There are some words that conservative legislators don’t hear often enough: Thank you.
Public service is easy for liberals. The culture, the elites, and especially the mainstream media are universally in agreement that what liberals do in the legislature is good and right. Regulate more. Spend more. If we don’t have enough money to spend more, tax more. That’s the governing philosophy of liberal legislators, and it is also the governing philosophy of reporters, anchors, and especially editors.
So liberals who serve in politics spend every day of the session hearing from the establishment and the powers that be about how brave they are, and what heroes they are.
The newspaper is on their side. The TV news anchors are on their side. The liberals get all the moral support they could ever want.
But the mainstream media never considers the possibility that there’s another point of view. They never consider the possibility that “spending more” means “spending more of someone else’s money, not their own.” It means borrowing money from foreign countries that our great grandchildren yet to be born will have to pay off.
Public servants who are liberal, and their allies in the media, don’t consider the possibility that “if you need more, tax more” means someone has to pay the bill. Someone has a harder time making ends meet. Someone gets hurt. A small business somewhere can’t afford another employee because the taxes are too high. A father has to say “No” to his son about getting his first car, because paying the taxes on it takes more than they have.
They never consider the possibility that “regulate more” means one of your neighbors is less free, and has less ability to chase his dream. A single mother who wants to put her kids through college by opening a food cart can’t, because the paperwork hoops are just too complicated.
Because they never consider these things, they never understand why politicians on the right stand up for them.
So conservative legislators spend the entire session being told by the media and the culture how wrong they are, how immoral they are, and how they just don’t care.
For most of the session, legislators who are conservative have to live with the TV and the newspaper telling them that they are bad people.
They’re not.
So today I want to say what the newspapers never will.
Thank you, Legislators who oppose more regulation. Thank you for standing up for that single mom who wants to be in business for herself.
Thank you, Legislators who oppose higher taxes. Thank you for standing up for mothers and fathers who want to provide more for their kids, but won’t be able to if the government takes too much of their money.
Thank you, Legislators who oppose higher spending. Thank you for working to keep my grandchildren out of debt. Thank you for trying to reduce the bill that my great grandchildren will be stuck with, so we can live well today. Thank you for protecting future generations from permanent financial servitude.
Legislators from the left and the right have reasons for what they do. They have beliefs that they stand up for every day. Sometimes we agree with those beliefs, often we don’t. But it’s important to recognize that one side of the Legislature gets all the cultural accolades these days, and that isn’t right.
Legislators who lean to the right are hardworking public-spirited Americans who are doing their best to do what’s right for the country. If the media won’t say it, Montana families are happy to.
Thank you.
