As I watch Jon Tester talk about why he should be ‘the chosen
one’ for Montana, I can’t help but dwell on what he means when he spouts the
words, “The Montana Way!” What does that actually mean? Does anyone truly know?
Is this his imaginary vision of what Montana represents? What does it mean to
others (like me) that see views differently? I have personally met Tester last
semester in a Native American Studies (NAS) class, and I was not impressed.
Believe me, I am not a Rehberg fan either, but this Senator race will surely be
a vote for the ‘lesser of two evils.’
Photos courtesy of: www.politicalguide.com
Growing up I
was the typical kid who read western stories based on the wild, untamed west. I
admit I fell into the whole Hollywood romance that western movies and books
depicted. Nothing was more awesome to see a rugged cowboy with his shiny spurs,
a lever action rifle in its scabbard, and his reliable six guns in its holster.
This proud, mysterious, figure would slowly ride into town on his trusty steed.
Unfortunately those days are gone, yet I feel while watching Tester’s ads, even
though he is educated, he feels that Montana is still open land with vigilantes
running around taking the law into their own hands. Maybe this is what he
imagines:
 |
| www.alemadephotography.com |
 |
| www.westernmontana.land.com |
 |
| www.fineartamerica.com |
“We are really a free
people out here. The American spirit is making its last stand here. Every man
is his master. He believes in himself. We don’t know anything about tenement
life, ward politics, the factory system-all that…” (McNickle, D’Arcy. “The Hawk
is Hungry”
If this is what he truly sees in his mind of what Montana
represents, then why is he needed in office?
I have come
to the conclusion that his main target audience for his ads are farmers and
ranchers of Montana. Tester claims he is a 3rd generation Montanan, and farming
is in his blood. How can he make the claim in his ads that he is for all Montanans,
when he specifically is going for the Pathos, Logos, and Ethos, of the long
existing farming and ranching communities? Is he so blinded that he doesn’t
realize that Montana is a huge state that is diverse in jobs? While it remains
fairly untamed, a vast majority of its populace are not farmers and ranchers.
Bozeman
itself is not a poor, farming community. It houses the college, numerous
schools, all types of highly advanced engineering and technical businesses.
Belgrade is more of an urban town, but even then, not everyone lives on a farm
or ranch. With this approach, I feel that Tester is missing a large portion of
the votes available to him. The degree that he acquired is for Music, with a
teaching option. Which I find truly ironic in the sense that he feels Montana
needs scientists and engineers, not critical thinkers. So where does music fit
in? “The Montana Way” quote that he talks about, seems to get lost in the minds
of people who just don’t buy into that logic. People who actually live in the
cities, might not relate to what he is saying, or instantly conjure up their
own vision of “The Montana Way,” and it isn’t always pretty.
 |
| www.montana.edu |
 |
| www.tatto.falbepublishing.com |
 |
| www.sodahead.com |
 |
| www.dccampaign.blogspot.com |
His ads are
full of enthymemes that say indirectly; this is how he does government in
Montana. In his mind, everything is going great. Yet when statistics are pulled
from the State Health Departments, his way of governing doesn’t address a lot
of issues. I have yet to see an ad where he and his wife are saying they are
going to tackle the high suicide rates, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol
addiction, loose gun control laws, and lowest children immunization in the
nation. Instead of addressing these topics for Montana Families, he states,
“caring as deeply about the next generation as the people who came before cared
about us…now that is the Montana Way.” If the next generation is the highest
importance to him, why is it that in 2007, the federal government made Montana
put an open container law in the books? That should have been his first action
as an elected Senator, but even as a lower level political head, he never pushed
it. How can anyone Democrat or Republican say that the next generation is vital
but will only change laws because the federal government threatens to withhold
money?
 |
| www.washingtonpost.com/blogs |
Nice to know that my families safety on the road isn't priority to Tester, yet if I die, I get a free cross placed in my honor.
I feel that
his own personal gains are clouding his mind when dealing with environmental
issues. When he came to my class last semester, I asked him about why he voted
to allow the Keystone Pipeline Company to be exempt from submitting any
Environmental Impact Studies (EIS). In the typical political fashion, he just
shook his head and instantly blamed the President. His whole environmental logic
is wrong. How can he claim that he wants to preserve the land, and water of Montana,
and that he wants to look into renewable energy, when he seems to be on the
payroll of the pipeline companies? What jobs are truly going to be created? It
will create more work for the people already in the oil field positions. Tester
is trying to sell this off as a way to get people in Montana off unemployment
and get them to work. Anyone can look at what is happening to neighboring states
that have recently allowed the oil exploitation. Whose interest is at stake
here…Montanans or Tester’s personal bank account?
 |
| http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com |
One classmate asked him about his stance on the loose gun control laws and without missing a beat, he just answered, "We are Montanans and that is what we do." I own guns, but I still believe that some people shouldn't be allowed to own a sling-shot!
 |
| 2012 Spring NASX 304 |
 |
| www.idjackson.net |
I recently acquired a flyer that
was mailed out to potential voters in Montana. The front cover is a picture of
Tester walking with a ranching couple, smiling and having a great discussion. I
find it funny yet irritating how much the photo has been edited. The
picture is an image taken directly from his own ad (found at: 40 second mark).
What has been changed is the back fence. Originally, the video shows cows in
the background and farther back is a tree line that indicates a free running
creek bed. The edited photo shows the fence covering all of the animals and
creek, and it is a poor photo-editing job to boot. The point of doing this
would be to hide the fact that if Tester is pro-clean water and resources, he
can't really show that the cows being that close to the water, which will pollute the
water supply. I have done work with fish biologists, and their main purpose is to
prevent this type of ranching practice from happening. This flyer is full of
mis-leading facts about his political career; he isn't the opponent of special
interest groups (he has close ties to the pipeline company), he isn't an
advocate for first-rate education (teachers here complain of lack of state
funding). If Tester is willing to 'doctor' his pictures to hide the truth, what
else is he hiding from potential voters? I guess in the long run, that is what
the rhetoric is about...cloud the public with mis-information and let them
figure out what is really going on. I know what is important in my life right
now, and this senate race will be a hard one for me.
I don't know much about political figures in Montana because I am registered to vote in Alaska, so it was interesting to read your project without any sort of pre-existing bias.
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed by people's loyalty to where they live. We do it a lot as a whole in America. But there are so many regional loyalties. Montanan is big on that. "It's the Montana way!" When it comes down to it, Montana is not all tht different from other places, but somehow feeling special and different is very important here. I can see how politicians would want to use that to their advantage.
I can't believe how poorly that photo was photo-shopped! And it is crazy how small the details are that people are willing to adjust to fit what they need to show.
I don't think this is bad at all, Kevin. I do know quite a bit about Montana politics and I find myself in a similar situations with this upcoming election. I am dedicated to NOT having Rehberg in office, but that leaves me with Tester as an candidate. I do like him for several reasons, but I like you rhetorical analysis of his promises and the things he should be focused on.
ReplyDeleteI like how you localized Aristotle's ideas. The presidential election can still seem so distant, but this is here and now in the state. That connection really gave this a power and it also let you be a little less specific about some of the political maneuvers of Tester's you mentions (like the Keystone pipeline) that you already know your audience will recognize.
Nice analysis of rhetoric and usage in your own writing.
I enjoyed reading this take on what "Montana values" are and not. We've talked about this before but asking deeper questions gave me even more information to consider. Not knowing too much about Montana politics to begin with helped me come into the reading with an open sided viewpoint. Though we've talked about Tester and his "Montana way" so I knew where you were taking it. The video was obviously trying to appeal to this old "Montana" values, but the video seemed very scripted. His wife a bit more than him. I've always felt that he was making a mistake when trying to address those who completely believe in the "montana way" because Montana is becoming a diverse area as time goes by, jobs especially are much more than just farmers and ranchers. I
ReplyDeleteenjoy that you brought up those questions mid way since it lets me as a reader dwell on i t for a couple minutes, answer it and then continue reading as you build up from the questions.
I feel like Tester glosses over a lot of things without ever going deeper into what he is saying and never addresses the true problems of Montana so when you brought up exactly what some of those problems are it exposes a lot of what he leaves unsaid, making him even more unappealing.
Kevin – I like the way you are stretching tonally here, and you’re getting better at it, I think. I think, though, you still want to work out some fuller parts of your argument – be careful not really too much on tone to carry your weight, that is – I think of that in terms of the way you discuss the open container law, which ends up seeming a little rushed.
ReplyDeleteClouding the issues might be what “the rhetoric” of this campaign is about – I wonder how “rhetoric” in general might counter some of this, however.
Kevin – you’re really pushing against a two party system, as well, struggling with what happens when neither candidate gets it right (which happens a lot, of course). I think the heart of this paper is the reliance on “Montana values,” on the notion that we appeal to an ethos that reflects some kind of regional identity, though I think perhaps some of this focus gets lost structurally. So, the piece pulls between a very reluctant endorsement of a candidate you find very flawed, and a look at the challenge of relying on something as nebulous as “the Montana Way.”
I think that first idea, the way in which Tester (and Rehberg too) work to define a character that lines up with a view of “Montana,” is actually the most interesting aspect of this piece, and I think you could have done more with that textually, looking at how Tester tries to define it in his ads. At times, Kevin, I felt like you missed a step or two in your argument – like the place where jump into the vigilante argument, before you spell out why you see that in Tester’s ad – probably some more direct engagement with the Tester ad there would have been useful, as a way of preparing a reader for the leap into this Western myth that seems to be behind it. I liked the way you counter that, though, by introducing (visually) some other, darker aspects of the “Montana Way.” The Montana Way used to include scalping, of course, and stake-jumping, and public hangings…
I also appreciate what you’re trying out tonally. You are really working as a writer to extend your breadth, which is not easy. You may overdo it a little with a sort of snarkiness in places – there are times in the piece where it seems like your tone fills in for some of the steps in the argument, and you want to make sure not to do too much of that, or it starts to sound hollow. So, you might have benefitted from a closer look at those sorts of contradictions, because they are a rhetorical mainstay in American politics (Kansans were very strong on this one – they definitely had a state ethos, though coincedentally it has much in common with Montana’s!)
I’d turn you toward lots of reading at this point, to hone your writing – a good place to start is the “Best Writing” series (best sports, best science, etc.) for particular years – these will give you frameworks for non-fiction writing that will help you expand yourself stylistically.
As always, pleasure to have you in class.
Notes while reading:
If you don’t know what the Montana way is, you must not be from Montana. Right?
“personally met” – does that seem redundant to you?
“yet I feel while watching Tester’s ads, even though he is educated, he feels that Montana is still open land with vigilantes running around taking the law into their own hands.” – this is slightly awkwardly phrased, but beyond that part, what leads you, from his ad, to make that assumption? There’s a missing premise in the enthymeme, that is, that I can’t quite figure out. It seems like you may have been able to explore that a bit more fully.
I like the images you include as alternative visuals for “the Montana Way”!