by Helena Lovick | Dec 3, 2024 | Elections
The majority of the American electorate voted for Donald Trump for President, a conman with 34 felonies, a rapist, and a Hitler admirer. Wow. I will admit that I was surprised that he won the popular vote. This is some scary but also fucking embarrassing shit. Embarrassing on an international scale. Here is our leader! He can’t string a sentence together unless it’s talking about how big his rallies are.
But How Bad Is It?
Really fucking bad.
The sickening truth is, it’s going to be as bad or worse than we saw in the first Trump administration. Many people are going to suffer under the upcoming regressive policies.
Republicans hold all three branches of the federal government in America. From the stacked right-wing judges in the Supreme Court, both chambers of Congress and the Presidency, they hold them all. In Montana, our State Supreme Court is in slightly better shape with a majority of moderate judges, but our State Legislature still has a Republican majority, and our Republican Governor Gianforte is an ultra rich religious extremist who thinks the earth is only 6,000 years old. As a treat, Gianforte gave people record high property tax hikes while cutting his own taxes.
WHAT CAN WE DO??
Before I get into a closer look at the election results for Montana, I want to speak briefly about my hope and determination for the future.
If you are scared and worried about our country, the solution is civic engagement. We need to be building local community, talking to our elected officials, holding our politicians accountable and continuing to bend the path of this country towards justice. It took them 40 years to dismantle Roe v. Wade. and it’s going to take time for us to change the right-wing capture of our government. And unless you want to live under a dictatorship, it’s going to take some work to dig us out of this hole. FIND YOUR PEOPLE. Go to community meetings. Show up. Volunteer. Talk to your friends and family and get them involved, too. Register voters that understand the danger we are in. You can make things better.
So What Happened in Montana?
Sadly, the red trend continued. Not surprisingly, we saw a growing right-wing slant in Montana over the past decade, because from October 2008 through May 2024, for every two Democrats moving to Montana, slightly more than three Republicans did the same.
All Statewide Seats are now held by Republicans
As we saw in 2020 and 2022, all statewide Democratic candidates lost in 2024. With the ouster of Montana’s last statewide Democratic official, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Republicans hold every statewide seat. Dismantling of our public services such as Medicaid, access to public lands, tax cuts for the rich, and rising property taxes are all on the table.
How did the vote breakdown?
Jon Tester lost his senate seat to newcomer Tim Sheehy (45% to 53%). Montanans voted against a Senator who has continually proven his support of rural hospitals, abortion rights, infrastructure funding that directly helped Montana, and elected a man who is adamantly anti-abortion and will likely align with an effort to pass a national abortion ban. At the same time, voters passed the abortion rights measure of CI-128 to enshrine abortion rights in our state constitution, 58% Yes to 42% No. That is completely wild. I’m not sure if people know that federal law supersedes state law. If there is an abortion ban on the federal level, then there is an abortion ban in Montana no matter what our state constitution says.
But the happy outcome for CI-128 is a promising sign that Montanans still support women’s rights to their own healthcare decisions. There is space to have a discussion on the disconnect of who is being elected and what the voters and Montanans actually want.
Things are not all bad.
As mentioned above, CI-128 won handily. Democrats broke the supermajority in the Montana State Legislature, and Democrat Jane Weber won her election bid for a Montana House seat in Great Falls. Jane Weber’s win marks the first Democratic legislator elected in Cascade County since 2018.
Map of Montana’s 2024 Legislative Seats. Blue for Democratic seats, Red for Republican seats.
Even in the flood of other bad election news, we did have promising wins for Democratic policies in Montana. Things are not hopeless. Let’s build on that and do the local organizing work to fight for a better future.
by Helena Lovick | Nov 19, 2024 | Abortions Rights
-Great Falls, Mont.
In the summer of 2018, Trump paid a visit to Great Falls in an effort to bolster the Senate campaign of Matt Rosendale. The rally was accompanied by a group of about four hundred anti-Trump protesters. As the rally attendees and protestors shouted back and forth, the MAGA crowd was joined by neo-nazis waving white supremacist flags, including the “national flag of Kekistan.” In a disturbing foreshadowing of the insurrectionists of January 6th, it was clear the white supremacists were aligned with Trump.
With Trump’s win this November, the far right crowd is energized again.
In a skin crawling rallying cry, trolls are posting “your body, my choice” and other misogynistic attacks on social media. The likely originator of the “your body, my choice” slogan, Nick Fuentes, reportedly claims it was a ‘joke’. Hahahahhaa. So funny that men love rape jokes. As Nicky gets to deal with the consequences of his actions, what the hell is wrong with people cheering this on?
As explained in a Vox Op-Ed:
“The spike in sexist hate is a reflection of one of the dominant narratives of the election: that it was essentially a triumph of men over women. Trump tailored much of his campaign to disaffected American men — especially young men, many of whom feel they are victims of discrimination and who have expressed resentment against feminist movements like Me Too. For a lot of these men, the election feels like vindication, and for some, it’s more than that: a chance to put women back in their place.”
Nothing screams “protecting women” like letting them know they have no control over their own bodies.
As disturbing as the post-election joyous celebration by the worst people is, it’s not a surprise.
In addition to the anti-feminist backlash, we have seen a rise in the visibility of white supremacists, anti-immigrant sentiments, anti-LGBTQ attacks, and the list goes on. And Montana is certainly not immune. White supremacists have plastered their stickers all over Great Falls multiple times as we’ve previously reported here and here. The Republican majorities that Montanans keep electing, love passing laws to restrict women, the LGBTQ community, more! All of these flavors of hate, just part of the shit sandwich emboldened by electing bigots.
Sometimes the worst people win.
Sometimes the bullies don’t get the comeuppance they deserve. But our push back makes a difference. I was at that 2018 Trump protest. I remember my disgust when I saw those flags and I started shouting and pointing at them, “nazis, nazis!” And when other protesters joined in shouting down those white supremacists, do you know what those cowards did? They quickly rolled up their flags. With Trump returning to office they think they can come out of the shadows. We don’t have to accept that. Hate has no home here.
by Helena Lovick | Sep 4, 2024 | Abortions Rights
On the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, women took the stage to share their devastating experiences of abortion access in America.
Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old who became pregnant as a child after she was raped by her stepfather, has called for exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion ban for sexual assault survivors.
“At age 12, I took my first pregnancy test, and it was positive,” Duvall told the DNC crowd. “That was the first time I was ever told, ‘You have options.’ I can’t imagine not having a choice, but today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.”
Kaitlyn Joshua spoke about being denied miscarriage treatment when she was pregnant with her second child. “Two emergency rooms sent me away. Because of Louisiana’s abortion ban, no one would confirm that I was miscarrying,” she said.
Appearing alongside her husband, Zurawski said delayed pregnancy care threatened her life. “Every time I share our story, my heart breaks for the baby girl we wanted so desperately, for the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver safely, for Josh who feared he’d lose me too,” she said.
This is post-Roe America.
How are we doing in Montana?
In Montana, abortion access remains legal. But our GOP majority legislature is filled with extremists that work hand in hand with our Republican Governor. These anti-abortion creeps want to control women so badly. The Montana GOP has repeatedly put the squeeze on our rights with invasive anti-choice bill after bill. As we mentioned in an earlier blog post, our excellent State Constitution and impartial State Supreme Court continue to work in our favor. Even though it costs Montana taxpayers ridiculous sums of money to defend the unconstitutional bills passed by the legislature, for now Montana courts continue to impartially and fairly interpret our State Constitution and throw out these unconstitutional laws (see here and here).
But what if our court is overtaken by right-wing wing extremists?
Dark money groups and our right-wing right wing extremist legislators are working tirelessly to undermine and infiltrate our court with justices that will approve their unconstitutional laws. In reality, we are one bad election away from losing our rights.
Vote Yes on CI-128 to Protect Our Rights
The risk to our rights based on a bad election cycle is why I support CI-128. This constitutional initiative would amend our State Constitution to preserve Montanans rights to abortion care. You can see the ballot language below. As the Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights group supporting and informing citizens about this constitutional initiative have stated “decisions around pregnancy are deeply personal and should be made between us, our families, and our health care providers. Not the government. Voting “Yes” ensures that right.”
by Helena Lovick | Sep 2, 2024 | Elections
Great Falls, Montana
The news is spreading that the City of Great Falls has proposed removal of 7 mills over a 5 year term of city funding from the Great Falls Public Library, resulting in a 27% reduction in the library’s operating budget (approx. $842,800/year). Consequently, the voter approved, newly implemented expanded hours and services will be dramatically reduced.
People are understandably starting to get pissed at this plan to undermine the will of the voters when we just voted to fund our library more. After the Electric posted this accurate news story on the situation (here), our mayor Cory Reeves tried to jump out and derail the growing criticism. Here is the misleading post he put on his Facebook page on September 1st.
How dumb do you think we are Cory?
While the city is considering “to end the city subsidy of 7 mills and redirect those funds back to public safety”…”this does NOT mean we are considering removing or reducing the mills that voters recently passed”. OH FUCKING REALLY? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS BULLSHIT? That is effectively taking away funds that the voters just allocated to the library and you fucking know it Cory.
Oh, oh it’s totally separate money and we’re going to take that money from the library but not touch the money for the library the voters just put in place. So fucking what if you don’t take the mills we *just* voted for. If you’re taking library funding from somewhere else, you are still taking library funding when the voters just voted to fund the library more! That’s some mealy-mouthed, misleading dog shit.
How did we get here?
In June 2023, Great Falls voted to pass a library levy to help fund expanded services at our public library. The library levy added about $1.2 million to the library budget and increased the annual tax on $200,000 home by approximately $40.50 (news story here). In November 2023, fewer than 40% of Great Falls voters supported a hefty public safety levy request, which would have raised property taxes on a $200,000 home by $280.11 a year, and increased funding for the city’s fire, law enforcement and municipal court system by $13.7 million annually.
And our City Commission has been freaking out ever since.
Does our City Commission “fully support” our library?
We wrote about the City Commission’s shitty work to install a book banner on the library board back in October 2023. Despite the vast majority of community members speaking against the appointment of Noelle Johnson, the commission proceeded to appoint her anyway. And then, despite another majority of community members requesting the commission appoint a member who actually likes public libraries and wishes them to succeed, the Great Falls City Commission appointed her for an even longer term in June 2024. All this after Noelle Johnson’s presence on the board was characterized as “a disruptive force that complicates board work.” (As reported in the Great Falls Tribune here). So much for the will of the voters.
But what about public safety?
Yes, public safety is very important. We all want our city to have the resources to balance safety and our freedoms.
But the voters rejected the City’s request for so much money for public safety. Maybe if the City repackaged it in smaller bites it would be successful. But this is about our library. Voters voted to help our library. Public safety and our public library funding are two separate issues and the voters spoke on how they want them handled for now. The Great Falls City Commission needs to stop undermining our library and look at other solutions to uphold the will of the voters.
Let your voice be heard!
If you want to do something about the situation, you can contact our City Commission. Let them know as voting city residents. How would you like the commission to approach the dilemma of city funding, while still honoring the will of the people?
by Helena Lovick | Aug 23, 2024 | Abortions Rights, Elections
My eyes about rolled into another dimension when I got the mailer about Jerry Lynch’s and Katherine Bidegaray’s dangerous liberal agenda. Right. If anything, that’s an endorsement based on the dark money groups that fund that nonsense. As noted by an editorial in the Daily Inter Lake, “Montanans for Fair Taxes is funded by out-of-state pharmaceutical companies, tobacco companies, uber-wealthy political extremists and Montana Chamber money. The same is true for another shady group hypocritically called Montanans for Judicial Accountability.”
But I’m sure they have everyday Montanans best interests at heart. (Great, now my eyes hurt from rolling so much).
Several of the current problems with the “Supreme” Court of the United States (SCOTUS) are due to the lifetime appointments of the justices with no real oversight. In Montana, we vote on our State Supreme Court justices which allows our court to be filled with judges accountable to the people. And that’s why dark money groups are so invested in putting their preferred picks on the court.
Why should we care about the makeup of Montana’s Supreme Court?
Welp, do you want reproductive freedom?
Nightmarish stories of American women suffering through a miscarriage and being turned away from emergency rooms have filled the news. Thankfully our State Supreme Court is currently holding back unconstitutional bans of abortion in Montana. Because of Montana’s robust State Constitution and right to privacy, abortion rights continue to be protected in Montana.
Yes! Abortion is still legal in Montana.
Let’s hang strong and keep abortion legal Montana!
Image from NYT
Because Montana continues to offer abortion services, residents of surrounding states have been traveling to our state for necessary healthcare. For example, the number of Idahoans traveling to Montana to receive abortion care has tripled in the last year. Of course, we can’t get complacent and ignore justice elections for our State Supreme Court. We know that established law can be thrown out by partisan judges with a personal agenda. Take a look at the SCOTUS with their bullshit decisions on a range of issues including Roe v. Wade.
Impartial Judges for the Win
Since I want a Montana Supreme Court that continues to function with impartial justices who adhere to the constitution, I will be voting for Jerry Lynch and Katherine Bidegaray. The fact that dark money groups have negative ads against them is just another sign that these two judges will actually be the impartial justices we need to protect our rights.
