22 June 2022 — 2037 mdt

Montana’s Constitution Guarantees the Rights of
Every Citizen — It is What Makes Montana Great

Guest Essay By Kyle Waterman

In the last month of the primary election we all received a barrage of political mail. I saw an alarming trend by the GOP to call for more government oversight into our lives and for arbitrary changes to our Montana Constitution. While some of these mailers argued that these changes protect families, they actually step us towards a tyranny of the few. Removing the guarantee of privacy that we all enjoy thanks to the Montana Constitution will result in the government being able to insert itself into every part of our lives. This is an obvious problem for those who do not want the government in their doctor’s offices or marriages, but it also means the government can have more routine public surveillance of all of our activities. The part that they aren’t mentioning is that a Constitutional Convention would also, disturbingly, open up Montana’s Public Lands to profiteering for these few.

The mailings that alarmed me most were endorsements for US Congressional term limits requiring a Constitutional Convention allowing for anything in our Constitution to be changed. We already have a way to limit the number of terms that can be served, they are called elections. Of the problems that we are facing in Kalispell today, Congressional term limits is not one of them. The problems we are facing are outrageous housing costs, high fuel costs and an open behavioral health crisis. Our priorities do not demand a constitutional convention to address federal term limits (and slip in other changes as well) — the top priority for this community is for the legislature to get to work solving problems related to housing, workforce, and mental health challenges confronting our sheriff’s department, our schools and the general community.

We are seeing an assault on our civic boards — the health board, the library, school boards and city councils. These civic institutions do not require constrictive oversight from the legislature either, but yet we saw mailings calling for Constitutional changes to our local control of public health, education, libraries. Again, this shouldn’t be the priority for next year. I trust the local process, I trust you and the Government should too.

Many of the mailings called to “cut red tape and ease regulations” and make Montana a “sandbox where unneeded red tape is suspended”. These mailings made it clear to me that what the GOP wants is to tear up the Montana Constitution so that they can open up our public lands and public waters for sale. This “red tape” is what prevents water bottling plants from opening in Creston or for Lake Five being over developed. This “red tape” is our Montana Constitution which protects our quality of life, our public lands and our local control.

Montana’s Public Lands are our Commons. We own them and the Montana Constitution defines them as belonging to the citizens. When someone says “reform land use regulation”, you should hear that they are planning to call a Constitutional Convention, get rid of the Land Board and carve Montana public lands up for profit. The GOP is trying to dupe you, Montana. Don’t fall for it. The Montana Constitution does not need to be re-written. It is not a “socialist rag” as Derek Skees stated. It protects our rights to privacy, local control and access to our public lands.

In Montana, we don’t need these out of state ideas or solutions. We already have a working, small government that passes a budget and then sticks to it. Not many States can say that. In Montana we also have a working Constitution that protects our freedoms and liberties. In Montana, we the people own our public lands, they aren’t available to the highest bidder. So we should keep it that way. What we need in Montana is legislators who will go to Helana to do the work rather than make promises to waste our tax payer money selling off our elk.

In Montana, they are not the King’s Elk, they are our elk.

Former Kalispell councilman Kyle Waterman is the Democratic candidate for Senate District 4 (map).