Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
He’s a Republican. It’s that simple. If sent to Congress, he’ll caucus with the Republicans in the U.S. House, the shut down the government caucus that opposes universal health care for Americans, tries to reduce the “tax burden” on the rich and superrich, wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and is just itching to repeal those onerous regulations that keep our air clean and our water pure.
But, you object, don’t we vote for the person, not the party? That’s the conventional wisdom — and a delusion. Does the person matter? Of course. But the political party to which a candidate belongs matters at least as much, probably even more. And today’s Republican Party is not the party of Dwight David Eisenhower, Richard Milhous Nixon, Ronald Reagan, or even George Walker Bush. It’s the party of Allen West, Paul Ryan, Steve King, Ted Cruz, Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, Joni Ernst; of Ayn Rand spouting libertarian objectivists, of crackpots who fear black helicopters and Agenda 21, and nuts who believe they need guns to protect themselves from their own government.
That Republican Party is Ryan Zinke’s party. Before you vote for him, ask yourself these questions:
Do you want to return to the economic joys of Herbert Hoover’s administration? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to free your parents and grandparents from dependance on Social Security? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to bestow the blessings of high profits on health insurance companies? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to cut food stamps and starve the poor into looking for jobs that don’t exist? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to roll back consumer protections so that Wall Street smiles? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to return to the days of back alley abortions and bans on contraception? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to increase the hydrocarbon combustion that warms the globe? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want public lands placed in private hands? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
Do you want to shut down the government and damage the economy? Then vote for a Republican. Vote for Ryan Zinke.
That’s the dystopian America Republicans dream of creating. Even if Zinke isn’t in full agreement with every detail, he’s allied himself with the zealots and cloud cuckoo landers who believe the best government is the government that’s too small and weak to govern — the government that no longer can protect the citizens of its nation; the kind of government found in Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Being a Republican, not an ex-serviceman who learned a moral lesson when he had to pay for an airline ticket he shouldn’t have used a Navy voucher to purchase, is Ryan Zinke’s biggest character failing. He’ll be expected to toe the Republican Party’s line, and toe it he will. That’s the best reason not to vote for him.