The race for Montana’s congressional seat is sometimes framed dismissively as a contest between a “business person” and a “musician,” as though it was obvious which was better prepared.
Government, however, is not a business, it’s a contract between citizens and their government, absent a profit motive. That contract — the Constitution — declares in its first sentence that government’s purpose is, in part, “to promote the general welfare of the people,” a concept that is too often in conflict with bottom-line (Republican) thinking.
Musicians spend surprisingly little of their time performing for an audience. The rest of the time they are doing whatever it takes to make a living in a difficult business: practicing, marketing and promoting, managing personnel, moving heavy equipment, and traveling far from home.
Among those other tasks, Rob Quist has also done the creative work of thinking about real peoples’ lives, and writing songs that they will want to hear. He’s in touch with us.
Rob Quist has lived your struggles, Montana. He has made a respectable living in a difficult business, busting his butt for decades, doing something he loves. Sometimes it means standing in the spotlight, performing for our pleasure, and sometimes it means facing – and overcoming – personal setbacks. Does that sound familiar to anyone? His millionaire opponent has lost touch with what representing average Montanans really means; Rob surely gets it.
On May 25, I’ll vote for someone whose life looks like ours; I’m voting for Rob Quist.
Russ Lawrence
Hamilton