Resurrecting Reagan’s ‘Big Tent’

by David Bedey

This past legislative session, I was proud to support lowering property taxes for over 80% of Montanans, increasing vocational education opportunities for young Montanans, strengthening the financial vitality of our rural hospitals, and delivering a balanced state budget that grew at less than 1%.

So after a lifetime of public service, including 30 years in the U.S. Army, nine years on the local school board, and nearly eight years representing the citizens of the Hamilton area in the Montana House of Representatives, I had considered retiring from public life at the end of this year. But troubling developments in our state politics caused me to reconsider. Specifically, both major political parties are increasingly dominated by extreme factions that are intent on enforcing ideological purity at the expense of serving the interests of all Montanans.

So last November, I announced my candidacy to represent Senate District 43.

Since then, I’ve spoken to hundreds my fellow citizens—Republicans, Democrats, and independents—who share my concerns. They are weary of the often childish hyper- partisanship that is infecting politics in our state. They recognize that neither party is focused on serving the people. They expect good government from legislators who do the hard work necessary to solve problems instead of obediently toeing the party line. And they are appalled by the fact that my own party demanded that I swear an oath of allegiance to the Montana Republican Party.

Let me be clear: I will never swear an oath to any political party. I will never put a party platform ahead of my duty to support, protect, and defend the Constitution. And I will neither compromise my conservative values nor neglect my duty to represent all my constituents just to please party bosses who presume to be empowered to define what it means to be a conservative and to determine what counts as “conservative” policy—and who expect legislators to slavishly follow their orders.

George Washington foresaw this dire situation when in his Farewell Address he wrote: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

President Reagan knew the way out of such difficulties. He championed the concept of a “big tent” Republican Party that appeals to a broad spectrum of conservatives, can broaden its base, and promotes sound conservative policy.

I am an unashamed Reagan Republican who is committed to returning the MTGOP to being a true party of Lincoln and Reagan. If you share this objective, I’d appreciate your support in the primary election.