I thought Montana was Bush country.

[mwb970]

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/09/24/opinion/letters/65-guide.txt?comments=submitted

Check out this letter to the Billings Gazette and the responses to it.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Montana Has A High Standard Deviation

There are definitly a lot of very cool people in Montana - more than I expected before I spent time there...

[havocmom]

2. Only one person in my whole county has ANYTHING nice to say about bush

More and more saying it is just plain scary to watch him on TV.

[NVMojo]

3. we've been wanting to move there for some time, a bluer state would

be great!

[babylonsister]

4. Those responses should be required reading. Thanks for the link. nt

[havocmom]

5. And Billings is the most conservative large city in MT

Many places here much bluer ;)

[Warpy]

6. Governor Brian Schweitzer disproved that

He ran for office as a plain speaking progressive populist and easily defeated his GOP opponent in a heavily Repug state.

My take on a lot of western pubbies is that they're reacting against what they see as a bunch of prissy city slickers from back east representing the Democrats, the kind of jerks who graduate from B school and then come in and try to tell them how to do the jobs they've done for 20 years.

The progressive resurgence could very well begin out west. They thought Stupid was one of them: he looked like them and mighta been stupid but he kinda sounded like them.

They now know what Stupid really is and they're not happy about it.

[sandnsea]

8. Actually

"Liberal elites" from California - when what was really moving to the state was moralist Orange County Republican snobs.

[Stephanie]

9. Schweitzer also completely neturalized the gun control issue

Democrats should follow his example.

[sandnsea]

7. No no no

Burns is only the second Republican Senator the state ever elected. I think they bought into Reaganism - like everybody else - but understand what a disaster Republicanism is now and will never go back to that shit. Don't forget - Mike Mansfield was Senate Majority leader from 1961 - 1976; he had a big hand in all the good work accomplished in this country during that time. He was the son of Irish immigrants. Montana has good Democratic roots and I think we're seeing the real Montana emerge.

[Stephanie]

10. Mike Mansfield was a friend of my grandpa's

Montana was always Democratic - it was a labor state. Mining, strikes, the Pinkertons, a long history of fighting for workers' rights. The first female member of Congress was from Montana - Jeanette Rankin. It's always been a progressive state, the main issue for most Montanans is freedom and independence, which is where the Reagan Republicans managed to manipulate the gun issue to their advantage, IMO. It's a hunting state, still a frontier state, don't mess with their guns.

[sandnsea]

11. True

But also people who can be reasoned with and would be mortified if one of their guns was stolen and killed some little kid in the city. I'm sure Schweitzer did the right thing, as things stand, but it would be nice if somebody could start talking common sense gun laws because most rural people I knew would support them if they were included in drafting them.

I usually mention Jeanette Rankin too - what a shero - worked for peace her entire life. Voted no on both wars, that takes some guts. Alas, she was a Teddy Roosevelt progressive Republican.

[Stephanie]

12. that's okay - Republicans used to be human beings

back in the day. now they're just monsters.

[uppityperson]

13. funny letter also

we live in the best of times because the rich are rich. praise the lord.

[MissMarple]

14. I wonder if any of this will make the print edition.

:shrug:

And it sounds like all of Harold's supporters (all 3 of them) are Christian fundie wingnuts, just like he is.