Big Sky Cairn

A few months back I was on a prop plane pond jump from Spokane to Missoula and I overheard a conversation between two people sitting in the seats in front of me. One was a college student who was returning home to Missoula from somewhere in California and the other was an older guy decked out in khakis and a short sleeved shirt - also from California. Their conversation was about a vision for the future of Montana.

Our prodigal son lamented that Montana was just too backward - close minded and primitive - for his new collegiate taste. The state was full of gun-toting anti-government whackos who wanted to deny poor people health care and cut tax rates for rich people. Yokel white people who drive SUVs and eat meat. To be fair, being from Missoula means that he’d probably been conditioned to think that Montana was politically embarrassing before he ever went to college. He found the progressive paradise he appreciated in California.

The man who wasn’t from Montana had a different view of our state. Sure it was backwards, but it didn’t have all of the problems that California had with overcrowding, urban sprawl, pollution. Montana was a place he could retire - especially now that it was starting to think more like California and elect good Democrats like Brian Schweitzer and Jon Tester. Yes, Montana was becoming more and more attractive.

Digging deeper, we see the devices that progressive liberals have for Montana. Montana is a land of great potential. While it’s barely tolerable now - safe havens like Missoula and Butte are beginning to pull the state in the right direction. Soon, Montana will be a political paradise like California, New York or Massachusetts. They don’t see that with that metamorphosis will come all of the unique problems that California, New York and Massachusetts have that Montana has avoided.

Montana is my home. I don’t want it to change. I like being backward if being progressive means I have to live like they do in California, New York or Massachusetts. And so, right there on that plane, I decided it was time to fight back. For the Montana that I grew up in. The Montana that I love to come home to when I travel. The Montana that makes liberals so uncomfortable. And in my own little way, this old boy from Missoula thought that in his own little way a blog could

[…] written about this before - and I still think that Montana’s soul is at stake over the next ten  years.  What scares […]