Comments on: Not Trump Country

By: Arne Boveng

Arne Boveng — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 19:07:49 +0000

To my surprise, when I asked them about The Donald one of the fellows became livid. He hated the man more than I, ranting for much of the meal about Trump’s buffoonery.

Sounds to me like you are filled with hate. Aren’t you the problem?

By: Jim Watson

Jim Watson — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 23:24:28 +0000

Dear Matt,

Thank you for your recent article, “Not Trump Country”. Flattered as I am, it’s important to correct two misconceptions:

First and foremost, Herron Park was not privately created. It is a Flathead County Park, created in 1978, and expanded from 120 to 440 acres from 2010-2015 with help from federal, state, and county funds, along with donations from nearly a thousand private contributors. I’m on the board of the non-profit Foy’s to Blacktail Trails, which spearheaded expansion of the park. Maintenance of the park is a public-private partnership involving Flathead County Parks Department and Foy’s to Blacktail Trails. I think the board and staff of Flathead County Parks could take offense at the statement that Herron Park was privately created, because it wasn’t.

Second, I don’t see myself as a libertarian, and I doubt other local folks would either. Libertarians tend to be opposed to public lands, and many if not most support privatization of our National Parks and Forests. This is certainly not a platform that I agree with– I cherish our public parks and lands. It’s the abundance of pristine public lands that make NW Montana such a special place to live.

Other than that, I enjoyed your writing a great deal and am especially glad you enjoyed your yak burger at Hops. Remember, we only eat the mean and ugly ones! Hope to see you again soon.

Regards,

Jim Watson

By: dwigget

dwigget — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 10:09:38 +0000

Missoula – a liberal college town. Felt right at home there.

By: Gary McCoy

Gary McCoy — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 22:23:26 +0000

My wife is from Montana and as we now live in Texas, likes to tease that REAL Cowboys kick the shit off their boots in Montana.
The reason most Libertarians vote Republican is because usually Republicans espouse beliefs in smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation on folks lives. The biggest problem with being so fed up with the system and not voting, is that ever person that dosent vote, is actually voting for Clinton. Smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation and Hillary Clinton don’t even belong in the same sentence . So much as I would rather the GOP have a different candidate ….I’m voting Trump.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 18:43:03 +0000

Coming from Canada as well – ‘red neck country’ to boot, I am often dismayed with how people from rural areas are portrayed. While I’ve travelled all over the world,I know my roots and they are not bad. It is good to get this more balanced look at why people are voting Republican – even with Trump as its candidate. It is good to show that you can’t just paint people as ignorant gun-toting Trump supporters without digging just a little deeper. Thank you.

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 13:49:42 +0000

Assessment

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 13:29:54 +0000

Great article, your accessment was spot on. Politics aside, I love everything about Kalispell and the surrounding areas. It’s easy, people are kind and fiercely dedicated to the support of each other and the local community! Makes me very homesick and I was just there last month.

By: Carrie McGregor

Carrie McGregor — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 22:30:46 +0000

Great article about my former home.

By: noel

noel — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 19:27:40 +0000

I’ve never had a Yak burger and it looks yummy. I tend to agree with areas around the country and not just Montana, the vibe is more Libertarian in general. But since most Libertarians along with other groups including green party, socialist, etc don’t have an adequate voice/platform, we are left with a corrupt two party system that everyone is not happy with (Hence the popularity of Trump/Hillary). An interesting look at the community, people and gorgeous landscape of this region, I love Montana country!

By: Paul Lewis

Paul Lewis — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 19:22:04 +0000

While I do agree with your assessment on our “liberatarian” type views, I highly disagree with your use of the term “progressive”. Just because we like to eat the things we have around us does not make us “progressive”. In fact it’s quite the opposite, as this is the way we have lived for as long as can be remembered. The “progressive” movement of today focuses on change. Changing the laws and the traditions of our country to better include all the “self-titled special” groups that exist today. The difference is that we have never tried to exclude any type of person for whatever reason, unless, of course, we are talking about tree hugging bunny humpers, but that is neither here nor there…I enjoyed your article, but you should take your experiment out of the city and into the small towns around the state. I believe you will find your results are slightly different…