Are we great again . . . yet?
By now it's clear that neither the U.S. nor Montana are becoming 'great again' under one-party Republican government. In short, sorry MAGAs, but you've been had, played like a fiddle, suckered for every dollar you could or couldn't spare, and now — ta-da! — you get nothing you were promised and far too much you weren't.
Let's see — how are the promises doing?
Did those grocery prices come down on 'day one?' No? Gosh, well, you know what they now say in the Oval Office, 'Once things go up it's very hard to bring them down.' But don't despair, there are synthetic egg substitutes these days totally unaffected by the bird flu the administration won't mention as the next pandemic looms.
Or what about 'America First?' Dang but that sounded good until the White House started talking about taking over Canada, Greenland and Panama…and didn't rule out using military force to do so, despite campaigning on a 'peace' promise.
But won't it be great to resurrect the Crusades, invade and occupy Gaza once we disperse what's left of the former Palestinian population, bulldoze what's left from Israel's genocidal bombing campaign (with U.S. bombs), and turn the 'highly desirable waterfront property' into the 'Riviera of the Middle East' — no doubt complete with some Trump Towers. Tricked again, eh?
Or how about allowing Elon Musk — the world's richest man who tossed a mere $260 million to Trump's campaign — to wade into all the nation's top secret national security, personal, business and financial information, and give kids barely out of high school authorization to rewrite the computer codes! All very secure, of course!
What's that, Grandma didn't get the Social Security check she relies on to live — oh gosh, must have deleted her! They canceled her Medicare, too? Oh well, just a bump on the road to reatness, eh?
But take heart, we now have the Gulf of America!! Is that great or what!
Meanwhile, here in Montana the GOP-controlled Legislature is pulling their own version of MAGA's phony promises by, of all things, becoming 'tax and spend' Republicans.
Just think how great Montana will be when we get slapped with Sen. Gary Parry's, R-Colstrip, new 10% tax on energy produced from clean and renewable sources – 'water, wind, solar' according to his bill — while exempting energy produced by the massively polluting coal plants at Colstrip. To take us to true greatness, the measure also slashes the severance tax on coal that goes into the Coal Tax Trust fund and funds a wide range of resources for citizens, local governments and education.
Or how about Sen. Greg Hertz's proposed $200 'marijuana identification card' that requires individuals to pay $200 to apply for or renew mandatory registration with the state to buy recreational marijuana?
What, you thought we'd left Reefer Madness paranoia and prosecutions behind because Montana's voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana? Guess not, eh? What's next, the mandatory $200 alcohol registration card to buy micro-brews, wine or spirits? You gotta love the GOP's definition of 'freedom' and less government interference in our lives.
One of the inescapable traits of one-party government is there's nobody else to blame. That's a big headache for the GOP since they have routinely blamed the hapless Democrats for every perceived or real problem in the world, nation and state.
But they can't do that now. And that's a problem increasingly exacerbated when coupled with failed promises to the people in the MAGA hats — who now, along with the rest of us, have ever more reasons to wonder: Are we great again yet?
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