22 February 2023 — 0853 mst

A mandate from God, not just the voters?

What’s going on at the Montana Legislature?

Guest essay by Jim Smith

What’s going on at the Montana Legislature? And why is this happening? Two questions that I have heard being asked around because of the kind of proposed resolutions and bills that are being reported in local media. Well, let’s try to come up with a valid answer.

With their super-majority “mandate” the Republicans, led by their mis-named “Freedom Caucus” have set about the task of imposing their will on the citizens of Montana. Self-anointed as the keepers of the flame to protect you from yourself, they think GOP stands for “Guarantee Our Purity.” So, while they mouth “local control,” “parental responsibility,” and “smaller government” they are drafting and passing bills that tell you what medical care you can have, what books you can read, what events you can take your children to, what schools and libraries can have on their shelves and they even want to dictate to the medical profession what procedures and medications they can prescribe.

They believe their mandate isn’t just from the voters, it’s from their god. They know it is their god, because he hates the same people they do – trans-children, LGBTQIA+ people, people of color, and anyone who doesn’t agree with them. We can tell they have little or no empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person, because of the way they react to people from other walks of life.

You see, they have an ideology that guides them in making these decisions for you and your family. The great thing about an ideology is that you don’t have to think, or rely on facts, or explore whether something is true or false. Their ideology has all those answers and is all that they need. Their particular ideology is some kind of “Christianity” that has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ. Some of them believe their god talks to them and has given them “the word.” Like Jiminy Cricket, this voice keeps them on the straight and narrow. Now, you might think that this is their conscience, an inner feeling or voice which guides them on the rightness or wrongness of their own behavior. But it isn’t. To them it’s the guide that tells them what you are doing wrong and so they are here to set you on the right path by passing laws that dictate how you should raise your children and live your life.

They have a phobia about Drag Shows and Drag Queens and they want to protect your children from this “threat”. So we need a law (HB-359), they claim, to keep drag shows out of publicly funded libraries or schools. Of course the fact that there has never been a drag show at a public school in Montana makes no difference.

These self-appointed guardians of morality also want to be sure that they can prosecute public school employees (HB-234) found displaying or disseminating to minors material deemed “obscene” by modifying an existing law that applies to gas stations and other commercial businesses. Of course, what is “obscene” is not defined in the existing law or this modification.

So, what is the legal definition of obscenity? 1) A thing must be prurient in nature. 2) A thing must be completely devoid of scientific, political, educational, or social value. 3) A thing must violate the local community standards. Of course, no actual instance of this happening was referenced in the debate over this law, nor could any instance be found by searching online, so again, facts don’t matter. Interestingly, the existing law exempts employees and retail sales clerks of the gas stations, but if modified not teachers or librarians.

Drag shows, drag queens, Victoria Secret and other lingerie catalogs, apparently arouse prurient feelings or “lustful excitement” in some of these Republicans, so they feel they have to protect your children from these experiences. Perhaps, in Biblical terms, it drives some of them to Onanism, but who knows? So there you have it folks, your tax dollars at work. Solving problems that don’t exist. Interfering in the way you live your life and raise your children. Saint Christopher, protect us from people such as these!

Jim Smith lives in Helena.