Letters to the editor Oct. 10

Gutter tactics

It’s all too obvious and predictable. In her race against Ryan Zinke for our new U.S. House seat, Monica Tranel is concentrating almost solely on the allegations made mostly during Ryan’s tenure as the head of the Interior.

It makes no difference that after extensive investigations, none of them found any significant wrongdoing or fault on Ryan’s part. But why is she using such a cowardly tactic? Because Tranel is afraid of any discussion of the real issues which would shed light on what she, a partisan green progressive attorney, really stands for and, at the same time, provide a stark contrast between her positions and Ryan’s.

The overriding core political issue resides in the overreaching power of the federal government, particularly relative to the rights of our individual states. Ryan understands our federal government is broken, inefficient at best and corrupt at worse while Monica fully supports more and more federal government control. Ryan is certain Montanans can do a better job managing all our vast resources — Monica finds that position abhorrent. Ryan is appalled by the authorization of another 87,000 IRS agents whereas Monica fully supports that expenditure. Ryan despises the federal government overspending, knowing it has led to the disastrous economic climate with the rampant inflation which is so damaging — Monica would certainly vote to continue such failed policies.

Ryan supports “energy independence” by judicially using all of our energy resources including gas, oil, coal, nuclear, and our hydropower from dams in environmentally friendly ways — Monica wants to return to the “horse and buggy” era.

Ryan thinks our borders should be secure and immigration controlled — Monica is a full supporter of open borders. Ryan does not believe the draconian green policies to fight perceived global warming are economically warranted, whereas Monica is a full rabid supporter of that narrative.

Many more differences could be listed but suffice it to say that just these issues alone are profound and critical to the future of our country and they should be explored so people have the information to make a truly informed vote.

Overall, Ryan is an honest, Christian, hardworking, experienced, conservative Montanan who grew up in Whitefish which continues to be his primary residence. In addition, he is not afraid to explore the deep differences between himself and his opponent, in fact he would welcome it.

I am certain people with any modicum of critical thinking skills will dismiss the gutter approach of Monica’s ads and make their decision based on the real issues. But Monica’s tactics dramatically provides a snapshot of her underlying character and that, at this point, is not a very flattering picture.

— Mark Agather, Kalispell