18 November 2020 — 1129 mst
Without a Democratic governor to veto extreme bills, 2021’s
legislative session may bless the rich and curse the poor
The Republicans now controlling Montana’s legislature and governorship are not, warns former Bozeman legislator Brady Wiseman in a long and fiery post in Medium, the pragmatists who believe in governing who once dominated their party:
We just elected the most reactionary governor in 30 years. And the Legislature? Our Republican legislative caucuses have self-selected the most extremist, right-wing membership for two solid decades, driving out the moderates among them. These are not your Main Street, country club Republicans. This is an ideologically driven wrecking crew. They will interpret their victory as an undeniable mandate to bust out their sledgehammers and spark up their cutting torches.
Plainly speaking, we are about to be governed by the most extreme faction among Montanans at large.
We don’t have to speculate about what this crew is going to do. They’ve been telling us for a long time. For sixteen years they have trumpeted their rhetoric, and introduced and passed a large number of right-wing bills, only to have them vetoed by Democratic governors. That check and balance is now wiped out. Stand by for an onslaught.
If anything, Brady may understate the damage the red wind now howling across Montana may do. There already are more than a thousand bill requests from legislators. Some are right wing favorites that fell to veto pens or branding irons, but that now may become law. Bad law. Other radical bills are new. Among them: proposals to limit the governor’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, and a proposal to repeal the voters’ approval of the initiative legalizing marijuana.
The overall objective, Brady believes, is downsizing government to a watchdog status that maintains a police presence to prevent the rabble of neer-do-wells from stealing the assets of the wealthy:
Let’s start with the top priority. The governor-elect has shown through his own lobbying efforts over the past fifteen years that his first and most important priority is a large tax cut for himself and his buddies in the private jet set. He will sell it with the usual malarky about how this will spur investment and jobs, and will actually pay for itself with new tax revenue from all the instant prosperity. This is not true. It has never been true anywhere it has been tried. And economic growth is not its purpose.
This is the Kansas Experiment. Pass a massive tax cut, then just wait. In a year or two when the state’s revenue crashes, pull out the chainsaws and mow down every bit of government you don’t like. For this new team, that means just about all of government except law enforcement, agriculture, highways, and prisons. And open-checkbook firefighting.
The tax cut will go in the oven this winter during the 2021 legislative session. When they meet for the 2023 legislative session, the table will really be set with budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Then they will carve that budget like Edward Scissorhands giving a haircut.
Brady argues “It was a solid victory for the elephant team but not a huge one.”
Nope. It was huge.
Republicans turned out an amazing number of first time voters who, driven by fears that Democrats would confiscate guns, take money earned honestly in Montana and give it to inner city residents who refuse to work, make Stalinism look like Adam Smith capitalism, and replace their miserly private health insurance with Medicare for All, voted for Trump and every down ballot Republican. Democrats were administered a hell of a thumping, a rattan cane flogging, a decisive defeat from which recovery will take years, perhaps decades. Montana went into the election as a purple state. It came out of the election a cherry red glowing brighter than Brian Schweitzer’s veto branding iron.
Buckle-up and keep Valium, Prozac, and Wild Turkey handy, Democrats. You’ll need all three, and you’ll need them often.