Our democracy was put to the ultimate test
Today, as I write this letter to the editor, our Capitol is under siege and our country’s fragile democracy is being put to the ultimate test. It is no surprise that the divisive and angry rhetoric coming from our president over the past four years, as he promotes his conspiracy theories, has created an insurrection against the very government that he took an oath to defend. We as a people are frightened and divided and look at what has happened!
What does surprise me, however, is how the words and actions of our very own junior senator, Steve Daines, have aided the spread of this fear and turmoil that has overtaken our country. Steve
Daines has sided with those who would challenge the legitimacy of our free and fair Presidential election, even as our court system and Department of Justice have found no evidence of impropriety.
Steve Daines, your name will forever be associated with this attempt to overturn a fair election and a refusal to allow a peaceful transfer of power. Your words and actions cannot be undone. You
have gone against your word in the past (remember the promise that you would not vote for a Supreme Court Justice in a Presidential election year?), yet you still have six more years to help govern our country.
You will have many opportunities in those years to represent all Montanans in the trying times ahead. Please be a voice of reason, of compromise, of fairness, of honesty and integrity. Your constituents are counting on you.
Mel Kotur
Bozeman
Daines’ post-election stunt fanned the flames
Now that Sen. Daines has inflamed his constituents with conspiracy theories and lies, now that he has encouraged armed man-children to wallow in petty grievances, now that Daines’ supporters
are gathered in Helena to protest a fair election’s results, a cabal’s flames that he fanned, what will he do to stop the seditious protests and restore order?
Daines chose to whip up hooligans and sabotage our representative democracy with an opportunistic “Stop the Steal” prank. If Daines treats our government, the US Constitution, his oath and the
people of Montana like a farce, why on earth is he serving in the United States Senate?
Senator Daines’ sick and shameless post-election stunt makes a mockery of our republic. He should resign his post and reflect on what it means to be a responsible citizen.
Christine Swan Montano
Bozeman
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letters to the Editor 1/13/21