What I find a little interesting is what this is telling us about Republican politics right now. I thought it a clever election ploy when Sen. Daines introduced the bill earlier in the year -- given how important the votes from Indigenous communities had been in Sen. Tester's victory.
But none of that explains at all why he (and Rep. Gianforte!) would expend the effort to get this enacted now, after the election, but before the ruby red trifecta (led by Gov. Gianforte!) takes over in Helena. There had been a little talk about the legislature doing some mischief wrt the CSKT compact -- I'm not hooked into winger culture enough to know how serious this was -- and with some very quick action, Sen Daines has just taken that off the table.
I think the Fort Belknap compact is the only one of the 7 Tribal compacts awaiting ratification by Congress. It doesn't seem to engender nearly as much antipathy as the CSKT compact, so we can hope maybe it gets ratified in the next Congress (if I haven't missed its ratification already) and that'll end this 40+ year endeavor . . .
Thanks, another great column, nice to hear some good news. Some excellent insights here that have been chaotically running through my mind that you have crystallized well. I think this far right model of operating started with Newt and then was supported by the Koch brothers. It's gotten to be untenable. As you say, what ever happened to bipartisanship? It seems to be dead as the politicians who get elected and re-elected are beholden to their base. It's interesting to see someone like Lindsay Graham and Rand Paul, their evolution as politicians (or de-evolution) to embrace more far right/non-fact based positions - it's what years of far right lies have done to a large segment of the population.
I recently read that 80% of Repubs believe (don't quote me) that the election of Biden is illegitimate, and that it was stolen from Trump. That is disturbing and depressing to me. If lies are repeated, do they become truth? It's like a lot of the Republican party - not all - has become not interested in governing or seeking compromise, but only in ruling. What happened to all of the Mitt Romneys (who I disagree with on many issues), etc? A large segment of the party seems to have taken on many aspects of cults.
Sorry to ramble so much, your writing triggered a lot of thinking!
I'm right with you on all of this. I just want to add that I'm a big fan of Shelly Fyant, the CSKT chairwoman too.
What I find a little interesting is what this is telling us about Republican politics right now. I thought it a clever election ploy when Sen. Daines introduced the bill earlier in the year -- given how important the votes from Indigenous communities had been in Sen. Tester's victory.
But none of that explains at all why he (and Rep. Gianforte!) would expend the effort to get this enacted now, after the election, but before the ruby red trifecta (led by Gov. Gianforte!) takes over in Helena. There had been a little talk about the legislature doing some mischief wrt the CSKT compact -- I'm not hooked into winger culture enough to know how serious this was -- and with some very quick action, Sen Daines has just taken that off the table.
I think the Fort Belknap compact is the only one of the 7 Tribal compacts awaiting ratification by Congress. It doesn't seem to engender nearly as much antipathy as the CSKT compact, so we can hope maybe it gets ratified in the next Congress (if I haven't missed its ratification already) and that'll end this 40+ year endeavor . . .
Thanks, another great column, nice to hear some good news. Some excellent insights here that have been chaotically running through my mind that you have crystallized well. I think this far right model of operating started with Newt and then was supported by the Koch brothers. It's gotten to be untenable. As you say, what ever happened to bipartisanship? It seems to be dead as the politicians who get elected and re-elected are beholden to their base. It's interesting to see someone like Lindsay Graham and Rand Paul, their evolution as politicians (or de-evolution) to embrace more far right/non-fact based positions - it's what years of far right lies have done to a large segment of the population.
I recently read that 80% of Repubs believe (don't quote me) that the election of Biden is illegitimate, and that it was stolen from Trump. That is disturbing and depressing to me. If lies are repeated, do they become truth? It's like a lot of the Republican party - not all - has become not interested in governing or seeking compromise, but only in ruling. What happened to all of the Mitt Romneys (who I disagree with on many issues), etc? A large segment of the party seems to have taken on many aspects of cults.
Sorry to ramble so much, your writing triggered a lot of thinking!