Montana Poll Results: What Montana Issues Matter?

Last Thursday I put a poll up on my site, one asking What Montana Issues Need Coverage?

Hardly anyone voted, and I’m not surprised – other Montana websites want to see me give up, most Montanans can’t seek out any other news sources than what they’re used to, and politics just doesn’t matter to the majority of the people in this state.

So let’s see what those people think. First up is our healthcare poll:

It’s pretty clear that Price of Coverage is the most important thing. That’s funny – why are prices doing nothing but going up?

Politicians are going to lose their jobs over this. Max Baucus, what an idiot, huh? Can’t wait to write his biography, and point out how his whole career was ruined because of his last minute deal making. What a sad, sad man.

We’ll talk a lot more about this below, but first, let’s get to our next poll, on taxes:

Montana poll on taxes

So 57% of you say that property taxes are the most important thing right now. Well, they’re not important to me or your kids – we don’t have homes and won’t have the money for one anytime soon. I always complain about property taxes, but I don’t know why – I don’t pay them. Actually, higher property taxes is good for me as then I can get more transfer payments from the state. As a renter, high property taxes help me. My rent goes up a lot less than the taxes do, and since my pay is stagnant too, I can apply for all kinds of government programs to get free money for food and energy and other things.

I don’t like income taxes, like 29% of the other people. Just 14% don’t like business taxes. For awhile I was thinking about a sales tax on this site, but now I think property tax increases are the way to go. If the older generations are going to create an economic situation where I’ll never be able to buy a house, then fuck ‘em – you can pay it all while I find every way possible to pay less. 

Next up is schools, which looks like this:

Montana poll on schools

So we have 29% saying administrators are the most important and 29% saying quality of teaching is most important and 29% saying overall cost is key. Just 14% say funding for teachers is the most important.

Let me tell you right now that administrators aren’t worth shit. Here in Missoula they fuck each other in back rooms, yell at staff in front of students, and then leave town after taking as much overinflated pay as they can. The head of the teacher’s union in this state is an idiot that thinks it’s perfectly alright for a union boss to make six figures. We’ve got problems, and I don’t expect them to go away anytime soon. Leadership is the problem – Montana has none.

Montana poll on social issues

After that we come to social issues, and it looks like 57% of people think that higher education is what we need to spend our time on. If you want to throw K-12 in there, 71% think that education is our most important issue. No one things abortion or animal rights are worth talking about, and I think everyone knows that except Montana Cowgirl, which jumps at every opportunity to waste time on those detractor issues. Guns are only an issue to wackos and those that want to take them away.

So…what can be done with higher education?

• First I’d go ahead and fire UM’s President Engstrom and replace him with the second-in-charge at MSU. In Bozeman they know how to run a university; in Missoula they only know how to run one into the ground. 
  

• Next I’d get rid of professors and elevate adjuncts and associates, doing my best to convince the old codgers to leave so that their students can begin to benefit again, both in quality of teaching and in what they pay for that.
  

• Finally, let’s go head and cut administration by 50%, just for starters. Far from seeing a deleterious effect from this, I anticipate morale and performance to go up.
  

Next up is our poll on economics:

Montana poll on economics

For this one, 57% of you say money in politics is the most important issue we face. Then it’s 29% with student debt and 14% with jobs.

Money in politics is a big issue…for those that don’t have any. Those that do have it want to keep things the same. Bullock has a lot right now, and so does Gianforte. So nothing will change as long as we have those two money-grubbers. 

Montana poll on environmental issues

This last poll is one that surprised me. Water Issues is obviously the most important thing to people. I thought that might happen, for the main reason that I don’t know anything about this. I don’t want to know anything about it. I have the same attitude that Mike Mansfield had about the Missouri Valley Authority – don’t talk about it, let others bicker over that and get their shoes dirty.

So 57% say that water is our main energy/environmental issue. Another 29% say that renewables are what we should focus on while 14% of you think logging is key. Oil and gas aren’t important at all, and I think we realize that – those industries employ 10,000 to 20,000 people at most. Tourism blows that away with 100,000. Of course, the ground rippers will tell you those jobs suck. Well, it’s not my fault your paid lackeys have stifled unions, pay increases and benefits. I’d just assume see your industry shrivel up and blow away, allowing us to take over your good pay and benefits. It will happen, mainly because people my age and younger actually care about the environment. Businessmen hate that.

One question we need to be asking is whether Monica Lindeen will take down Steve Bullock. I think it’s a strong possibility, actually…I think it will happen.

When Lindeen raises insurance rates, she’s done. She has absolutely no chances of winning Secretary of State in 2016 – that’s a given. Now, will her rate hikes bring down Bullock and any other statewide seekers as well? Yes.

Bullock doesn’t have enough money, and when the voters turn against him after Lindeen’s rate hike, he too will be done. Gianforte – or whoever – will exploit that and they won’t stop and they’ll pull so far ahead that they’ll be forever out of reach, save for some serious fuck-up.

I don’t care about any of this, and most people my age are the same. We’re the young voters that both parties kind of gave up on because they could never figure out how to reach us.

• First of all, we don’t care about insurance because we don’t have any, and couldn’t afford any if we wanted to. I made that abundantly clear last year.
  

• Next, the case has never properly been made why Lindeen is good for us, or why Bullock is good for us. I made the case twice in letters supporting Bullock in the Missoulian and IR, but I feel that fell on deaf ears, both within the public and the administration.
  

• Finally, so what if Republicans get into the governor’s office or a few others? Is that going to be worse than what we have now? How so? The case hasn’t been made to me, it hasn’t been made to the Montana people.
  

So that’s the situation we have today. It all comes down to insurance rates. Lindeen has been totally mum on this, and for good reason – she has no idea what to do. She can do nothing, really. The insurance oligarchs have already decided that platinum plans are going away, and Lindeen can do nothing about that.

What can she do?

Nothing, she can do nothing. She’s a slave to the industry, a puppet on strings, a marionette that does what it’s told.

Again, why should I give a damn?

We did this poll so that Bullock and Lindeen can learn what we care about. I’m sure they have things they care about, but I don’t care. Why should I? It’s their job to care about what I care about, because I’m paying their salary. If they don’t like that, then they need to get their asses back to the private sector.

That’s right, politicians work for you. You pay their salary, and you should never let them forget that. Tell it to them when you meet them.

“How’s that money I gave you, Steve? Oh…don’t get that look – you know damn well that I’m paying your salary, that $9,000 you get every month.”

Remember that.