Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
At the Flathead Beacon, Tristan Scott has the story. Rep. Ed Lieser (D-Whitefish) and Sen. Jennifer Fielder (R-Thompson Falls) will square off at FVCC Thursday evening at 1900 in a debate sponsored by Montanans for Multiple Use, a conservative organization that does not look unkindly on logging and mineral extraction on public lands.
The Montana Republican Party’s plank on federal public lands calls for transferring them to the states:
Federally Managed Public Lands
The Montana Republican Party supports the U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, U.S. President, other public officials and citizens of Montana and the United States to fully exert their efforts and powers to support granting federally managed public lands to the states; and in accordance with the Enabling Act of 1889.
Attempts to transfer the federal lands managed by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and various federal wildlife agencies, to the states, and thence to private ownership, are nothing new. Some date back to the nineteenth century. All thfailed once exposed to sunlight. Before the current Teabush Rebellion, a waste of time and energy, the most recent large scale attempts were the Sagebrush Rebellion that occurred during the Reagan administration, and the attempted land grab by the stockgrowers in the late 1940s and early 1950 that was, as I described in a post on 25 July 2014, exposed by Bernard DeVoto.
If you’re wondering just how philosophically committed the Montana GOP is to policies such as this attempted land grab, consider its plank on states rights:
States’ Rights
We agree with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who stated that the U.S. Supreme Court does not have the sole authority to judge the constitutionality of federal laws. We hold with these men that the States not only have the right, but also the duty to nullify unconstitutional laws in order to protect their citizens. We demand federal withdrawal from those areas of responsibility reserved by the U.S. Constitution to the states and people. We demand our state elected officials to undertake appropriate action, including legal action, to confine federal power within its constitutional limits. We strongly encourage the Governor of Montana to continue to utilize the authority extended to the Executive Branch by the Montana Legislature to vigorously defend Montana's right to self-governance under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We call upon our Congressional Delegation to urge strong states’ rights policies governing the use of public lands and resources in the West. We commend the passage of the American Lands Sovereignty Act. We oppose any extension of federal or regional bureaucratic control over water originating in Montana and consider any such action an infringement on states' rights. We demand that the United States comply with its compact with Montana, as that compact was understood in 1889 for inclusion of statehood. The Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of the county. We support the requirement that a federal officer may not arrest, search or seize in Montana without the advanced, written permission of the elected county sheriff.
Nullification and the supremacy of the county sheriff. I expect such passages in the manifestos issued by wingnuts who are a short step from being placed on a list of terrorist organizations — but I find it deeply disquieting when I find them in the platform of one of Montana’s two major political parties. You should too.
Might be an interesting evening.