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Carter’s legacy involves so much more than being a president
Recently, it was reported that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had entered their “final days.” The 39th President is 98 and his bride of 77 years is 96. Their grandson, Josh, told People Magazine that they are “still holding hands” and that Jimmy is still eating his favorite peanut butter ice-cream. The former President has been […]
History, the Klan and a Montana sheriff’s warning
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Patterns and cycles seem to repeat over time. Almost without exception, perceived threats to the racial, ethnic, or religious majority have triggered populist reactions to change. Ethnic minorities have been persecuted because of race; religious minorities because of faith; women and LGBTQ Americans because of gender and […]
Tax cheats and the debt dilemma
Americans have always commonly agreed that taxes are the price of a civilized society. Only relatively recently has the idea that “taxation is theft” been seriously suggested in the public discourse. People who claim not to believe in government use that belief as justification to not pay taxes to support it. While tax protesters […]
Don’t mess with Montana’s good elections
As Montana Secretaries of State, both Democratic and Republican, for 24 years we supervised Montana’s elections. Working with the extremely competent county, city and school district clerks, administrators other local government entities, and an army of bipartisan and nonpartisan volunteers in communities across the state, we have helped establish a record of safe, secure, efficiently-run […]
While trying to educate the next generation, teachers are on the front lines of danger
School shootings and the bloody murders of totally innocent children and their teacher caretakers is a societal tragedy that Americans have become numb to. Without the common sense outlawing of the assault weapons used in most of these atrocities, the preventable horror will relentlessly continue, in our schools, most of them public schools. On the […]
Republican roots and the politics of party
“The Democrats killed two of my brothers.” That was the reply my 9-year-old father received from his great grandmother on her rural Iowa front porch when he asked her why she was such a strong Republican. Her comment reflected the bitter legacy of the Civil War. As it left the American South solidly Democratic for […]
Amending Montana’s Constitution thoughtfully
2022 was the year of celebrating the 50th birthday of Montana’s Constitution – its visionary provisions and the unique bipartisan approach adopted by the citizen delegates who wrote it. Our perspective is from a combined total of more than 30 years of legislative experience under both our current Constitution, as well as the one that […]