Quote for the day…
Don’t be afraid of being outnumbered. Eagles fly alone. Pigeons flock together. – Unknown
Today’s independent commentary deals with these issues:
- Montana Republican Party Platform
- Matt Rosendale
- Reading Assignments
MONTANA REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM:
The new Platform of the Montana Republican Party is now posted online. It was adopted on July 16, 2022. It is 17 pages.
Here are some key points:
- Republicans believe in the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, and that only parents have the right to direct all reproductive decisions for their minor children.
- WHEREAS, Republican solidarity in opposition to the Democrat socialist agenda is necessary to preserve the security of our country, our economic and political freedoms, and our way of life;
- Sanctity of life: Support “all life is sacred” policies from conception to natural end of life with the exception of the death penalty. There will be no tax payer funding for abortions or suicides, parental notification and permission in all cases dealing with legal minors, and require taxpayer supported medical services programs to provide ultrasounds and all available choices for individuals dealing with crisis pregnancies.
- Education: Adopt school choice policies driven by parental control, reduce centralized control mechanisms embracing local control first, support transparent and locally accountable district budgets, and preserve the autonomy of private and home school institutions.
- The Montana Republican party has the right to freely associate, and we support the establishment of closed primaries and registration by party in Montana.
- The Montana Republican Party fully supports maintaining the Electoral College as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
- We support the preservation of innocent human life at every stage of life, in all circumstances, beginning at conception through natural death. We assert the U.S. Constitution guarantees no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. Accordingly, we maintain the sanctity of human life and affirm the preborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support complete ban on elective abortion. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform elective abortions, or fund organizations which perform or advocate abortion. In concert with these beliefs: 1) We support abstinence education; 2) We support those individuals and organizations seeking to provide family support resources or adoption; 3) We oppose assisted suicide; 4) We support a moratorium on human cloning for any purpose; 5) We support non-embryonic stem cell research.
Here are some of my observations:
As for the sections about “Human Life” the part about “only parents have the right to direct all reproductive decisions for their minor children” and “parental notification and permission in all cases dealing with legal minors” makes me wonder what they are thinking in cases of incest.
Further down in the platform they proclaim, “We support complete ban on elective abortion.” That kind of says it all.
They also “support the establishment of closed primaries and registration by party in Montana.” I like it the way it is. They also support maintaining the Electoral College as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.
You can read the complete platform HERE. The comment section is open!
MATT ROSENDALE:
I happened to receive a flier from U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale (R-MT) that was mailed at taxpayer expense. Although this is completely legal, it’s no wonder most incumbents get reelected when they can use taxpayer money to send out information during campaign season. We are a little over 100 days from Election Day 2022.
Rosendale proclaimed that he is “Leading the Nation on Veteran Issues.” On the reverse of the flier, Rosendale lists six things he has done or is doing for Montana veterans.
I appreciate any work to help my fellow veterans by any elected official, be it Democrat, Republican, or other. I do still believe that more veterans should be elected to office and that they know better than most how to help their fellow veterans.
As for Rosendale, I think it’s arrogant for him to proclaim that he is “Leading the Nation on Veteran Issues.” That’s pure bullshit. Rosy has no seniority and probably is tasked with taking out the trash for most committees on which he is a member.
You can see the fliers HERE and HERE.
READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Here are some articles you should read…
Helena IR – Last Chance Gulch awash in rainbows as Montana Pride Parade celebrates LGBTQ community
It sounds like there was a great turnout for the event.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle – Editorial: Fix the Postal Service mess
Bozeman – it’s a place only the rich can live in…
Kansas City Star Editorial – Fist pumper to fleeing coward: Jan. 6 video shows Missouri who Josh Hawley really is
Hawley is a punk…
Associated Press – Nielsen says 17.7 million watched Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing
It was a pretty good hearing.., even if they preempted Jeopardy!
The Western Word 
The entire 17 pages of stable sweepings presented as a GOP “platform” can be condensed into a single brief sentence:
We support and demand the repeal of the entire 20th century, and insist that women and people of color resume their proper place in the natural order as 2nd class, provisional citizens.
I saw the video of Hawley fleeing the mob he helped incite – he was high-stepping like a 15-year old drum majorette. All he needed was a pair of pom-poms.
I went to Friday’s airshow that they put on for vets and family. On the walk to the airfield I noticed Rosendales’vip parking spot. It was located in the handicapped lot and closest to the field. It was empty when I first got there and was empty when I left. There were a number of spots reserved for those that be that went empty. A lot of handicapped folks had a longer walk so those spots could sit empty. I imagine Tester got the same treatment.
Something Rosendale could have done for the vets was let the handicapped ones walk a little less.
This party “platform” is one of the most insidious documents I have ever seen. While an in depth review of this would probably result in my figuatively, “running out of the building screaming” a cursory review shows that this platform, is at its’ core an attempt to gloss over a horrendous corporate agenda by recitation of every conspiracy theory and pet peeve of anyone who wants to pound the table and threaten with a gun or otherwise anyone who disagrees with them.
An underlying theme is the destruction of the rule of law as we know it. They seek to make juries the determiner of both fact and law, thus eliminating precedent and encouraging reward or punishment based on the whim of the day. Couple this with the “Constitutional Sheriff” concept and there is no more fertile ground for abuse and tyranny by the minority.
There is no more apt time for the statement that “when someone shows you who they are, believe them” Unfortunately, Montana is now in the grip of a few oligarchs manipulating a movement with hyperbole, half truths and outright lies.
Every thinking Montanan need hold their nose and read this document in its entirety to see the depth of our potential problems. This is truly frightening.
How right you are, Old Line. If you want to scare yourself further, read this. I tried my best to warn people of this nonsense. Maybe they’ll figure it out some day. For now, we’ve got Jesse.
“The idea that the solution for an election whose results you didn’t like is, after the fact, to threaten criminal charges for that public work of a government official is shocking,” said Ann Jacobs, Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, who faced a criminal referral. “It is chilling. It is the antithesis of how democracy works.”
https://news.yahoo.com/2020-election-deniers-seek-powerful-120104617.html
Their platform regarding abortion is horrific. Their misogyny and hatred come shining through. They’re all pretty much out of staters who’ve moved here with the idea of creating in Montana some kind of white theocratic homeland in which their bizarre religious beliefs substitute Biblical law for civil law. And of course their actions invite other christofascists to move here. And it just might be working. And that’s damn scary.
“The official Republican platform states, “We assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” No exceptions, period. Even in cases of first-degree relative incest.
“ I grudgingly admit that the lack of any exception in the official Republican position on abortion is logically consistent with the party’s statement on the “sanctity of all human life.” But shouldn’t logic sometimes be tempered with compassion? Emerson famously wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
“Forcing a woman burdened with the psychological scars of incest to bear a child who has a roughly 50:50 chance of having mental disabilities or a severe birth defect is perhaps the ultimate example of a foolish consistency that appeals to little statesmen.”
Hal Herzog