Guest Editorial From Bill LaCroix from the Bitterroot Valley

On March 3, Hamilton vape store owner and legislator Ron Marshall (R-87) resigned his House seat in a huff, charging the predominantly-right-wing Republican majority with corruption for voting down HB 149 (his bill), which would have allowed him to sell toylike vape products from China designed to appeal to children.

Marshall Thinks Lobbyists Are Corrupt?

“The lobbyists run this capitol,” Marshall pontificates. “Don’t ever think that the people have a say up here, because you don’t….the people need to understand that, if you want your voice heard up here, you get rid of all these lobbyists. Get rid of them all because it’s the absolute worst thing that could happen to a citizen government.”

Well, duh, Ron, but which lobbyists are “corrupt” in your view?  Apparently not the cultural-warrior and fossil-fuel-friendly ones like Montana Right to Life or A.L.E.C. , with whom you’ve consistently voted in lockstep. Just the tobacco-industry ones who are a little more reticent to openly sell Chinese tobacco toys to kids than yourself? So confusing.

But No Issue With Trump’s Corruption?

It’s appropriate to note here that the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee (RCRCC)—of whom Ron is currently a vice-chair—heartily endorses the most demonstrably-corrupt head of state in the history of Western Civilization…with the possible exceptions of Hitler and Caligula. “Oh, the hypocrisy,”  I’d have a 21st-Century Joseph Conrad say about such a thing, but then, what do I know about hearts of darkness?

Marshall’s Replacement Is No Moderate

Well, how about this? Since the Covid-19  pandemic, Ron has been part of the uber-right/ John Bircher takeover of the already-ultra-but-not-uber-right RCRCC. And who did Ron (and Manzella, etc.) overthrow to form a more-perfect religio-fascist trainwreck of a committee? None other than Terry Nelson, who, as chair of the RCRCC, has orchestrated the far-right, Christian Nationalist takeover of our valley since 2010, and who has just been appointed by our right-wing-but-not-right-wing-enough county commissioners to fill Ron’s seat.

Terry is considered a “moderate” these days, because he’s only a “Tea Party” Republican and not a loopy John Bircher. That’s what the Republican infighting here in Ravalli County is about. But let’s be clear: Terry was honchoing the RCRCC when members in good standing, such as Jeff Burrows, were threatening sheriffs with “constitutional shootings.” His portrait has hung behind the booth at the Ravalli County Fair, where they display an uncapped, ready-for-action AR-15 they have auctioned off for years. He’s been the head of the planning office since 2011, but he’s a surveyor, not a planner, and was gifted the job of “planning office administrator” by his county-supremacy commissioner buddies in 2011 (I believe) as a prize after all the real planners were scared off by militia wannabes and rich guys wanting to build trophy homes IN the river. Stay tuned for more on Terry, but in the meantime, know this: the infighting in Ravalli County and Helena over where the Edge of the Flat World actually exists isn’t over here yet. I personally believe it’s just south of Conner, where tech billionaires ride long-necked Diplidons*, but again, what do I know about Dinosaurs?

The problem with being a Montana Republican these days is you gotta find someone in the room to hate. “Someone doin’ somethin’ dirty decent folks can frown on,” as the late John Prine put it. This is simple math: since you don’t have any real solutions to your constituents’ real problems, hate is your only sell-point to voters who, according to the latest statistics from the most well-heeled think tanks, are still paying top dollar for it.

This is a mere observation, and I wish I had a crystal ball to predict when the price of Hate will drop to, say, a pig in a poke or the price of eggs. But, for anyone gazing from afar at the 2025 Montana Legislature and wondering “WTF?,” look no further than Ravalli County.

On a personal note: apologies to readers of this blurb since, no matter how hard I try, I can’t put this stuff down into words without it sounding like a dark fairytale rejected by the Grimm brothers. because it was too unbelievable.

And I ain’t kiddin.’

*The actual dinosaur is called a Diplidocus, but I refer here to a fictional beast who is a metaphor to the well-worn truism: “Their brains were tiny and they died.”