WHOPPER OF THE WEEK!
Senator Wendy McKamey’s Attempt to Gaslight Montana
Guest post - Bill Lussenheide
Ah yes, leave it to Montana Senator Wendy McKamey—one of the exiled “Nasty Nine” who’s been unceremoniously shown the door by the GOP—to deliver a hilariously misplaced, if not outright damning, tall tale about Montana’s “skyrocketing property taxes.”
In McKamey’s own breathless words:
“Montanans are being crushed under the weight of skyrocketing property taxes. Longtime residents are watching their tax bill soar as wealthy out-of-staters scoop up land and inflate home values across Montana. Families, seniors, and working people across the state are pleading for relief. This session, a group of Montanans — Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals — came together to deliver meaningful property tax relief. Unfortunately, a group of Montana lawmakers stood in the way and are now actively campaigning to get Gov. Gianforte to veto meaningful property tax reform for you. That group is the Montana ‘Freedom Caucus.’”
Ah yes, the dastardly “Freedom Caucus,” a shadowy cabal of fiscal villains, twirling their mustaches as they gleefully block relief for the good people of Montana. But wait—if that sounds cartoonish to you, that’s because it is. The truth is McKamey’s melodramatic narrative is so far removed from reality it’s practically a satire skit. THERE IS NO MEANINGFUL PROPERTY TAX RELIEF FROM THEM ! … just tax shifting!
What’s truly hilarious is imagining her ragtag bipartisan “heroes” — Fake Republicans and Democrats joining hands like the cast of Les Misérables, singing soulful ballads about “meaningful relief,” while in her fever dream, the evil Freedom Caucus lurks in a dark backroom. Of course, the irony is that this exact backroom plotting was actually done by McKamey and her fellow “Nasty Nine.”
So buckle up, Montanans. If we’ve learned anything from this over-the-top performance, it’s that your property tax relief was being held hostage by people now so desperate to salvage their floundering political careers that they’ve called in a high-powered PR firm to create these crazy statements. Their go-to strategy? Good old-fashioned Cognitive Dissonance — or, in plainer terms, Gaslighting. They’re betting that if they keep calling up “down” and black “white” long enough, you’ll just nod along like hypnotized sheep.
Well, sorry, McKamey & Nasty Nine. Hell can freeze over, but the reality of writing that eye-popping property tax check is going to hit Montanans right between the eyes — no matter how many times you claim the Freedom Caucus (the actual champions of property tax relief) are the villains.
Keep spinning, McKamey. Just don’t expect anyone outside your little echo chamber to buy it.
- Bill Lussenheide