Commissioners’ ‘enemies list’ full of (pot)holes

By Bill LaCroix, Victor

 

Have any potholes that need fixing? You might be interested to know that, instead of fixing potholes, your Ravalli Co. Commissioners are investing time and money in an attempt to get the state of Montana to “investigate” seven state and local conservation organizations. Why? Because those groups embarrassed the commissioners by organizing broad-based public opposition to their failed attempt to garner support for Daines’ and Gianforte’s bills to release Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Montana to development and privatization. In other words, the commissioners have made up an “enemies list” and want the state attorney general to “punish” them. Once again they’ve chosen boilerplate divisive politics over honesty by chasing an allegation made by a single individual that these conservation groups are receiving “dark money” from “nefarious billionaires” to “influence Montana voters.” They think this is an excellent use of your pothole money. 

Keith Kubista is the single individual who made the McCarthyesque “allegation” that our commissioners swallowed. Mr. Kubista is president of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, an actual dark-money, astro-turf group whose agenda includes the privatization of America’s wildlife (Field and Stream, 8/8/2012). Kubista – with the help of the inimitable Theresa Manzella – presented the commissioners “evidence” of a “conservation conspiracy” in the form of a document titled “Green Decoys” prepared by the “Environmental Policy Alliance”, which is a front group for the “Center for Organizational Research and Education”, which is in turn a front-group laundering dark money for the oil and gas industry. Its executive director, Richard Berman, openly brags about taking dark money for the sole purpose of harassing conservation groups about–wait!–“dark money.”

In Berman’s own words to a group of oil and gas executives he was soliciting dark money from in 2014: “People always ask me one question all the time: ‘how do I know that I won’t be found out as a supporter of what you’re doing?’…We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don’t know who supports us.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html.

I actually took the time to read through the Green Decoys “report”, which was tough because the thing was so rife with conspiracy theories and fact-free innuendo that I started wondering what Kubista, Berman and our commissioners were smoking, and if I could have some. Very distracting. But not to get too much into the weeds about the dishonesty inherent in such scam documents, nor to weep oversized tears for the plight of billionaires, I’ll just give a shout-out to one of the nativist dog-whistles in it that you’d probably see a lot of if you’re a Q-Anon aficionado (or a Ravalli Co. Commissioner, I guess): George Soros (“Horreurs!” as they would say in a French monster movie) is not a “Hungarian billionaire” as the “Green Decoys” offers up as red meat on its front page. He is in fact an American citizen, has been one since 1961, as long as one of our commissioners has been alive and two decades longer than another. This means that by Kubista’s and Berman’s (and our commissioners’, I guess) own definition, George Soros has more standing on Things American than they do. Right? Wrong, say our commissioners, and on the strength of the “guilty til proven innocent” credo the Far Right has been using to such spangly success since the election of the first non-white president, they seek to discredit (“redbait” in McCarthy-era vernacular) the work of thousands of ordinary Montanans who have the audacity to believe that democracy and a healthy environment are not mutually exclusive. What does a largely-fictionalized far-right version of George Soros have to do with citizens wanting to retain the protected status of Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas? You might want to ask your commissioners that…and maybe more. 

For instance: our commissioners may be unaware that the tactic of punishing “enemies” through the weaponization of the tax code is as old as the creation of Section 501(c)3, which restricts (not “forbids”) political activity for tax-deductable non-profits. Shortly after it was enacted in 1969, Richard Nixon wielded it to go after his “enemies” in the conservation community, which included The Wilderness Society because of that organization’s success in stalling the Alaska Pipeline. Nixon harassed its staff and board members with government “audits” in a naked attempt to force them into defensive mode until Nixon resigned in disgrace (for being such a jerk, among other things) and the investigations suddenly, magically, ceased. The fact that Nixon’s ploy worked to some degree is a statement to Nixon’s ruthlessness and intelligence. Berman, Kubista (et al.) appear to be stretching to match his ruthlessness. But intelligence? Well, that’s irony for you. 

Belief in truth-free conspiracy theories such as Kubista’s and Berman’s from the craven-right is demonstrably driving the destruction of a civil society, not to mention the lowering of our cumulative intelligence level. The proof’s in the pudding. We now live under the spectacle of The Billionaire most responsible for pushing the “birther” conspiracy theory that the first non-white president faked his birth certificate (because, y’know, he wasn’t white) now sitting in the Oval Office raking in additional billions. We’ve been had. 

How’s that working out for ya? If your answer is “just fine,” then you should definitely give your commissioners an ‘attaboy’ for allowing their bigotry getting the better of their ethical and fiduciary common sense.

If, however, you’re one of “those” people who think that these kinds of money-wasting, infantile witch hunts from the right wing Edge Of The World against people with whom they merely disagree are beyond silly, then maybe now’s the time to pipe up and say so. Demand that your county officials do better. Fix potholes instead of backfilling imaginary ratholes. 

Did I mention Valerie Stamey? C’mon, Ravalli County. Let’s get real.