Since this is my first diary, I'd better lay a few things out:
I'm from Big Sandy, Montana. I know Jon Tester. He went to school with my parents and I went to school with his kids. You'd think in a town of less than 700 people, when a man as upstanding as Jon runs for the U.S. Senate, everyone could turn out and support him.
If only...
Quite frankly, I'm still a little surprised Jon was elected to the state senate considering how red Northcentral Montana is. I've known for a long time mascots matter more than men to a lot of people. I've seen old ladies sporting yard signs for people they flat-out hated just because they were Republicans.
I do believe most of Big Sandy is supporting Tester, but the hard-core elephant aficianados have shown little limit to how far they'll go to keep Conrad the Carpetbagger in Washington.
It started innocently enough with my former pastor criticizing the local Great Falls Tribune for showing too many pro-Tester letters. Later his wife, my former high school English teacher, (someone I had truly respected) derided Jon for voting for an unpopular superintendant when he was on the Big Sandy school board and getting a favorable rating from gay rights groups. (The only time I've ever seen homosexuality mentioned in this race)
Now there's the wives of arch-republican farmers writing letters saying no one in town likes him and that he has "A Seattle attitude" (whatever the hell that means)while their husbands go to other counties to say the same things door-to-door.
Politics makes people to crazy despicable things, including taking a good man you've known your entire life and throwing him under the bus in favor of a man who's not even from Montana who disgraces his state by simultaneously vying for both "most corrupt" and "biggest asshole" titles in the U.S. Senate.
I'm looking forward to this campaign being over next week and hopefully Jon's victory, but I don't know if I can look at my town the same way.