitzer said after a recent meeting in DC when U.S. governors spent an afternoon with the president, “But guess what’s really happening? We’re cutting Medicaid. We’re cutting programs in the heartland.” 

But don’t go kidding yourself; Schweitzer is more centrist than radical. He opposes gay marriage (although I’m told only because had he come out in favor, Bollinger would have declined to be his running mate) and wants to expand Montana’s private prison industry. Even so, there is no question that Schweitzer is a pleasant change of pace from Montana’s Republican two-step. 

Schweitzer’s win wasn’t the only interesting development in the state last year. Montanans also voted in favor of medial marijuana. No kidding. Despite what liberals claim, these red staters may have some common sense after all. 

This isn’t even the best of it. The largest victory for Montana came when voters overwhelmingly shot down a mining initiative that would have returned open-pit, cyanide heap-leach mining to the state. Mining companies put up millions to raise support for the bill, but Montanans didn’t bite. Environmentalists and the public won outright. 

It is good to be back. There is a defeatist attitude still lingering out in blue America and it’s a downer. No doubt “blue” is an apt color to describe the dejected mood that paints the coastal states that voted for John Kerry. Fortunately progressives in Montana, although a minority, have rolled up their sleeves and continued their work. The presidential election was not a deterrent. They stayed the course and never abandoned their issues, and won as a result. 

Maybe blue staters will realize this isn’t fly-over country after all. Looks like liberals could learn a lot from these red state dummies.