Montana Viewpoint: Don't say Democrats weren't warned

It is 2011, and the Association of State Democratic Chairs is having one of its quarterly meetings. Chuck Herz, Chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party, raises his hand to be recognized and rises to speak:

“There is one important minority that the Democratic Party is ignoring,” he says, “the white working man.”

This statement is received with uncomfortable silence until the next speaker stands up and the subject is changed. Chuck was not a white working man, Yale educated and a former executive at the World Bank, he was a far cry from a working stiff, but he had “eyes to see” and he saw correctly.

In its passion to put together a coalition of virtually every ethnic and social minority in America, the Democratic Party had ignored the very people who had made it great—working people. If it did that because they thought it would be showing disrespect to the other minorities, I don’t know, but it sure did show disrespect for the particular group of people who would cost it dearly in the 2024 elections.

For my part in the discussions as Chair of the Montana Democratic Party (2009-2013), I tried to impress upon the assembled chairs the importance of having a presence in the rural areas of the nation, which was also being ignored. And still is.

So, to be blunt, the Democrats lost big in the 2024 elections and deserved to.

And now, Montana. For the first time in over 100 years there will not be a Democrat holding a statewide office. That will mean that Montana will likely be written off by national Democratic groups and that money and help will be slim to none from outside sources. There are calls for Montana Democrats to “clean house”, to stand for something, to not present themselves as Republican “lite”. With history as a guide, that won’t happen. People in power, including party leaders, want to remain in power, even in a losing situation.

Democrats made gains in the Legislature, they will say, so something’s working.

Well, yes, but what’s working as far as I hear is that it was the reapportionment of legislative districts which yielded more Democratic friendly districts that led to those legislative gains, so the credit goes to the Democratic members of the Districting and Apportionment Committee, not the Party.

Party leaders want their members to embrace political purity, to believe in the party line. It is a bad idea, especially for a party with a diverse membership. Candidates win in areas that they understand and are representative of, and they often do not agree with all of the party platform. Moderate Republicans in the Montana Legislature are successful at passing common-sense legislation because they are not political purists.

I have not played a part in Democratic Party politics since 2014, so what I am writing here does not have the benefit of insider information, and my opinions are more those of a citizen observer than a politician, but I think what I learned in 26 years of involvement in the Democratic Party as a legislator from Trout Creek (16 years) and four years as Party chair still has some merit.

If a political party wants to have success, it has to show up. My recommendation is that if the Montana Democratic Party wants to rebuild itself into a contender it has a lot of work to do in unfriendly territory.

Why should Democrats try to rebuild at all? Because people who do not have political power, as well as citizens who cannot fend for themselves, need people with power who care about their plight and offer something more than a motto of “cowboy up” to help them survive.

To date statewide Montana Democratic candidates have concentrated on getting votes from areas with a lot of Democrats, the major cities and Indian Reservations. What they need to do is go to parts of Montana that used to elect Democrats — Miles City, Glendive, Wibaux, the Hi-Line, even Jordan — and listen to people. Not tell them what they think they need or should want, but just ask questions and listen. Yes, it will take years, but it needs to start.

Montana Viewpoint has appeared in weekly and online newspapers across Montana for over 30 years. Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator. He lives on his ranch in Trout Creek.