Poor-mouth politics not getting job done in Montana

John Vincent's remarks on why he is considering a run for governor are what I call poor mouth politics that have dominated Montana elections since Ted Schwinden started it in the 1970s. The rhetoric is full of "tough decisions," "hard choices," "red ink." The most important thing is to "balance the budget" even at the expense of essential education and social services.

Poor mouth politics is an all-too-common "get tough" solution to problems. A wise man said the "get tough" approach almost always makes the problem worse. The school funding lawsuit is a prime example. Poor mouth politics is largely responsible for making the present lawsuit necessary in the first place.

Even with all the poor mouthing, money is always found to pay for disasters like fires, floods and earthquakes.

It is time to give essential social services, education and health care the same status as disasters. People who know say that 25 percent of the children in Montana go hungry at times. This is a disaster with much longer consequences than an earthquake.

Most of the other announced candidates are also poor mouthing. The no tax increase pledge is the extreme example. Then you have Bob Brown who picked Dave Lewis as his running mate. Dave Lewis in his capacity as state budget director and later as a legislator is probably more responsible than anyone for underfunding education, university through kindergarten.

Poor mouthing and getting tough have done nothing but make the problems worse over the last 30 years. The real solution is to get smart.

Bryan Schweitzer is using a get-smart approach. He is going around the state talking to people and asking everyone for ideas. He is talking new ways of doing things. He is looking at the glass as half-full instead of half-empty. He is the leader Montana desperately needs.

John Maykuth

905 S. Church Ave.

Bozeman

Reader Comments