Socialism-- of the Scandinavian variety-- was once very popular in Montana, particularly among miners. Montanans were voting for the Socialist Party candidate for president, Eugene Debs, almost doubt the rate of the U.S. in general and in 1917 Butte elected a Socialist Party mayor. That all eroded with the infamous Anaconda Road Massacre-- a corporate/fascist response to the Industrial Workers of the World and the Metal Mine Workers Industrial Union strike in 1920. The owner of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company was reported in a local Butte newspaper to be urging the shootling and hanging of the strikers. His mine guards opened fire on the picketers, killing one and wounding 15 others-- each one in the back as they tried fleeing. No one was ever prosecuted for the murder.Montana's 52nd House district, basically the south side of Billings, is represented in the state legislature by Rodney Garcia, a far right Republican freshman who won his seat in 2018 with 1,858 votes (53.3%) against 24 year old Democrat Amedlia Marquez who had 1,631 votes (46.7%). Garcia, a 66 year old high school graduate and retired oil worker had served in the legislature previously (1985-87). He campaign primarily on allowing guns in schools, cutting the size of government and against public healthcare (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid). Over the weekend he became much better known, saying he believes the U.S. Constitution calls for the shooting or jailing of those who identify as socialists.Garcia made the statement at a state party gathering in Helena Friday meant to kick off election season and offer training for party members and candidates. Garcia said he was concerned about socialists "entering our government" and socialists "everywhere" in Billings, before saying the Constitution says to either shoot socialists or put them in jail. Amid cries for his resignation, he said yesterday that he would resign only if God asked him to.
The Montana Republican Party later condemned Garcia's remarks.In this year's presidential election, President Donald Trump has often called Democrats "radical socialists" in an attempt to use the term socialism, which is defined as theories about collective or government ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution, as a boogeyman-like phrase to criticize proposals from Democrats where the federal government would play a larger role in areas like health care or education....On Saturday, a reporter asked Garcia to clarify his remarks.“So actually in the Constitution of the United States (if) they are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,” Garcia said.Garcia could not to point to where in the Constitution it says socialists could be shot or jailed.Asked to clarify if he thought it was fair to shoot or jail a socialist, including those who live in Montana, Garcia said yes.“They’re enemies of the free state,” Garcia said. “What do we do with our enemies in war? In Vietnam, (Afghanistan), all those. What did we do?”Asked if that was an appropriate response to his opponent from the last election cycle, Garcia said “according to the Constitution, I’m telling you.”“I agree with my Constitution,” Garcia said. “That’s what makes us free. We’re not a democracy, we’re a Republic Constitution.”In 2018 Garcia ran against Amelia Marquez for the House District 52 seat in Billings.Marquez said Saturday she is associated with the Montana Democratic Party and is an eastern member at-large with the party’s executive board. She said she is also a democratic socialist and her political views align with those of Sanders.Marquez said Saturday after being told about Garcia's statements she wished the state legislator would spend more time talking to his constituents about their needs.“I wish Rep. Garcia would continue to focus on the issues rather than this constant worry over things that are somewhat ludicrous,” Marquez said.Garcia said he views what he sees as an influx of socialism in Montana as a “very dangerous” situation and that socialism has destroyed countries like Venezuela.“They’re teaching that to kids. Thank God my grandkids know it’s wrong because I teach them. And it’s a very dangerous situation," Garcia said.Garcia added he believes socialism is growing, citing advertising he says is done by socialists on Facebook.Garcia is not new to controversy. During the 2019 state legislative session in the midst of debate over child protective services, he went on a conservative radio show to accuse child protection workers of kidnapping children. He was forced to return a $3,000 campaign contribution in 2018... The Montana Republican Party issued a statement Saturday censuring Garcia’s comments. When Garcia spoke Friday there was laughter after his question; some of those asked by a reporter about it said it was a response to an uncomfortable situation.“The Montana Republican Party wholeheartedly condemns the comment that was made and under no circumstance is violence against someone with opposing political views acceptable,” said Spenser Merwin, the MT GOP executive director. “It’s disappointing that this isolated incident took away from the weekend’s events which showcased the strength of our statewide candidates and the importance of the upcoming election.”
Missoula area state Rep. Tom Winter, a progressive congressional candidate for Montana's one congressional seat, now open, told us that "Montana made national news today. It marked the second time in a week that the GOP called for the deaths of citizens they disagree with politically. Outrageous? Absolutely. Surprising? Not really. This time it was a fellow state legislator-- a colleague of mine-- claiming that our Constitution allows socialists to be shot. Ryan Zinke, with whom he was speaking, did not even bother to condemn his remark. Yes, that Ryan Zinke-- former Montanan Congressman and former Secretary of the Interior-- who resigned due to a corruption scandal, who sold off our public lands, and who now hides out in his fancy second home in California. He saw no problem 'killing socialists'. And last week the Republican Party in my district shared a video calling for civil war and to 'hang Democrats for treason'. They are talking about me. And my family. And my constituents. Just last month our Republican Secretary of State used a taxpayer-funded website to write, in regards to Native Americans, 'Species, languages, races all adapt and assimilate or they fade away'. And there it is. Openly applying social Darwinism to our fellow Montanans." Winter-- to whose campaign you can contribute by clicking on the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer on the right-- was not finished, not by a long shot:
We should not be surprised. From Congressman Gianforte’s fearmongering over refugees to his donations to white supremacists, to Attorney General Fox praising a fast-food chain for its homophobia, to various state legislators palling around with white nationalists, to Auditor Rosendale moderating a far-right racist Facebook group, there is a moral rot at the top of the Montana GOP. All of us here know this.I sat on the House floor in our state’s Capitol as one GOP representative accused Native Americans of committing a genocide against their own people. And he perpetuated the libel that they ate dogs. The most that the GOP "leadership" could muster was a weak half apology before sweeping it under the rug.Various GOP Reps planted jars of personal lubricant on their colleagues’ desks, threatening members who had voted in support of Medicaid expansion with sexual violence. The Speaker of the House-- technically my boss-- was the first and only follower of a Twitter account mocking one of my disabled constituents. Like I said, there is rot in the Montana GOP.This behavior has become standard among the elected officials of the Republican Party. And the MT Democratic Party has let them get away with it. Calling out racism and harassment and bigotry and violence comes at an electoral cost, the political class tells us. So we are supposed to accept the unacceptable, and to remain silent.I represent a state house district that voted for President Trump by 11 points. Just two years later those same voters elected me, a progressive Democrat. I was told that I should hide my affiliations with Missoula’s refugee community. I was told to hide my past activism against the Muslim ban. To hide my volunteer work with Planned Parenthood.I was told to hide anything that could be construed as 'too liberal.' Think about that. MT GOP candidates spew bigotry, fear, and racism, they call for shooting their own constituents, yet the political class thought I was the one who needed to keep my mouth shut.Montana voters respect a candidate that fights for what they believe in, tells you who they are, and does not accept the unacceptable. That’s it. The political class needs to stop assuming Montanans’ only cross-party qualities are violence and racism.We need to change: It doesn’t matter that, in fact, the Constitution does not allow a legislator to murder his constituents. It doesn’t matter that no other Republican elected official in that room saw fit to say anything to stop him. It doesn’t matter that at this point it’s just another sign of the moral rot in GOP leadership-- and I haven’t even gotten to President Trump. Tolerating violence, tolerating sexual lubricant left on legislators’ desks, tolerating all this fearmongering and bigotry and pettiness demeans public service itself-- regardless of party. And it demeans the Montanans we serve.
I asked some of the other Blue America-endorsed candidates how they feel about Garcia's call for violence. Lauren Ashcraft, a candidate in New York City, told us that "What this individual is calling for us murder... which is never acceptable or justifiable in this country." And, a little closer to the scene of the crime, Chris Armitage, whose running in eastern Washington in a district that borders Idaho, told us that "Using your elected position to incite violence is terrorism and a federal crime. I left Law Enforcement after witnessing the unfairly balanced scales of justice. In Congress, I look forward to ensuring that elected and appointed officials are not just held accountable, but held to the highest standards for conduct and ethics."Shan Chowdhury is running for Congress in southeast Queens and he didn't take to Garcia's fascist rhetoric at all "For starters," he told me, "language that promotes violence in this nature is dangerous. And remember, a great American, Martin Luther King, Jr. identified himself as a socialist. There might still not be civil rights for tens of millions of Americans without him. And he was killed because of it. Socialism in the U.S. in not new and nowhere in the United States Constitution states does it say we must live in a capitalist society. If being a socialist means we are looking out for our fellow human beings so they have housing, healthcare, and jobs, then I am a proud socialist."Texas Democratic Socialist, Heidi Sloan, running in a gerrymandered central Texas district, told us that "Do-nothing Republicans misrepresent socialism as a bogeyman to rally their base-- it's a cheap trick, and they resort to it because they offer nothing else for working class people to get excited about. Our campaign strongly condemns violence, and we also object to lies whether they are about socialism or about what the Constitution does and does not permit. With people like Rodney Garcia at the helm, it's easy to see why young people are rejecting the Republican Party in droves. Socialism is and will continue to be a compelling alternative to a lifetime of exploitation under capitalism."
