Montana leaders are ignoring the real priorities facing the Treasure State
Last week I watched an interview with a farmer in South Dakota. They were talking about the new immigration policy, and the interviewer asked him how much of his work force consisted of undocumented immigrants.
“About half,” he said.
This is a man who voted from Trump, and for former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. And when the reporter asked whether he was worried about these workers being deported, he was absolutely confident that it wouldn’t happen, which sort of boggles the mind. Did he think that voting for these people makes him immune to their policies, because it seems pretty clear that it’s just the opposite?
It also reminded me of one of the more poignant photos I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, of a man being led in handcuffs by immigration officials, his t-shirt proudly proclaiming “Latinos for Trump.”
On my grandparents’ ranch in southeastern Montana, they relied very heavily, each year, on the visits from harvest crews and sheep shearing crews, almost always made up of immigrants. My grandparents would welcome them at their table for the evenings they were there doing their work, and there was never the slightest hint of discomfort or awkwardness about having them there.
I know that my grandparents were not the only ones in that part of the country who would not have been able to get their work done without the help of these traveling crews. There’s been a lot of talk through the years about the fact that “these people” are doing the work that others aren’t willing to do, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable.
How many white American families do you know that are driving around the country during the summer offering their services to whoever is willing to pay them? I can’t think of a single instance in my entire life where I heard of a situation like that.
And it’s just one more example that makes me wonder what our fellow Montanans are looking at when they vote for people who support these policies, completely missing the fact that it will have a direct impact on so many people in our state.
What kind of mental gymnastics does it require to vote for people like Steve Daines and Greg Gianforte and Ryan Zinke when their voting records are available for everyone to study, and those clearly show that when it comes to keeping the best interests of Montanans at heart, they are only looking at a very small demographic of Montana citizens? And it’s not the farmers and ranchers. It’s not the veterans. It’s not the working class at all.
It’s the Montanans that rest comfortably in the same tax bracket that they do.
People all across Montana face serious financial challenges right now, particularly in the world of housing, health care and property taxes. And yet our Legislature has come right out of the gate with a full-on agenda focusing on bathrooms and the Ten Commandments.
These representatives are not paying attention to the people they represent enough to even know our basic needs. It’s more important than it’s ever been for Montanans to force the people who represent us to return their focus to the issues that affect us all.
Russell Rowland is the author of five novels, as well as Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey. He also hosts a radio show called 56 Counties on Yellowstone Public Radio. You can access his radio show, his podcast about Montana books, and any of his other work at russellrowland.com.