LR-131 sucks. Why I’m voting No and yelling about it.
Come with me my friends, back to 2021, during the Montana Republican-led legislative session. During that session, Republicans held majorities in both chambers of the legislature and the governorship. They pretty much could cram any bill they wanted down our throats. And they kind of did with bills helping to poison the environment, steal our human rights, and restrict voting rights. During their rapid-fire shitty session, the Montana GOP also planned out a little treat for our ballots in November 2022. They could have passed this garbage during the session, but they saved LR-131 for the ballot box. Why? Because they wanted to play on voters’ heart strings and push anti-abortion lies to drum up votes in 2022.
The Montana GOP wants voters to ignore their track record of selling Montana to the highest bidder and undermining everyday Montanans. Diversion time! Hmmm, how can we make Montanans big mad at Democrats? I’ve got it! Let’s tell our voters that doctors are murdering infants at birth! How can Democrats not be outraged at that? They must be monsters! Vote with us!
Just out of curiosity, how did our Great Falls legislators vote to put LR-131 on the ballot? Shocker almost the complete Republican slate voted in favor: Fitzpatrick, Galloway, Gist, Kerns, McKamey, Sheldon-Galloway, and Trebas.
What a bunch of bullshit.
Doctors already try to save their patients’ lives to every extent possible. Under Montana law, homicide charges can be filed “if a person purposely, knowingly or negligently causes the death of a premature infant birth alive, if the infant is viable.” Meanwhile, dumb ass LR-131 comes in and provides penalties of up to $50,000 in fines and up to 20 years in prison. What doctor wouldn’t perform unnecessary care to avoid that? What this bill does is force doctors to perform medical treatment for incurable issues. Grieving parents having to watch their dying infant undergo hopeless, expensive medical intervention – without being able to hold their child during their last moments of life.
All for political jockeying at the polls.
Republican Representative Matt Regier (out of Kalispell) is a sponsor of this cow patty, I mean, bill. He is on record stating that the proposed referendum simply means that medical providers can’t intentionally take the life of an independent, living, breathing infant. ::Cough, cough, Bullshit::
Standard of care won’t change? Even with a threat of 20 years prison time over doctors’ heads? Tell that to the patients suffering from ectopic pregnancies in Texas and Missouri with their total abortion bans. Doctors are scared to intervene until the patient’s health is completely deteriorated, even though they know no ectopic pregnancy is survivable.
Why are Republicans so adamant about inserting themselves in people’s private medical decisions? Why are you so obsessed with uteruses, my duderuses? (Rhetorical questions of course.) We know why. They want to control us. And they aren’t afraid to lie and tap into voters’ protective instincts to do it. What a travesty if this it gets voted into law. Please vote no on LR-131.
We recently posted an article on the Montana Republican Party Platform. Yikes. It was creepy and disturbing. Today, I figured we could take a look at the Montana Democratic Party Platform and see what the Vote Blue crowd supported during their Party Convention in July 2022. The meeting came a few weeks after the Montana Republicans and, unlike their Republican counterparts, the Democrats had near unanimous agreement to their platform.
The party added new language around Democrats’ support for the right to abortion in Montana: “Protecting a person’s right to abortion, contraception, and other reproductive healthcare.” Delegates didn’t fixate on the issue, unlike at the Montana Republican convention. As noted by Democratic Representative Laurie Bishop of Livingston, Montana Democrats have long focused on defending the right to abortion.
What about the other issues that we highlighted in our article about the Montana GOP platform? Here is a side-by-side comparison of the relevant quotes from each party’s platform.
Issue of Concern
Montana Democratic Positions
Montana Republican Positions
LGBTQ+ Rights
“We support equal treatment of all individuals before the law, regardless of race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, physical or intellectual ability, physical or mental health status, language of origin, national origin, or marital status.”
“We believe the ideal traditional family structure is a father and a mother….” “We support policies and services that preserve and strengthen the traditional family units as well as promoting the wellbeing and innocence of children and youth.”
Public Education
“We are…committed to a continuum of high-quality, equitable public education opportunities with adequate state funding to develop the potential of every Montanan.”
“Adopt school choice policies.” “Facilitating programs that allow money to follow the child for education opportunities…inside or outside the public school system.”
Climate Change
“Montana Democrats believe we must reduce our reliance on fossil fuels through a combination of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the development of clean, renewable energy sources.” “We believe we can achieve this goal and create – or provide transitions into – good Montana jobs.
“We…oppose any regulation on domestic energy production or consumption. We oppose any and all parts of the Green New Deal, the ‘War on Fossil Fuels’, the Paris Climate Accord…”
Workers’ Rights
“We support the right of workers to establish democracy in the workplace by forming or joining independent unions for purposes of bargaining and advocating collectively.
“We believe that membership in labor bargaining units should be optional.”
Affordable housing: “We support increased state investment in affordable, quality housing for all Montanans.”
Property tax relief: “A fair and equitable property tax system that provides funding for necessary local government services, requires wealthy property owners to pay their fair share.”
Mental health: “expansion of affordable access to crisis support, substance use disorder treatment…and other mental health care.”
Child care: “Ensure access to affordable, high quality child care…reducing out-of-pocket costs for working and middle-class families.”
Montana constitution: “We support Montana’s constitution…and we’ll resist any partisan effort to repeal and replace Montana’s constitution.”
Well, what the funk! I have to say that sounds pretty appealing to me. What future vision are Montana voters going to select in November?
Candidate Rae Grulkowski’s lies were the subject of a New York Times article.
Both photos taken from individuals respective websites
County Commissioner Don Ryan
Cascade County Commission Race, District #3. Where facts are no match for fear!
The Cascade County Commission race between Don Ryan (Democrat) and Rae Grulkowski (Republican) is the only contested commission race this cycle in our county. Who are these people?
Commissioner Don Ryan was appointed in early 2021, after the retirement of Jane Weber. Don Ryan previously served in the Montana Senate for two terms and was elected four times for the Great Falls School Board. Ryan has been serving on the Cascade County Commission without any newsworthy problems. His website provides a long list of accomplishments during his tenure as commissioner…but what about his opponent Rae Grulkowski?
You might recognize the name from Grulkowski’s disinformation campaign against the National Heritage Area (NHA) effort in Central Montana. Based on conspiracy theory-filled information she gleaned from the internet, Grulkowski decided to fight the proposed heritage area in 2020. Her dishonest efforts were notable enough to make the national news, starting when she spent $1,300 to send out packets full of lies to hundreds of voters. According to the New York Times, Grulkowski told the voters that “the designation would forbid landowners to build sheds, drill wells or use fertilizers and pesticides. It would alter water rights, give tourists access to private property, create a new taxation district and prohibit new septic systems and burials on private land, she said. None of this was true [emphasis added].”
As noted in the article, Grulkowski did not identify a single instance of a property owner’s being adversely affected by a heritage area. What she is worried about is not anything specific, but “wide open things that could happened.” National Heritage Areas have been around since the 1980s. I guess nearly 40 years is not enough precedent for Grulkowski.
Emboldened by her success in spreading lies and conspiracy theories, she is now running for our county commission!
Aside from her lies on the NHA, what else can we expect from Grulkowski?
Luckily, the New York Timesarticle provides a nice summary of her stated beliefs for us:
“Outside of a poultry coop, as her chickens and ducks squawked, Ms. Grulkowski ticked through the falsehoods she had read online and accepted as truths in the past year: The Covid vaccine is more dangerous than the coronavirus. Global child-trafficking rings control the political system. Black Lives Matter was responsible for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The United Nations is plotting to control world population and seize private land. Mr. Trump was the rightful winner of last year’s election. Even in Cascade County, where Mr. Trump won 59 percent of the vote, Ms. Grulkowski argued that 3,000 illegal votes were cast.”
One of the greatest hits on her public Facebook posts is spreading the “Big Lie” about election integrity. In one example, Grulkowski wants us to “write to the Secretary of State, Legislators, and Congressman to encourage them to investigate Montana’s 2020 election.” What information is Grulkowski looking for? Does she think the elected Republicans she is asking people to write to were illegitimately elected? Did Trump not get 56.9% of the vote in Montana in 2020? Were Democrats robbed of their seats?
It really makes a person wonder. What kind of detachment from reality can we expect next if she is elected?
Montana Republicans want to ban all abortion and more with their 2022 Party Platform
In July 2022, the Montana Republican party approved a new party platform at their platform convention. You might be asking yourself. What the funk is a party platform? Why should I care? Well, well, well, you’ve come to the right place and you absolutely should care.
What the funk is a party platform?
A political party platform is a formalized set of goals supported by a political party. By checking out a party’s platform you can see a party’s principles, goals and positions. This helps predict what legislators and leaders will actually do if they’re elected. For example, this data analysis found that “Overall, Democrats in Congress voted for positions that matched their platforms 74 percent of the time in the past 30 years, while Republicans did so 89 percent of the time.” This year the Montana GOP successfully introduced platform language to explicitly call on the Republican legislators to identify bills that link to specific elements in the platform and to pass at least 20 such bills in each chamber to ensure that “Party Platform goals become a priority each session.” We absolutely can expect the MT GOP platform to have a direct connection to the laws passed by Montana Republicans in the future.
What does a Montana Republican majority in 2023 look like?
Glad you asked! Let’s take a gander at what Montana Republicans have put in their party platform to see what kind of shit they’re bringing for us in 2023.
For abortion rights, the Montana Republican platform now states, “We support complete ban on elective abortion.” And yes, they mean a complete ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. At the Republican convention, a couple of moderate Republicans tried to soften the language to provide exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. Those attempted arguments were met with boos and voted down. Cheers were heard when Republican Derek Skees of Kalispell interjected, “I was involved in helping put this language in here: life begins at conception. Period.”
What other areas do we have to worry about? Too many to list. Here are some other areas with concerning language from the Republican party platform:
LGBTQ+ issues “We believe the ideal traditional family structure is a father and a mother….” “We support policies and services that preserve and strengthen the traditional family units as well as promoting the wellbeing and innocence of children and youth.” Where do these positions leave space for our LGBTQ+ citizens?
Undermining of public schools, “adopt school choice policies.” “Facilitating programs that allow money to follow the child for education opportunities…inside or outside the public school system.”
Inaction on climate change “we…oppose any regulation on domestic energy production or consumption. We oppose any and all parts of the Green New Deal, the ‘War on Fossil Fuels’, the Paris Climate Accord…”
Attacks on worker rights “We believe that membership in labor bargaining units should be optional.”
Wow.
I do not look forward to living in a state moving full speed ahead towards this agenda. Republicans have made it clear that they intend to reshape Montana into a Big-Government haven with no respect for individual privacy. If Republicans maintain their stranglehold on state offices, Montana’s future looks dystopian indeed.
As the marchers walked on the hot pavement, loud chants of “my body, my choice,” and cheers filled the air. Over fifty pro-choice protestors marched in the Great Falls’ 4th of July parade alongside the Cascade County Democrats.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the privacy protections established by Roe v. Wade. Upending nearly 50 years of abortion protections, the issue was thrown back to the states. In Great Falls, multiple pro-choice grassroots groups have sprung up. Nearly daily protests have taken place on 10th Ave. South and the Central Ave. West Bridge. The people are outraged, as they should be!
While abortion is still legal in Montana, the outcome of the upcoming 2022 elections will determine the fate of abortion rights in our state.
Republicans have two routes to weaken and undermine Montana’s Constitution. And let’s be clear, they are working hard on both routes to remove our bodily autonomy.
Route #1:Gain a supermajority in the Montana Legislature
If the legal challenges don’t go their way, Republicans are counting on a gaining enough legislative seats in the upcoming election to attempt revising our Montana Constitution. They want to remove the inconvenient elements, like our rights to privacy, rights to a clean and healthful environment and a guarantee of equality of education opportunity to all. (How horrible! A right to individual privacy not infringed by the government!)
Route #2:Undermine and pack the Montana Supreme Court with Extreme Conservatives
Montana Republicans have been attacking the independence of the Montana Supreme Court in preparation for packing the court with judges friendly to their unconstitutional legislative agenda. Our current, incumbent Montana Supreme Court Justices (Ingrid Gustafson and Jim Rice) respect the separation of branches of government and our Montana Constitution. Republicans seem to be saying, “let’s throw judicial independence out the window” as they go all in on partisan politics in these judicial races. Who needs separate branches of government, amirite? Republicans are supporting two conservative judicial candidates to change the make-up of the Montana Supreme Court. With a more conservative slanted court, Montana Republicans hope their anti-abortion laws will win future legal challenges.
Rights to privacy and reproductive freedoms won’t stay in place in Montana if more conservatives are elected in judicial positions and legislative roles. The good news is, we have four months to win elections and help preserve our rights to our own bodies. Let’s seize our chance while we still have one to protect our freedoms.
[Full Disclosure: I have helped organize two of the Great Falls pro-choice protests and marched in the 4th of July parade alongside the pro-choice group].
