Like many of us here in the Bitterroot Valley, I have watched the unfolding developments in the Ravalli County Treasurer’s and the County Commissioners offices with a combination of fascination and horror. I’m appalled at the beating our county’s credibility has taken. I’ve attended a few of the meetings in the commissioner’s meeting room and I watched the You Tube video of the treasurer defending herself at the lunch meeting hosted by the county Republicans.
Even before all of the current drama, I’ve observed an increasingly strident insistence that there must be an underlying conspiracy by the Democrats to control and diminish the freedoms and liberty of good American Patriots by the self identified ultraconservatives among us. This was touched on in the video twice, with references to a previous deputy treasurer threatening to “bring down all the Republicans” (according to Stamey) and, back when the treasurer’s office was under “Democrat control”.
There have been multiple earnest references over the years by Ravalli County Republicans and conservatives overall regarding Agenda 21 and how the word “sustainable”, used in any context, was a dead giveaway that the speaker was in cahoots with the UN and was plotting the implementation of the “New World Order”. Not to mention that Patriotic Americans must buy up all of the available ammunition and guns to protect themselves from those terrifying Socialist Communist Democrats. That has got to be the most successful marketing campaign by gun and ammo manufacturers ever!
Seriously, with all of this fear mongering going around, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Addis Scott Stamey could find welcoming supporters in the Ravalli County Republicans. All she had to do to divert suspicion away from herself was to blame it all on the evil Democrats. In light of the recent finding of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices of her untrustworthy behavior, her dubious claims are sounding even more false and fantastic.
But, even to this day, she still has stalwart defenders who are still convinced that there must have been some sort of plot to be uncovered, because, I would suppose, their ingrained disdain of Democrats supersedes their common sense.
The duties of the County Treasurers office aren’t designated as Democrat or Republican. There is a difference, however, between efficiently dispatched and woefully dysfunctional.
As an active Democrat in Ravalli County and statewide who has been privy to county and state Democratic functions and executive board meetings, I feel confident in saying that there is not one Democrat in any office in the state of Montana who thinks that it is a good idea to control and diminish anyone’s liberty or freedom. Democrats believe in effective governance and believe that there is a place for government in civilized societies such as ours.
Although I am a trustee on the Hamilton School Board and the financial operations at the district have been directly impacted by the recent issues at the County Treasurer’s office, my opinion is my own and has not been discussed with or endorsed by any group or organization that I am affiliated with.
Corrine Gantt
Hamilton