Kochs defeated in Montana: 6 lessons the country can learn from this rural Western state

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/21/kochs_defeated_in_montana_6_lessons_the_country_can_learn_from_this_rural_western_state/?source=newsletter

by Eric Stern

The passage of Medicaid expansion in Montana this weekend was an unlikely defeat for the Koch brothers, who came in as heavy favorites and spent a fortune trying to kill the measure. Sadly for the Kochs, poor people in Montana will now get medical care.

Montana is the only state where the Kochs got beaten down like this. What is to be learned from this episode?

1. Rural America isn’t New York. The right-wingers the Koch brothers rub elbows with are the kind that go to Lincoln Center. The ones in Montana are a different breed, something the Kochs may not have fully understood. Their group Americans for Prosperity has cycled through five different leaders in Montana the last few years. The first guy they hired showed up at a committee hearing at the Capitol dressed in leather, like a biker, wearing an American flag bandanna on his head. After that, they tried two different former state senators, one of whom has publicly campaigned to revive sodomy laws. Next they brought in a man who was once part of a religious cult whose members all descended into a bunker on March 15, 1990, believing that the world would end that very day.

For the Medicaid battle the Kochs tried a new strategy, one that never works in the West. They flew in a bunch of high-priced young politicos from Washington to get the job done. These held “town meetings” in rural communities at which they showed up in slim-fit suits and pointy shoes, looking like they were heading to a nightclub, lecturing farmers and ranches on politics and the dangers of “more Obamacare” and publicly threatening moderate Republicans. It didn’t take long for them to get booed off the stage by their own partisans.

2. Progressives are smarter and savvier. Now let’s look at the winning army, a group of young activists with far fewer resources than the Koch team but with an advantage we’ve seen pay dividends time and again: They understand spreadsheets, data and grass-roots organizing, and are smart; unlike most Tea Partyers who don’t, and who are not. They teamed up with hospital executives, doctors and business leaders. These are Republican-leaning types who wanted Medicaid expansion in 2013 but were let down by their own high-priced conservative lobbyists who failed to deliver Republican votes. This time, the progressives took care of business and pressured one in five Republicans to vote for it. Kim Abbott of Montana Human Rights Network, who coordinated the effort, says they banked a record 10,000 calls to legislators. They found citizens with life-ending illnesses who could not afford treatment, who are not eligible for Medicaid nor an ACA-subsidized plan, and paired them with hospital leaders for media appearances and to testify at hearings at the Capitol. The Kochs’ crew, meanwhile, testified at the same hearings that Americans “will no longer have an incentive to work hard” if Medicaid is expanded.

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