What’s the plan?

by Dana Henricks, Florence

Dear Jane Lambert,

This letter has been a very, very long time in coming. Sorry for the delay, but I have been mulling over your two letters in the Bitterroot Star from this past fall, where you asked about the Democratic Party platform. In your first letter (September 9), you asked, “What’s the plan?” and in your second letter (October 7, 2025), you wrote that you were still waiting to hear what the Democratic Party’s platform is, asking, “Well, where is it?!”

Well, you can go online and find the Ravalli County Democrats’ positions on 12 specific issues. Here is the link: https://ravdems.com/our-positions/.

And you can find the national Democratic Party platform here: https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FINAL-MASTER-PLATFORM.pdf.

But basically, the Democratic platform can be summed up in just eight words: Democrats value people and the planet over profits.

Just so that this doesn’t come across all “We’re better than you are! Neener, neener, neeeener!,” I want to stress that Republican VOTERS also value people and the planet over profits. Republican VOTERS are good, caring, generous people with big hearts. I know this because I have Republican friends and family members whom I love.

The problem is that Republican POLITICIANS value corporate profits over the well-being of regular Americans like you and me, and over the health of planet earth and every living species on it. There are exceptions, of course. There are Republican politicians who are not solely driven by the goal of becoming millionaires and billionaires. But those Republican politicians are an endangered species.

Remember the shutdown a few months ago? It was the longest in US history. The Democrats were holding out because they wanted a guarantee from the Republicans that the Affordable Care Act subsidies would be protected so that people would not lose their health insurance. But it was a terrible choice they had to make: Let families go without food by letting the Republicans take away their SNAP benefits? Or let people lose their health insurance by letting the Republicans destroy the Affordable Care Act? In the end, the Democrats went with keeping families fed. The battle to save health insurance for millions of Americans would have to be won another day.

The thing is, we are the wealthiest country in the world! We could make sure that everyone has access to affordable health care AND make sure that no one goes to bed hungry AND make sure that every kid gets a quality education so that he or she can get a good-paying job AND protect the health of our planet for future generations. 

But our Republican congressmen, Ryan Zinke, Steve Daines, and Tim Sheehe, don’t think these things are important. They think corporate profits are more important than people. That’s why they’re not doing a damn thing to stop the Sheep Creek Mine that is almost certain to poison our beloved Bitterroot River. And that’s why they are still ride or die with a president who just this past week destroyed the EPA regulations that keep our air and water clean. 

Do you know that Parkinson’s Disease is now the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world and that scientists now believe that air pollution, water pollution, and pesticides are a bigger cause than a person’s genetics? But corporations and the politicians they “buy” don’t care if they trash the planet and harm people’s health! Environmental regulations made it harder for corporations to make money, so they had to go. Profits over people.

But back to your question, “What is the Democrats’ plan?” I am not an official representative of the Democratic Party, but I would have to say the Democrats’ plan is to elect people who value people and the planet over profits. If we do that much, then we can be sure that our elected officials are doing their best to find solutions to our problems that will help everyday Americans rather than enriching obscenely wealthy individuals and corporations.