by Travis Mateer

Identity politics and hatred of Republicans are seriously deranging our political leadership in Missoula.

Today’s post will be looking at two recent examples of this derangement, starting with our County Commissioners op-ed, which states in the title that the “Floyd verdict demands pursuit of more equitable, just communities”.

Here’s more about just how unequal America’s CASTE system has been throughout history:

For nearly half a millennium on this continent, we have lived within a caste system designed by European colonists to stratify people and keep those layers in place. The very concept of race itself functions as a tool to maintain these social gradations – that is indeed its purpose. This deeply internalized caste structure rationalized the creation of a country built on stolen land with stolen labor. The effects of these constructions and the immeasurable personal and generational trauma they wrought live with us to this day.

The irony of this race-based view of the world is that identity politics is doing exactly what our County Commissioners are claiming to be AGAINST. But they are so deeply invested in the reductionist racism of their race-shaming identity politics that they don’t seem to see how divisive this bullshit is.

The use of the term “caste” is an interesting escalation of the race-shaming game. Did our local Democrats think of using this term themselves? I don’t think so. Here’s a New York Times piece from last summer about America’s Enduring Caste System.

The WOKE religion that identity politics has grown into seeks to permeate ALL aspects of our lives. To emphasize this goal, here’s more about THE FORCE entering into our WOKE lives:

Missoula County desires to lead by example in tearing down that wall, and while we are making strides in our efforts to infuse justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) into everything we do, we still have much work ahead. Missoula County recently adopted a resolution granting a 5% bid reduction to businesses certified with the Montana Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. 

The state DBE identifies “disadvantaged” groups as racial and ethnic minorities and women and creates space for “persons who are not members of [the aforementioned groups… if they establish their ‘social’ and ‘economic’ disadvantage.” We created this policy to recognize the historical disadvantages the caste system has engendered and to level the playing field for those most impacted.

Ok, that’s enough from our WOKE County Commissioners. Now let’s take a look at my favorite historian, David James, and the very reasonable argument he makes that Republicans are a cartel at war with the Constitution. From the link (my emphasis):

The original sin of the Republican party was Nixon’s Southern strategy–the appeal to southerners through racial and social animus, similar to the fascists of 1930s Germany. This Southern strategy has reemerged in America and come home to roost in Montana politics.

Since losing the Presidential election in 2020, rather than represent the majority of people in America they have expanded this strategy to all 50 states by suppressing the votes of rural and non-whites. And when Trump attempted a coup to overthrow the fair/legal election they also attacked the rule of law.

When you attack the rule of law and the judicial process, when 147 US Representatives still do not recognize Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, you are at war with the Constitution. Montanans will remember Rep Matt Rosendale and Senator Steve Daines among them while Governor Gianforte signed two laws that significantly restrict the voting opportunities of Montanans.

I think people like David James are worried that their mechanisms of narrative control aren’t working as well as they would like. Maybe if they keep chanting that Joe Biden is a legitimate winner, electoral problems in Arizona and Georgia will just disappear.

James continues with his tar and feather anti-Republican propaganda, putting forth his argument that Republicans are now a cartel:

The Republican party has evolved into a cartel. A syndicate. Rather than promoting a set of principles to make America better, their purpose is to defeat Democrats and maintain power like OPEC. What are their guiding principles? Are they conservative? What do they stand for? Defeating Democrats and owning the libs? What have they done to help the nation? Do they have a jobs plan? Health care plan? Infrastructure plan? Economic recovery plan? 

Even though David James is spewing partisan bullshit, I don’t think he’s actually wrong about Republicans. The problem is the same applies to Democrats because we don’t have ONE party acting like a cartel, we have a cartel-inspired political duopoly in which BOTH parties are criminal syndicates operating outside legal norms.

This is the only kind of political equality I’m interested in; the kind that acknowledges the TOTAL CORRUPTION of our two party political system.

While David James and our County Commissioners virtue-signal to the WOKE gods of inclusivity, the socio-economic realities of gentrification and homelessness continue to worsen in Missoula.

For example, I know a social worker without a penis (these details are important) and her rent was just jacked up $300 hundred dollars. If this was a white guy I wouldn’t be worried, because white guys deserve what they get for enslaving all the non-whites and getting kick-ass trailer parks as a part of the WHITE SUPREMACY deal they made, but this person has A VAGINA, so our community should be rallying around her to ensure she can afford a roof over her head.

Right?

Returning to the County Commissioners op-ed, they make the veiled threat of bringing EVERYONE along in their virtue-signaling JEDI fun ride, but they will do so with HUMILITY, not ARROGANCE. I know. You gotta read it to believe it:

Our goal is to bring along the entire community with us in our internal efforts to promote JEDI and our external efforts to the community at large. But we will not cater to the lowest common denominator and only move forward when we have 100% consensus from everyone, as that typically results in no movement at all. It may have taken a century and a half to get us to where we are in western Montana; we are not of the mind that it needs to take a century and a half to get us on a better trajectory. The trick is doing so in a spirit of humility and openness rather than arrogance or indifference to opposing viewpoints.

Ask anyone who has been mildly critical of the now TRANSITIONAL Safe Outdoor Space off highway 93 about how OPEN and HUMBLE our County Commissioners have been toward them and I SERIOUSLY DOUBT they would agree with this self-described humility.

I wish race-baiters understood how they are being used as the unwitting foot-soldiers of the oligarch class, providing naive assistance to a well-orchestrated campaign of divide and conquer, but, sadly, they are currently too consumed with this rot to be able to think clearly.

The important thing to remember is this: it doesn’t have to be this way.

We DO NOT have to allow ourselves to be defined by these identity-obsessed politicians and propagandists as they attempt to reorder the world under the auspices of a rebranded stakeholder capitalist model.

I’m going to resist this bullshit and I hope you consider joining me.

Thanks for reading.