The best 2015 Montana Legislature landing page I've seen yet: http://t.co/a5a9QRPFBx #mtpol #mtleg #mtnews @mtpublicradio #SEO #marketing
— Greg Strandberg (@gpstberg) January 7, 2015
That can be valuable, staying in touch with reality. As Montana ages it’s critical that we keep our political minds limber, exercising our judgment each day on those that make our lives better or turn it into a living hell.
150 of those people are now in Helena, not counting the usual administrative staff, elected and otherwise, needed to ‘run’ the state. And that’s why I think it’s vitally important that the electorate, and especially those that gave up on voting and no longer count toward that phrase, be heard.
People need to be heard, damn it!
While I’m not sure a Peter Finch-style Network tirade will work in such a large state as Montana, what with the distances between windows, I am sure that filling up the hallways outside the committee rooms so those legislators can’t get in the door will do something.
This is what Montanans need to do to the 2015 Montana Legislature – make them feel out of place in their own building. Because while many can claim that it’s still their building, when you’re actually being paid to be there, it’s a little different.
‘It’s better to be seen, not heard’ is a saying you hear a lot, and when you can get a hallway crammed full of MEA-MFT, AFL-CIO, or any other damn acronym you want – and they’re just standing there with placards in their arms, testimony in their hands, and the look of the betrayed on their faces – how the hell are you going to fight that?
What do you say when person after person gets up and hands that person their paper of testimony for the record and then says what they think, regardless of what was on that paper? Maybe you can put your head in your notebook or look out the window or walk to the water cooler, but you’re going to hear what they say.
Republicans don’t want to hear what they have to say – they don’t want to hear anything but their own voices. And that’s just fine, I say, let them talk and talk and talk behind their closed doors all they want, because you know they will and you know there’s nothing you can do about it…or did the December jaunt to Jorgenson’s turn out differently?
I don’t know. Moderate Republicans seems like a likely strategy, but are there enough? And are Democrats as unified as we think? I’d like to think they are, and since Republicans have made it perfectly clear they want to control media exposure for their members, let’s harness the power of the media to further the Democratic agenda. Being closed-doored kinds of cuts both ways in that regard.
But what if the press isn’t up to the task? Intelligent Discontent had an article up the other day talking about the press and how they got the Zinke staff announcement a day late. Could turnover be an issue? And what are the underlying causes of turnover? Yep, bad management.
That’s not likely to change anytime soon however, but I’ll admit I’m just expressing my opinions on this. I wish voters would start expressing theirs more by sharing on social media, writing letters to the newspaper, and visiting hallways in Helena and standing in the way.