Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/evanbarrett/)
I love talking with a wide range of folks about history and philosophy, government and law, politics and policy. I’m a Democrat, but many of my best discussion-mates are Republican friends who are willing to reasonably, rationally and civilly advance their political thoughts to me as I advance mine to them. (more…) Continue Reading →
A Montana Republican legislative leader suggests that the GOP back a sales tax. Senate President and former Speaker of the House Scott Sales said in a recent radio interview that Republicans should do so as a way of eliminating our state income tax. Given Montanans’ historical opposition to the sales tax idea, Sales’ advocacy on behalf of the GOP reminds me of the proverbial tale of the frog and the scorpion. A scorpion asks a frog to swim it across a river on its back. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung by the scorpion, drowning both of them. Continue Reading →
“I cried … I was praying to God … I didn’t want to die … I want to live to be old like you.”
Guns and kids are tragically intertwined today in America. It shouldn’t be so, but it is. From Columbine to Sandy Hook to Parkland and dozens more, our minds are haunted by the image of innocent young bodies brutally shattered and shredded by the effects of high-powered military weaponry. (more…) Continue Reading →
What separates Greg Gianforte from the rest of us? Geography, issues and wealth. Montana is large and diverse: 144,000 square miles, 56 counties, 537 unincorporated towns and communities, 130 incorporated cities and towns, and 118,405 businesses (3078 large; 115,326 small). At the same time, Montana has only three members of Congress to represent our wide social, economic and geographic diversity. (more…) Continue Reading →
A congressional death in 1945 and a federal judgeship appointment in 1969 triggered two Montana special congressional elections like the one we have scheduled for May 23, now that former Rep. Ryan Zinke has been sworn in as Interior secretary. (more…) Continue Reading →
Political parties change over time, sometimes reversing roles, sometimes disappearing. Today’s GOP has undergone many transformations since its birth in the 1850s as the successor to the Whig Party. The Republican Party was founded on and ultimately found its legitimacy as the abolitionist, anti-slavery party before and after the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th and arguably greatest president, was its voice and identity. (more…) Continue Reading →
Tick, tick, tick. Today we are counting down on the Republican Senate’s days of shame. The GOP-led U.S. Senate is on a summer break. Count them: For 54 days, from July 14 to Sept. 6, both the House and Senate are on the longest summer break since those breaks were first established in the 1960s. (more…) Continue Reading →
On the coming 4th of July, our hearts will swell with pride as the Stars and Stripes lead our local Independence Day parades. That flag reflects an American reality of which we are all rightfully proud. Despite its imperfections, we live in a great country, with a remarkable democratic governmental structure that is the envy of the world—the bedrock of our national identity. We are a government of, by and for the people. We are a nation of laws, not of men and their whims and fancies. Continue Reading →
“The people,” said a farmer’s wife in a Minnesota country store while
her husband was buying a new post-hole digger,
“The people,” she went on, “will stick around a long time. “The people run the works, only they don’t know it yet — you wait and see.”
— Carl Sandburg in “The People, Yes” (1936) —
The people running things. Powerful thought. But, is it just a nice sentiment or could it be a reality? Is it a genuine possibility, or just rhetorical candy for the masses, distracting them from the harsh reality that money rules the roost in America? Continue Reading →
