OPINION: Conservatives just want to reclaim GOP from pretenders

I read former Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher’s misrepresentation and fabrication of reality titled, “Moderates being run out of GOP” in the Sept. 10 edition of the Daily Inter Lake.

It must be wonderful for Ms. Fisher, as a so-called “moderate Republican” to live on the planet Pluto, far beyond the orbital reach of Earth. There are so many fantasies and disconnects from reality in her brief letter, I don’t know where to start in this response letter.

So, let’s focus on the fiction she presents as fact about our esteemed “true Republican” state senator, Matt Rosendale.

According to Ms. Fisher, Sen. Rosendale is trying to “rid the Republican Party ... of Montanans,” and Sen. Rosendale “may not understand the idiocy of his proposal to rid the party of Montanans,” and “Mr. Rosendale was the losing candidate that refused to support the winning candidate — Ryan Zinke — in the congressional race.“

I recall that Ms. Fisher, a “flaky Republican,” was roundly defeated in the Republican primary election to unseat “solid Republican” Sen. Mark Blasdel. I recall that Sen. Blasdel was chosen by an overwhelming margin, of his fellow conservative “true Republican” representatives as “speaker of the House” when he served in the state House.

Fisher refers to Sen. Rosendale’s “lack” ... “of Montana values and the Montana Republican Party’s values.”    

I would like to introduce readers to some glaring alternative realities with respect to Sen. Rosendale and the conservative majority of “true Republicans” in Montana who are working hard to clean out the small minority of “phony Republicans” who are fouling up the party and working closely with the opposition party of Democrats.

Sen. Rosendale is very much liked and trusted by his Montana constituents in Glendive and Dawson County. Sen. Rosendale received widespread support from his fellow Montana conservative “true Republican” state legislators when they freely elected him to a “leadership” position to be state Senate majority leader.

The fact that Sen. Rosendale is a self-made millionaire who moved to Montana from Maryland does not concern me, a “native Montanan,” or the vast majority of conservative Montana Republicans in the least.  Thank heaven, as the years go forward, this “native Montanan” narrative (B.S.) is falling ineffectively on the ears of much more sophisticated Montanans.

Where do I go to get my copy of the “so-called Montana values” doctrine that Ms. Fisher refers to? My values and common sense were acquired from my father and mother as a genetic and intellectual exercise.

I have frequently encountered this so-called “Montana values” canard spread, usually by liberal Democrats and phony Republican politicians like Ms. Fisher. I believe it is a form of Orwellian mindless group-think. They can never cite a source, publication or authorship so I must conclude that it is a complete fabrication without any foundation in fact or truth whatsoever.

What is going on in Montana for the past 50 years, with respect to people who are phony and fraudulent Republicans, is that Democrats, and large organizations like, and most particularly, the teachers union, target certain conservative Republican candidates in the primary election. They put up stealth Democrat infiltrators, or liberal Republicans, and cross over and vote in the Republican primary to defeat the conservative Republican and put a pretender into elected office like Tammi Fisher.

When they are elected to office they manage to alienate the Republican Party from its true base of voters, confuse the fundamental foundations of Republican polemics, and generally engage in deceit, falsely labeling their pro-Democrat activities as “bi-partisan.”

Many states have laws enforcing closed primary elections. In 2011 the Republican Party of Idaho successfully sued in federal court to close their primary elections. Idaho Republicans have now put a stop to Democrats tampering with their primary election process. Legal precedent in the federal courts overwhelmingly supports the right of a political party to close its primary election in order to prevent election tampering and protect the right of a political party to choose its own candidates without tampering by outsiders like Tammi Fisher.

I want to thank Tammi for publically identifying two elected “Republican?” pretenders to elected office, from the Flathead. Self-glorifying SEAL Team Six Commander Ryan Zinke and former Kalispell police chief Frank Garner. You might think (incorrectly) that men with these prior credentials in police and military service would be conservative. They are not. Their voting records in the Montana Legislature clearly identify them as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and pretenders, misrepresenting themselves as “Republicans.” Lucky for them that 95 percent or more of voters haven’t got a clue about their disdainful voting records.

We have observed this scenario too often in American politics. The cheap politician who “talks” conservative during election campaigns and once elected “votes” too often with Democrats and therefore is rightfully labeled a “pretender” and a “fraud.”

Biernat is a resident of Columbia Falls.