Session 66 is now a historical fact. The Minority leader stood to offer his final oblation and declared his approval of the session, citing the fact that the Dems met nearly all of their goals. I silently agreed with him, and dropped my shovel, defeatedly.
58-42, they said. The Republicans hold the majority, they said. However, a Democrat by any other name is still a Democrat. It seemed as if some tried to be sly and metaphorically wear shirts with the word “Republican” written in marker on the front and “I pull weeds” on the back, but by their fruits you will know them.
Freedom is a garden kept and guarded only through great sweat and vigilance. Left untended, the fruits of liberty are choked out by tyranny and bondage. Montana’s garden is filling with crabgrass and knapweed. We’ve an abundance of noxious weeds, with pretty flowers on them, but not enough skilled gardeners. We’ve a plethora of green-thumbed horticulturalists growing debt and regulation and licensing and taxes, but where are the strong backed men with plows and scythes, with eyes for liberty and hearts for local government?
Working jobs and paying the taxes, er, revenues, I suspect.
I worked with about 37 of them in the House. Someone designated the group “the .38 special”. Conveniently, the moniker also invoked gun language and was a poke in the eye to the anti-gun crowd, always a happy bonus. We fought valiantly. We voted “No”. We called for more freedom and less taxes. In the end, there are more weeds than when we started, but not as many as there would be had we not been there.
Majority Leader Brad Tschida truly was a leader, standing for freedom on the floor. Chairman Alan Doane of Judiciary is a man I will always respect greatly. Chairman Dennis Lenz of Human Services, who bravely whacked the hornets nest of DPHHS with a big stick. Alan Redfield, Theresa Manzella, Derek Skees, Carl Glimm, John Fuller — too many to list, but not enough to stem the tide of encroaching taxes and programs. We reap what we sow, and for many years, in our education and society, we’ve been sowing seeds of godlessness, big government, entitlement, no-risk and dependency. Today, the fields are white with harvest, and the thrum of the locusts of socialism can be heard just over the hill.
Let’s take a look around our garden to survey a bit of this session’s handiwork.
Over there, we’ve just dropped a huge Medishame Expansion boulder, right on top of the tomatoes. That should be a great addition. We won’t get any more tomatoes — or actually, anything — from that part of the garden anymore, but we’ll make great salsa this year!
Where the potatoes were, we dug a big hole and named it “Infrastructure”. Some wanted to call it “Romney Hall” or “The Heritage Museum,” but I think calling it the “Infrastructure” pit is a more apt description. Over the years, our kids can dig other holes throughout the garden and fill that pit back in. We aren’t fools, after all!
That expansive tangle of brambles, thistles, and poison ivy which fills the center of the garden is what we in the business refer to as “the budget.” The Dems keep watering and fertilizing it, thinking it will bear much fruit one day. Sometimes, while we are weeding the beans, we can hear their party singing softly, hands joined, swaying back and forth, intoxicated with what they think is compassion as they watch intently for the first budding of anything resembling a solution or a remedy. They long for the day it fills the whole garden. We try to explain to our friends how that cancerous mass of vegetation will never bear fruit, but instead choke out the good things in the garden. We are rebuffed with weeping and gnashing of teeth. They stand up and object, appealing to Mr. Chair. We are called cold and heartless, and told to get busy weeding the beans. They tell us we are all depending on a good crop of beans to sustain us until “the budget” really takes off and starts bearing the caramels and candy canes promised in the instruction booklet the seeds came with. Lenin’s Legumes was the name on the box.
Some sincere minded Dems commandeered candy canes from their relatives’ Christmas trees over the holidays, and in the dark of night placed them among the tangle of prickers and weeds filling the garden. In the morning they excitedly ran around, shouting and pointing, like kids at the circus, toward the first fruits of “the budget.” We Republicans weren’t fooled for long. Then the Dems ate all the candy canes.
Next session, we’ll need to pull out all the beans to make room for the magical Medishame Expansion rock, as it seems to be leaning that way and ready to fall. I’m sure no one will be hurt.
So there’s that.
One neat trick we try every session attempting to kill the weeds and encourage the growth of healthy vegetation in our garden of freedom is spraying a good dose of “Round up Law Code” all over everything. Each session, we try to spray more than the one previous. It really does the trick on the weeds — for about a week. They turn a nasty shade of brown and shrivel beneath our shower of “Code.” But, being quite resilient, the gangrenous growth always springs up in new places, invigorated by the battle. The greatest harm is inflicted on all of our vegetables, which is unfortunate, because that is what we are trying to cultivate. No matter, some say. It’s worth it so we might beat back some weeds for a session.
What’s funny is to see the timorous look in the Dem’s eyes when we spray too close to “the budget.” Oh! As some of the overspray, shall we say, inadvertently, wafts over the brambly mess, the department administrators come scrambling out of the confines of “the budget” like ants evacuating a burning log. Some of them you really need to be careful of as they come out with the fury of a woman scorned, ready to bite and sting. That’s always fun to watch.
I encourage everyone who reads this to be diligent to help keep Montana’s garden of freedom tended and safe. As Proverbs says, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like a strong man.” We’ve been sleeping and slumbering a long time, and Medicaid Expansion is the muzzle of the robber’s pistol in the small of your back, in spite of the sign over there that reads, “No guns allowed!” True freedom is home-grown. It is enculturated in the church and family. It burgeons out from self-governing people into the towns and counties they live in. True freedom chafes at the thought of being dependent on others. The freedom of those who came before us was born from their christian faith. That freedom sought to lift up struggling neighbors, help others be free, throw off tyrannical government, and finally, thank God for our freedom. When our homes, and towns, and counties value and savor freedom, Helena and D.C. will shrink, as will the taxes we pay. Pick up the shovel where you live, and let’s get to gardening.
I also encourage everyone who reads this to contact me anytime. Send me an e-mail, as that’s best. The address is: greg.devries@mtleg.gov.
Blessings to House District 75.
Rep. Greg DeVries (R-Jefferson City) represents House District 75. The 66th Montana State Legislature was his first.
