(#6244) The Montana deception

      The trump administration orchestrated a coup of sorts a few days ago in Montana. Piece of shit steve daines, a republican and current senator from Montana, surprised Montana politics by waiting until the actual last minute before the filing deadline to announce he wasn't running this year. What this did was several things. First it took away any chance for other republican candidates to enter the race that would have been wide open. So by choking off the field and trump and all republican state leaders endorsing the trump candidate, the fix is in. Secondly, and this is important, it gave democrats no chance to consider other alternatives for candidates to enter the general election. So a double coup for trump because he and the state leaders, including daines, immediately endorsed trumps chosen replacement candidate, while democrats were caught out.
     Thankfully the people of Montana are the ultimate arbiters of this coming election and the more they are finding out about this deceptive ruse to switch one candidate for another the more they are angered by it. That trump would try to manipulate the Montana senate race cannot sit well with democrats and independents. What trump's ruse has likely created is a coming backlash to republican candidates not only in Montana but in other states as well. Being fair and honest about elections allows us to nuance our decisions on how to vote. Being deceptive and dishonest about elections takes that nuance right out of the equation and installs an anger against the party trying to engineer their own outcome.
     The audacious manipulation of trump and the weakness of the republican party will be their downfall as good people in we the people will not reward this anti democratic strategy by the loathsome trump. I expect the republican primary may show that Montanans are not to be fooled about and the desired outcome for trump will have a difficult time. Even if the candidate trump quickly endorsed wins the primary I expect Montanans will lean in to the democratic primary winner as a protest to unfair electioneering by trump. Montanans had a democratic senator up until 2024 in Jon Tester for many years so the fact that democrats could win again because of this republican deception is real and possible.