So…who are the nutcases…and how did they drive it into the ground?
Many people have thoughts on that.
Sal had this to say over at Cowturd on December 19:
“Despite a few successes the Democratic Party needs a new direction, statewide and for sure at the national level.
It is obvious the present day MT voter has rejected most of who is being offered. And it may be the electorate in MT is just to hard right on the whole and it won’t matter. But it is more obvious there is nothing to lose in trying a new approach.
The harder answer as to who will represent that change is yet to be determined.”
“If Montana Democrats are going to make a change, you guys have to expand the base out of the urban centers and reservations. A prime example… Bullock lost Rosebud County, a county that is pro-union and includes an Indian Reservation. Rosebud County is a prime example of the people the Democrats have left behind this past election.”
“Guys, food for thought, perhaps the dems need to rebuild on policies focused on mainstream ideology and not name calling, false claims based on unfounded / ridiculous internet threads claiming Mr. Zinke’s bigotry. Any voter with any common sense can see how this is totally unfounded political spin and extremely annoying.
Where are the alternative policies and good justification. Financial competitive wind power with no subsidies justification or etc????
What are our other options? More jobs, our safety, peace in the middle east, health care? I am all ears.
The dems have lost over a 1000 governorship seats and seats in congress and now Montana is looking at 2 seats at term limits and another just resigned.
It also appears that the mtcowgirl has been overran by a very small number of alt left dem supremacists and may die on the vine. What or whom do you propose to make Montana better and why?”
“A Democrat who wins this election will win it by running a guerrilla campaign while preaching the party’s old time religion:
- Support for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid;
- For an everyone covered for everything national single-payer health care system;
- For food stamps and nutrition assistance for women and infants;
- For clean energy;
- For clean air and water;
- For labor and unions;
- For tuition-free public colleges;
- For job security, a closing of the income inequality gap, and a rising tide that lifts everyone.”
Lots of thoughts…but what do they tell us?
It’s clear to many that the Montana Democratic Party is not working.
A clear sign of that is how few elections they win.
Sure, they won the governor’s office again. That’s a success.
But does that success make up for losing the Land Board, which came about because Dems lost the other 4 statewide races?
I don’t think so.
I continually harp on the Dems playing defense all the time, which is all the governor’s veto pen allows them to do.
They don’t have the legislature so they can’t play offense, which is done by crafting legislation and steering it through committees, getting it off the floor of both chambers, and then to the governor’s desk.
Democrats in Montana are very bad at doing that for the simple reason that they don’t have the numbers.
I’ve mentioned many times that Dems need to focus more on the rural areas.
To do that they actually have to visit those areas and learn what those people are thinking.
- What are their concerns?
- What do they care about?
- What don’t they care about?
- And finally, what is keeping them up at night?
I don’t think Montana Democrats can answer that.
Hell, I can’t answer that.
But with the resources at the Montana Democrats’ fingertips – money for travel, people capable of travelling, and the hunger to win – the Party should be able to answer that very soon.
Now, do they want to?
- Remember, Bullock won.
- Tester’s doing alright.
- Lots of political cronies feel secure in their jobs.
In other words, many people are benefitting from the current policies and procedures of the Montana Democratic Party.
These are people like:
- Nancy Keenan
- Jim Larson
- Jacquie Helt
- Stacey Otterstrom
- Scott Wheeler
- Jorge Quintana
- Jean Lemire Dahlman
- Lots more that I don’t know
I wonder how the Montana Democratic county committee chairs and vice-chairs feel about those top dogs.
Let’s also not forget the split in the Party between the Hillary and Bernie supporters.
So where does that leave us?
I think it leaves us about the same place we started…feeling glum and not knowing what to do about it.
James Conner has some good points on what Dems might want to do in this special election.
He thinks Amanda Curtis is a good idea.
I like her too, but let’s ask a very simple but hard question:
If Amanda Curtis couldn’t win in 2014, what makes us think she’ll win in 2017?
Questions like that will just get you a lot of sour looks and calls that you’re a Democrat in Name Only (DINO), however.
You can always count on me to ask the tough questions, and point out absurdities.
I mean, if we see the same old names that Logicosity threw out today – John Morrison and Zeno Baucus…are you kidding me? – then I know Dems will lose this special election and they’ll lose it big.
It is time for new blood, but that scares the hell out of the old guard of the Party.
Remember, they benefit from our current situation of losing and losing some more.
They’ll fight tooth and nail to keep their jobs…although don’t ask what it is that they do exactly, or how much they’re paid to do it.
And please don’t ask them to justify their jobs. You’ll get a lot of BS that way.
Mainly, it’s time for a change in the Montana Democratic Party.
Nearly every media source, every commenter, and every person paying attention is saying that.
The only ones not saying that are those ensconced safely at the top of the Party’s hierarchy.
It’s time they go.
It was time a long time ago.
Let’s show them the door, nicely, of course.
And after we try to do it nicely and they’re still there, let’s do whatever it takes to get rid of them.
Montana won’t move forward until that happens. Middle class families won’t benefit until that happens.
Montana Democrats won’t win again until that happens.
It’s time.