Once again, this column has to start with “you really can’t make this stuff up.” And once again, it refers to another whack-a-doodle move by Montana’s Republican politicians that defies logic, reason and evidence. This time around, it’s the attempt by the far right wing of the GOP to call for a special legislative session to, of all things, investigate election fraud in Montana — for the election in which Republicans won every statewide office!
Why any single political party that won all the seats in any state would do anything except celebrate their victories is an unfathomable mystery to most thinking individuals. I mean, when your favorite team wins “the big game” do their coaches immediately call for an investigation into the referees? Of course not — they high five, pour Gatorade over the coaches, and appreciate the applause from the stands.
That would be what normal people would do — but not the right-wing Trump puppets who are still bemoaning the loss of their Great Leader, the guy the American people were smart enough to send packing in what has been called the most secure national election in history.
Moreover, the top election official in Montana was none other than Republican Corey Stapleton — a guy who got himself in hot water by facetiously insulting the professionalism of Montana’s cadre of excellent elections officials. Now why would he do anything to flaw an election in which his political party swept to victory?
No, if anyone was going to spend a couple hundred thousand taxpayer dollars to call a special session for an investigation into the 2020 elections, it should be the hapless Democrats, who walked away empty-handed.
And they’d have at least a marginal reason for doing so. As those who have been around this great state for awhile know, our political pendulum tends to swing back and forth rather regularly. Montanans have historically preferred to split the state’s politicians between the two major political parties — as witnessed by the last 16 years of Democratic governors while the Legislature saw primarily Republican majorities.
Likewise, it’s a known fact that Montanans cherish this place we call home and have great respect for the wide array of assets that make it what has been dubbed “The Last Best Place.” It’s certainly worth wondering how those fixated on monetizing every last natural and wildlife resource in their quest to make Montana “The Least Best Place” would find success at the polls.
Those who won the last election to shame our state through a variety of definitely “non-Montanan” actions and policies. Why, facing what’s turning out to be a Western-wide mega-drought the National Academy of Sciences says may be “perpetual,” would anyone weaken our state’s water pollution standards instead of strengthening them? They surely must realize there’s going to be less water for our famous trout streams as well as their “dilution is the solution to pollution” discharges that will further degrade our rivers, lakes and groundwater.
Likewise, why would Montanans vote for legislators who pass unconstitutional laws – and then call our much-lauded 1972 Constitution a “socialist rag” on the occasion of it’s 50th anniversary?
Would Montanans really elect a governor with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for killing collared Yellowstone National Park research animals?
The examples are legion — and growing. If anyone is justified in calling for an investigation into election fraud it should be the people of Montana who are now realizing that the highly unusual one-party domination of state elections is not turning out well. But instead, the “election fraud” clown show goes on — inexplicably fueled by those who won the election.
