Montana’s unending search for solutions in need of problems

Sens. Barry Usher (left) and Jason Ellsworth (right) address the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)

How many times in the past, oh say, year or so have you found yourself saying: I wish there was more politics in my life?

For months now, we have been hearing parents call for politics to be taken out of the schools, whether that’s in school library book bans or conversations about who can use what bathrooms when. Politics has permeated churches, schools and even family gatherings — once considered off-limits for politics.

It’s grown to be such a toxic subject that family holiday meetings have turned from awkward to open warfare in some households, and both Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing: If they don’t get your vote this election cycle, democracy is a goner.

That’s why it’s hard to imagine a more tone-deaf call than the cadre of Montana Freedom Caucus members who have triggered a poll to call state legislators back into session.

They want to bring all 150 lawmakers back together so that judges running for the state’s nonpartisan judiciary can declare their political parties, meaning that virtually no segment of the Treasure State government will be operating without the color of partisanship.

Not to be outdone, another dozen Republicans on Tuesday — the day after — called for a different special session, this time to deal with immigration and marijuana revenue.

It made us positively dread Wednesday to see what laughable scenario required the urgent attention of a legislative special session.

What Republicans risk, of course, is a painful and frustrating reminder of what isn’t getting done.

No one wants more politics in their life, and especially not at the state court level, which, despite temper tantrums by the Republican leadership in the legislature, continues to demonstrate itself as the adult in state government.

Keep in mind: A second legislative investigative committee, formed to come to the pre-determined conclusion that something is wrong in Montana courts, had to have what amounted to a day-long remedial civics lesson for some state Republican senators who seemed particularly aggrieved that the courts exist, let alone that they have been given power to review laws. Something about a whole system of checks and balances.

It’s telling that lawmakers who pride themselves on invoking the constitution, wearing flag pins and talking about the Founding Fathers seem to know so little about what those same founders created, including an independent, separate and co-equal judiciary.

At least I credit Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, for trying to provide a basis for the legislative committee’s inquisition.

Now, lawmakers want to convene to also take what amounts to a third pass at divvying up the proceeds from marijuana tax revenue, with the excuse that the reason they didn’t override Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto previously was out of deep concern about the separation of powers and judicial overreach.

Leaders expect us to believe that? This was the same group that seemed surprised by the 1803 case of Marbury vs. Madison, which established the concept of judicial review three years before Lewis and Clark came to Montana, 61 years before it became a territory and 86 years before statehood.

Lawmakers have also tucked the scare tactic of immigration into a call for the special session, after a single homeless immigrant family landed on the doorstep of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department.

I get it: When Republican governors in other states like Florida and Texas send immigrant families to perceived liberal areas, it’s giving these snowflakes a taste of their own medicine. But when the immigrants arrive here, it’s the impetus for the entire legislature to meet.

Again, who are the snowflakes?

Maybe the most vexing thing is just how horribly out of touch these lawmakers are with what is actually happening in Montana. Few Montanans who aren’t in the Legislature are concerned with the possible partisan leanings of judges. And one homeless family, sadly, is just one more family in need of affordable housing in the Treasure State, regardless of where they came from.

The purpose of a special session isn’t property tax relief. It isn’t the unchecked housing problems run amok. It’s not even to discuss what could be a potentially dangerous fire season.

Yet, despite the Republican supermajority’s penchant for solving problems that don’t rate very high on a burgeoning list of Montanan concerns, maybe we should nonetheless thank our GOP leaders for reminding us of the large gulf that seems to separate the politicians from the people of Montana.

On Tuesday, school levies, including one for safety in the state’s largest district, largely failed at the ballot box — and failed spectacularly. Erwin Garcia-Velasquez, the superintendent of Billings Public Schools, told The Billings Gazette that it was property-tax fatigue.

Meanwhile, Republicans are worried about political leanings of judicial candidates?

Maybe come back when you have a plan to fix real problems, rather than shadow punching at the judiciary or explaining why counties, most of them Republican, can’t fix roads.

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