MONTANA'S QUANDARY

Let’s stop pretending Montana is some rugged frontier where everyone’s equal under the Big Sky. This state is a class war zone—and most of us are losing.  The real Montanans? They’re ranchers, teachers, mill workers, janitors, service workers, tribal members, loggers, and low-wage moms holding it down in a double-wide. They’re the ones who built this place and keep it running.

But who’s actually in charge?

Billionaires with Silicon Valley money buy up entire valleys and call it a “getaway.” Hedge funds gobble up rental properties and jack up rent 40% overnight. Out-of-state developers turn communities into vacation playgrounds while longtime residents get evicted, displaced, or made homeless.

You can’t afford to live in Bozeman unless you're rich or lucky. Missoula’s a paradise—if you’ve got money. Whitefish? Forget it. The workers who cook your meals, pour your drinks, and clean your hotel rooms can’t even live in the zip code.

Meanwhile, Montana’s natural resource jobs—logging, mining, and ag—have been gutted by corporate consolidation and automation. What’s left? Seasonal tourism gigs that pay starvation wages, no benefits, no protections, and definitely no future.

And let’s talk about our Indigenous brothers and sisters—still living under the boot of settler colonialism. Some of the poorest counties in the U.S. are right here in Montana on tribal land. The state won’t fund your schools or healthcare, but they’ll gladly let a corporation rip up your water table for oil profits.

Oh, and the political class? Fully bought and paid for. Greg Gianforte made his millions in tech, bought a mansion, and now runs the state like it’s a business. His friends in the legislature keep passing laws to help landlords, corporations, and bigots—while working people get crumbs. Don’t like it? Too bad. Your rent just doubled and your boss still doesn’t offer healthcare.

This isn’t just about party politics. It’s about power. And right now, working-class Montanans—rural, urban, white, Native, poor, disabled—have none of it.  Montana doesn’t have a poverty problem. It has a theft problem. Our homes, our jobs, our land, our futures—they’re being stolen by a wealthy elite who think this state is just a playground.

You want to fight back? Start by knowing this:   We have more in common with the poor kid in Browning than the tech bro in Big Sky. With the grocery clerk in Butte than the real estate speculator in Bozeman. With the teacher who can’t pay rent than the politician who owns three houses.

There’s a class war in Montana.

It’s time to choose a side.