Montana Cowgirl continues her reporting on the teabagger assault on the Republican Party, mentioning some of the fringe planks in the Montana GOP’s platform and noting that Rep. Denny Rehberg, once thought the MTGOP’s leader, now claims he lacks the power to keep unsound planks out of his party’s lumberyard:
…he had no control to stop fringe ideological resolutions at the last GOP Platform Convention in 2010, such as the one calling for the jailing of LGBT Montanans and the birther resolution calling for a law that all Montana candidates produce a birth certificate so we don’t get any more Kkkenyan Socialists elected to office. These were passed after the TEA Partiers exerted their influence over the GOP platform at its Convention and passed several resolutions out side the mainstream viewpoints of Montana voters.
Read Cowgirl’s full posting. Then, read the MTGOP platform, where in addition to the planks Cowgirl mentions, there are these cracked boards:
Under “Inflation:” We support a return to a gold and silver based monetary system and a strong dollar policy based on intrinsic asset values and not a debased fiat monetary policy.
Right. Slip back into the monetary straitjacket that helped both generate and deepen the Great Depression. I prescribe Barry Eichengreen’s Golden Fetters for those susceptible to the gold standard psychosis.
Under “Personal Rights and Liberties:” We support the repeal of the 16th amendment of the U.S. Constitution which authorizes a national income tax.
You can file this under economic atavism: the without basis belief that life was better in the good old days, when tariffs and property taxes were the primary sources of income for government, and rich men needed strong suspenders because their pockets were stuffed with pounds and pounds of clinkingDouble Eagles; real money. There may be no antidote for delusions of this magnitude, so for these folks I prescribe quarantine, not a book. For everyone else, the Great Tax Wars by Steven R. Weisman is a useful read.
Under “Seatbelts:” We oppose laws that would change Montana’s seatbelt law from a secondary offense to a primary offense except with respect to child restraint systems. Montana drivers should be punished for driving illegally and not because the driver was driving in a safe manner, without wearing a seatbelt.
File this under oxymoronity without embarrassment. This plank ensures ideological consistency with Montana’s brains-on-the-highway law that allows motorcyclists to roar down the freeway while wearing dark glasses but no crash helmet.
Both practices — no seatbelt, no safety helmet — start with limited brains and end with dead brains and more organ donors. Perhaps the MTGOP should have strapped its seatbelt plank to the health care section of its platform.
I’m obliged to note parenthetically that some cross-party voting on this issue does occur. In the 2009 session, Sen. Dave Lewis (R-Helena) introduced SB-237, “An act revising laws relating to the use of seatbelts and child safety restraints; eliminating the secondary enforcement restriction for restraint violations;…,” with co-sponsors including Democrat Mike Cooney. It died in the Senate on 25-25 tie vote on 5 February 2009. Most Republicans voted against it, most Democrats voted for it. Republicans Roy Brown, Taylor Brown, John Brueggeman, Rich Laible, Dave Lewis, and Ryan Zinke voted for SB-237, while Democrats Steven Gallus, Jim Keane, Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, Jonathan Windy Boy voted against it.
According to the Helena Independent Record, Windy Boy …”[urged] lawmakers to vote against the bill, saying it could provide more opportunities for racial profiling. Indians do get stopped for a lot of reasons, and I’m going to oppose this bill because I’m not going to give them another reason.”
Have the teabaggers had their way with Montana’s Republican platform? Without question. And similar language is going into state Republican platforms in many areas of the country, but especially in the south, southwest, and Rocky Mountain regions where rural living and comparatively low population density contribute to an exaggerated sense of self-reliance and little need of government.
Radical planks like those in the MT GOP’s platform encourage candidates to take even more extreme positions. Jerry O’Neil, the GOP nominee for HD-3 (Columbia Falls) is a good example. He wants to repeal the 17th Amendment, which requires the direct election of U.S. Senators, and even introduced legislation to get the repeal going during a previous term in the legislature.
The teabaggers are no longer just a colorful fringe, redolent of reactionary economic ideas and oozing misinformation. Their movement has seeped into the GOP mainstream and begun carrying the party into places it hasn't visited since Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.