by Travis Mateer
On Wednesday, at the 6pm meeting of the Historical Preservation Society, I announced my EMPHATIC opposition to the political ambitions of our current Mayoral placeholder, Jordan Hess. I explained to the dumbfounded history preservers that Hess is a multi-modal radical who will use everything at his disposal to dramatically reshape this valley to align with his climate catastrophe fever dreams.
This post, though, isn’t about Jordan Hess’ deep desire to lay transit track and attack petrol-guzzlers. It’s about the former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, who must think his former badge is a magical ticket to Mayor, if the rumors of his imminent announcement this week are true.
One of the magical properties of this artifact from McDermott’s tenure as Sheriff must be to ward off the spirits of the dead who have been dishonored by this gutless man’s reign of lackluster leadership. This will be important, since the ghosts of Sean Stevenson, Johnny Lee Perry, and Rebekah Barsotti will be lurking in the ethereal background of his campaign. I know this because I’m going to make sure it happens…IF McDermott is arrogant enough to take the plunge.
It’s not just the lingering presence of the dead laying in wait, there’s also a synchronicity stalking the empty cowboy hats on the mighty rack where they hang their fake identities, identities like MAN OF GOD, or MAN OF THE LAW, or PROTECTOR OF THE WEAK AND VULNERABLE.
Oh yeah, T.J. McDermott? Sean Stevenson, euthanized by your coroner on January 5th, 2020. Johnny Lee Perry, shot in the back by one of your deputies on August 29th, 2021. And Rebekah Barsotti, who conveniently “drowned” in a “river accident” after finally bringing in those badges to deal with her POS husband who lives in the County next door, where law enforcement rejects who can’t successfully hide corruption in other counties get dumped.
This list is just the most glaring anecdotal cases I’m aware of and able to currently write about. There are more, as the post on January 1st clearly indicates. And that’s not all. For a County that had a fucking book by Jon Krakauer written about it, you’d think the kind of systemic numbers that show a systemic problem wouldn’t exist. But they do.
Despite all this, T.J. McDermott is going to ask Missoula citizens to vote for him in the Mayoral race later this year. Does the area where the ability to experience shame simply not exist within this soft man’s exterior frame? Or, is the ability to blame others, as exemplified by McDermott’s appearance on a local Facebook group’s weekly Zoom call, such a well-developed, pathological coping mechanism, that he can’t even see the reality of what his candidacy will do?
I can see it VERY clearly. McDermott will peel away votes almost solely from Mike Nugent because they will both be jockeying for the MODERATE vote. Hess’ tribe is a die-hard, tightly-knit grouping of dweebacrats, a term I just made up to describe Missoula’s bureaucrat/non-profit nexus, aided and abed-ed by the cultural cool kids who like their ice cream served by less uppity laborers.
My campaign will be to warn the conservatives capable of seeing shitty strategy of what’s coming if they choose to attach any part of their anti-Hess hopes to the fantasy of T.J. McDermott’s magical badge. Have you people NOT learned the lesson of Jacob Elder?
Maybe the problem is the person who hasn’t learned the lesson of Jacob Elder is ME. Maybe my disdain for the New Party cabal of “liberal” political schemers has caused me to willfully disregard the stupid political gamesmanship of the Missoula conservatives who lined up behind an absolutely terrible candidate, thus ensuring Mayor Engen’s fifth and final term.
Is this just the result of short-term thinkers who put ego before community, or is there a larger function to the dysfunction of Missoula conservatives? Do they WANT the multi-modal radical, Jordan Hess, to draw their constituents low-information political ire while the almighty greaser of bipartisan politics—MONEY—positions itself to bring home the bacon for things like trains, planes and ELECTRIC automobiles?
Another possibility is Montana’s top Republican, Greg Gianforte, is such a paranoid, insulated billionaire lacking substantive Montana roots that the character of his entire administration is infected, and it’s spreading. I’ll hopefully have a post this week about a logistical dysfunction that seems intentional.
Whatever it is that’s potentially luring local conservatives into supporting former Sheriff McDermott, I hope to discover the cause, and remedy it because the badge ain’t magic, and the worst (for T.J. McDermott) is yet to come.
If you’d like to support the most interesting independent journalism happening in Missoula, please make a donation at my about page. With my internet HOPEFULLY getting hooked up today, the costs of discovering what the hell is happening here are increasing, so any bit helps.
Thanks for reading!