When does irresponsibility become insanity?

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia speaks at a House Freedom Caucus press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (Ariana Figueroa of the States Newsroom)

The current iteration of the Republican Party continues to drag us closer and closer to authoritarianism or even fascism. Forty or more of the Freedom Caucus members in the U.S. House of Representatives have no interest in doing anything that resembles governance. Even an archconservative like Newt Gingrich has said, “They wake up every morning prepared to say no to anything…. You’ve got to remember, this isn’t some game at a PTA meeting, This is the House of Representatives. It has serious constitutional obligations.” 

Members of the Freedom Caucus have frozen funds for Ukraine for months, giving Putin’s Russian army a chance to make advances as spring comes. The Ukrainian people have put up a valiant effort in their opposition to the immoral occupation of their country. But they cannot do it alone. They need the support of the international community to sustain their efforts.

Dragging your feet in opposition to helping the Ukrainian people is not just irresponsible and immoral, it is where irresponsibility becomes insanity. The Freedom Caucus, both in Washington and in Montana, are more interested in maintaining their power than they are in acting on and moving legislation to solve real world problems and issues.

In Montana, the Republican dominated legislature (and Governor) ignored solving the problem of the huge increase in people’s property tax bills, while focusing on issues that did not have an objective problem to go with it. Fourteen (and counting) different laws they have enacted since 2021 have been declared unconstitutional by the judicial system and Montana Supreme Court. These laws run from reproductive rights to voting restrictions. Several laws restricting the rights of trans youth to medical care and adults as to identification documents have been challenged in court and are going through the judicial process to have them declared unconstitutional.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent defending these stupid laws, that never should have been signed into law in the first place. The legal counsel to the legislature on several occasions wrote reviews of the bills warning that they were probably unconstitutional. These opinions were ignored.

Now the Republicans in the legislature have formed a new “select committee” to counter what they see as “judicial overreach” because the laws they passed were declared unconstitutional. The claim is to save the balance of powers between the different branches of government. They are like the small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar who looks at you and says, “I was getting it for you!”

How do we stop this insanity? If the people of Montana continue to allow this to go on by electing and re-electing legislators and governors who just want to push through their ideological insanity, we should pass a citizen’s initiative that says something to the effect of: 

“If legislators vote for bills and the governor signs into law any measure that is later found to be unconstitutional, the financial costs of that litigation shall be borne by the individuals who passed and signed the laws. The total costs of all parties to the litigation, (plaintiffs and defendants) shall be evenly divided among these individuals. Reimbursement shall take place within 120 days of the court’s decision. If the funds are not forthcoming, this can become a lien against the person’s private property and/or estate to be collected by whatever legal means necessary. It will be the duty of the State of Montana to conduct this action.”

This may sound like it is draconian or over the top, but most rational people are tired of the insanity going on at the legislature and this irresponsible use of tax dollars and other resources when there are so many other real needs and problems facing our schools, communities, and citizens. Enough is enough. 

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