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My Governor is Weirder than Yours

2024-09-13 · collab / interview · Hank, Ryan Busse · 49:18 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: Science & nature) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: timely hook, guest or collab, civic or action cta

Hank interviews Ryan Busse, the Democrat running against Montana governor Greg Gianforte, who argues that Gianforte's property-tax rise, Medicaid cuts, abortion restrictions and attacks on public access betray the egalitarian Montana of the 1972 constitution; Hank argues that state and local politics matter as much as the national race.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Cold open of clips from the interview, and greeting

  • ★★ Hank tells John that Ryan Busse wants to be his governor, so he talked to him about it. — 00:00:29

00:00:39 — Busse introduced as Hank's would-be governor; wealthy out-of-state candidates and money in politics

  • ★ Hank jokes that he wants Busse to be his personal governor, representing none of the other citizens of Montana. (playful) — 00:00:57 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank observes an influx of wealthy Montana politicians who aren't from Montana: Democrats tend to field locals, Republicans rich people not from here. — 00:01:23 · Republican Party, Montana
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says it is really hard in the US political system for someone without money to run for office, so wealthy people tend to run. — 00:01:50

00:02:43 — What Montanans worry about (abortion, public lands, affordability), why Busse runs, and Hank on the backlash against modern America

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says women fear for privacy, abortion and health care: Montana is surrounded by four states that have drastically curtailed abortion rights. — 00:02:43 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says voters also care greatly about access to public lands and waters, and about property taxes and affordability. — 00:03:09
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse describes 'the Montana struggle': Montanans accept some hardship for outdoor access, but Gianforte's administration has stretched both affordability and access. — 00:03:38 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank suggests one-party dominance breeds complacency ('we can do whatever we want because we're going to win'), a problem in deep blue and deep red states alike. — 00:04:23
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte, with four mansions and a private jet, does not care if taxes go up, and likes having 'governor' on his business card. — 00:04:47
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says he runs to make Montana better: public education is the backbone of democracy and in peril, and attacking women and freedom is wrong. — 00:04:47 · education, Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse calls public lands the ultimate freedom: outside Missoula you can hike public land for miles and camp for months without seeing anyone. — 00:05:12 · Missoula, Montana
  • ★★★ Hank thinks Gianforte also runs to do things, but many people believe America went wrong because gay people can marry, women can choose abortion and schools teach honest history, which scares him. — 00:05:52
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Montana is at a tipping point and somebody needs to stand up and fix it. — 00:06:42 · Montana

00:07:11 — Gianforte's property tax rise, the surplus, and suing the counties

  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the state had a surplus of over $2.5 billion and need not raise property taxes; the previous four governors fixed the same appraisal problem, Gianforte did not. — 00:07:11
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Montana is one of only nine states that tax Social Security and just put a tax on tips, showing ambivalence toward working people. — 00:07:38 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says he and his running mate Rafe are probably the only Democrats in a century to run against Republicans who raised property taxes: 'the low-tax Democrats'. (playful, hedged) — 00:08:03 · Republican Party
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the fix is easy: the state applies one multiplier to appraisals, and adjusting that one number takes 30 minutes in the legislature. — 00:08:43
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the state did not need the money and will have almost a $3 billion surplus next session. — 00:09:08
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte blamed the county commissioners for the tax rise and then sued the counties to make them collect more; the Republican commissioners can't stand him. — 00:09:33 · Republican Party

00:10:12 — The stegosaurus remark, Hank's editing insert on Gianforte's creationist museum gift, and national framing of state politics

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse calls the tax rise bad policy but a political opening: be the sane adult in the room and maybe not believe in stegosauruses boarding the ark. (playful) — 00:10:12
  • ★★★ In an editing insert Hank explains that Gianforte gave $300,000 to help start a creationist museum in eastern Montana, which shows a stegosaurus being put on the ark. — 00:10:12 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank finds it one of Gianforte's weirder traits; it doesn't bother him alone, but his more extreme policy beliefs seem tied to his fundamentalism. — 00:10:58
  • ★★★ Hank says people now imagine politics nationally, especially recent arrivals in Montana (part of its housing crisis), who may know little of state politics. — 00:11:27 · Montana

00:11:50 — Republicans at Busse's events; Medicaid cuts and the ICU patient at Billings Clinic

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Republicans now come to his events: the property tax mess showed them that voting straight ticket is not always a good deal. — 00:11:50 · Republican Party
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte kicked one in eight people, 136,000 Montanans, off Medicaid, while the state also refuses Medicaid expansion money. — 00:12:37
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: At Billings Clinic Busse heard of a man dropped from Medicaid who could not afford his heart medicine for two weeks, then had a bad heart attack and ended up in the ICU. — 00:12:37
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says dropping such people is bad business, since the whole state pays for the ICU instead of cheap medicine, and evil to do to them. — 00:13:23

00:13:51 — Housing costs, the Bozeman development, and the rollback of local control

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte, asked about the Medicaid removals, said it was working as intended. — 00:13:51
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says citizens establish government and programs to make life better, within limits; he doesn't want onerous, ineffective government. — 00:13:51
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Asked why housing is so expensive, Busse cites supply, people moving in, inflation in building costs, and a lack of foresight. — 00:13:51
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says communities cannot function when nurses, mechanics, police, firefighters and teachers can't afford to live there, and the state should spend creatively on housing. — 00:14:36
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse cites a development outside Bozeman where philanthropy partnered with a developer to put 64 homes on eight acres. — 00:14:36
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says half the homes sell at half market value with preference for teachers, police and firefighters, and 1,200 people applied for 30 homes. — 00:15:17
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte's administration rolled back local control with bills aimed at Missoula, though communities can work out their own solutions. — 00:15:40 · Missoula, Montana

00:16:22 — Solar, small-scale nuclear at Colstrip, coal's decline and workers in the transition

  • ★★ Hank says the US is projected to build about 37 nuclear power plants' worth of solar this year (2024), an exciting transition because it is needed. (hedged) — 00:16:22
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse backs small-scale nuclear for base-load power while pushing hard on renewables; better panels and storage are needed because solar power can't yet be stored. — 00:16:22
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the Colstrip coal plant and mine already has the wires, rails and transmission lines, so a small nuclear plant there would plug in. — 00:17:06
  • ★★ Hank notes coal is becoming less competitive with gas, wind and solar, and wonders whether the Colstrip community sees the plant is not permanent. — 00:17:49
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says change is coming whether we like it: coal economics are shifting and climate change is real, and working people must be at the center of the transition. — 00:18:12 · climate change

00:19:05 — Optimism in politics; hard stories from the trail

  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says in politics you must be optimistic that good can come of government, elections and science; otherwise it is a dire, sour existence. — 00:19:05 · optimism
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the hardest stories were on the Blackfeet Reservation (justice inequity, addiction) and from frightened women, yet both can be made better, which gives him hope. — 00:19:35

00:21:05 — Busse's gun-industry past, attacks on him, responsible gun ownership, and fear as an engagement tool

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse worked 25 years in the gun industry and wrote a memoir attacking irresponsible actions by the industry and the gun world. — 00:21:05
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says most of his close friends from the gun world no longer talk to him because he criticized the political right. — 00:21:50
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says opponents call him a communist gun-grabber, but he hunts with his kids, owns many guns and has sold three million, so it doesn't stick. — 00:22:20
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says a freedom as powerful as gun ownership must be balanced with responsibility; he sees himself as the real pro-gun person protecting gun rights. — 00:22:50
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says gun companies now market to civil-war fantasies, presenting killing your neighbour in an insurrection as cool. — 00:23:37
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says most gun owners, like most conservatives, are responsible and decent; loud 'jackwagons' and social media warriors don't speak for them. — 00:23:37 · social media
  • ★★★ Hank says that, making things online, he knows the easiest way to get views is the scariest video; without a sense of responsibility to society, the goal is just eyeballs. — 00:24:20 · attention economy
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the body has triggers that respond very quickly to fear, so it is easy to get people worked up. — 00:24:48

00:25:15 — Why Busse runs: 'get your Montana back', the 1972 constitution's rights, Gianforte versus effective government

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says that although Trump may win Montana by 10 to 20 points, Obama lost the state by only about three and a half to four points. — 00:25:15 · Barack Obama, Montana, Donald Trump

  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse's campaign motto is 'get your Montana back': Montana is not really a red state but a live-and-let-live, egalitarian, purple place. — 00:25:43 · Montana

    “the motto of our campaign is get your Montana back”

  • ★ Hank jokes that having a lot of Twitter followers entitles him to pull rank and have his own governor. (playful) — 00:26:04 · Twitter

  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Montanans rewrote their constitution in 1972, with enumerated rights to privacy, an equal public education, to know, and to a clean and healthful environment. — 00:26:31
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the constitution's systems keep Montanans from pulling rank on each other, and Gianforte, wanting to commercialize everything, attacks public access, education and women's rights. — 00:27:13
  • ★★★ Hank says people want to run government even though they hate it, fixing imagined problems rather than real ones, which creates dysfunction. — 00:27:35

  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse calls Gianforte an arsonist hired to run the fire station who hates effective government, elected in the tumult of 2020. (playful) — 00:28:17 · COVID-19 pandemic

    “Greg Gianforte is an arsonist who got hired to run the fire station”

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte has taken apart DPHHS, kicked one in eight Montanans off coverage, attacks public access and wants to privatize public schools. — 00:28:46

00:29:13 — Shared values, river access, campaign fun and a Venus joke

  • ★★ Hank says his neighbours often have different worldviews but mostly want the same things; an extreme view of America doesn't fit even people he disagrees with. — 00:29:13
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte is the only governor ever to sue to block public river access, on the East Gallatin. — 00:29:49
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse praises Montana's stream access law as anti-feudal: you don't have to be a prince or king to access the river. — 00:30:18 · Montana
  • ★ Ryan Busse: Busse says his campaign has only two rules, have fun and win, and recalls a campaign rafting day. — 00:30:46

00:32:02 — Abortion: Initiative 128 and Gianforte's bills

  • ★★ Hank says polling suggests abortion access divides Montana's government from its people: a ballot initiative polls well, while Gianforte wants to end all abortions. (hedged) — 00:32:02 · Montana
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the abortion initiative I-128 polls at 65 to 70 percent, so most Republicans agree; Montanans don't want a governor in their doctor's office. — 00:32:31 · Republican Party
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte signed five restrictive abortion bills, promised to sign more, and signed Senate Bill 154, which would strip the constitutional right to privacy. — 00:33:02

00:34:09 — National versus local politics, Busse's style, winning elections, and the gulf between the candidates

  • ★★★ Hank thinks that, partly because of the internet, people live less in the places they live and more in the country broadly; local politics can be taxing to follow. — 00:34:09
  • ★★★ Hank says the energy around the top of the ticket leaves local politics with little attention, so local races are underfunded and voters go straight ticket. — 00:34:31
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says it is incumbent on him to redefine what a Western Democrat is: direct, no teleprompter statements; Republicans gravitate to him because they believe what they say. — 00:35:09 · Republican Party
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says many Democrats' actions have long not matched their rhetoric; politicians should believe, fight and convince. — 00:35:54
  • ★★★ Hank says governing is meant to be hard: no one should be able to change and break everything easily, so a bad leader can be weathered. — 00:36:27
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says voters forget that 98% of policy is decided on election day: winning comes first, so boil the message down. — 00:37:00
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Democrats too often bring a 14-point policy plan to a knife fight, and lose. (playful) — 00:37:29
  • ★★★ Hank says candidates used to be judged on policy plans; now vibes matter, with a party led by a man who has never accepted losing an election. — 00:37:51 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ Hank says Trump appears to be preparing everyone for him not accepting the result if he loses this election too. (hedged) — 00:38:14 · Donald Trump
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says he and Gianforte are radically different: he wants government to do good, freedom, no subjugation of women and public land access; Gianforte believes the opposite. — 00:38:14

00:39:30 — What people should know about Montana: the 1972 constitution, Held v. Montana, labor history and the Copper Kings

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says most Montanans, even conservative ranchers, don't care about a gay kid, what books people read or who loves whom; they just want to live their lives. — 00:39:30
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the 1972 constitution was written by a hundred ordinary people seated alphabetically, not by party; elected officials could not serve. — 00:40:25
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says his two boys were plaintiffs in the Held climate case. — 00:40:25
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says in the famous Held case 16 young people sued Montana for violating the right to a clean and healthful environment. — 00:40:47 · climate change, Montana
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says that unlike US constitutional cases arguing what the framers thought, Montana has nine living framers; its environment article was written by Mae Nan Ellingson, then 24. — 00:41:16 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Ellingson, the first witness in the Held trial, was questioned for two hours, remembered everything, and said they wrote the constitution for a time like this. — 00:42:01
  • ★★★ Hank likes that Montana makes no political sense through a national lens: a very red state with strong labor laws. — 00:42:28 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says organized labor in the United States, certainly in the West, was in many ways born in Montana. — 00:42:28 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Montana's labor history is not pretty: the Copper Kings, including William Clark, bought elections with $100 bills and owned the newspapers. — 00:42:58 · Montana
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Montana's love of freedom, labor and equal access is a reaction against an era of abusive billionaires. — 00:43:26 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank says he doesn't want Montana to make sense nationally; he wants places that are diverse in that way. — 00:43:26 · Montana
  • ★★ Hank thinks Gianforte, Sheehy and Daines are trying to make Montana a monolithic national red place, which Montana has always resisted. — 00:43:26 · Montana

00:44:14 — Little animosity on the trail; Montana as a democracy lab

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse meets little animosity on the trail: people care about the place enough to pause national politics, and even the far right wants public land access. — 00:44:49
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse sees Montana as an outpost lab of democracy that could reseed it elsewhere if it dies. — 00:45:33 · Montana

00:46:00 — Campaign logistics, body-slam jokes, and Gianforte's refusal to debate

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says the campaign is about 70 days out, and about 80 percent of Montanans vote absentee by mail, with ballots arriving in about 50 days. — 00:46:00
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says after about 335 to 340 days of campaigning he has probably passed 80,000 miles; Montana is so big you can drive 11 hours without leaving it. (hedged) — 00:46:23 · Montana
  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse jokes that Gianforte has body-slammed a reporter and flies a private jet, neither of which he has done yet; Hank offers to be body-slammed for publicity. (playful) — 00:46:48
  • ★★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says Gianforte refused to debate him, calling the campaign not credible and citing unreleased tax returns, though Busse's campaign has outraised his. — 00:47:46

00:48:15 — Hank's closing: state and local politics matter as much as the top of the ticket; sign-off

  • ★★ Ryan Busse: Busse says his campaign will release its tax returns on Tuesday, leaving Gianforte cornered into debating. — 00:48:15
  • ★★★ Hank made the video because we are too stuck in a national lens: state and local politics matter hugely and are as important a reason to vote as the top of the ticket. — 00:48:15

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description notes Montana has had a Democratic governor for 16 of the last 19 years, a reminder that politics, Montana and Gianforte are weird. — video description · Montana
  • ★★ The description asks viewers to pay attention to their state and local politics. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 2024 Montana gubernatorial election · abortion · Constitution of Montana · Greg Gianforte · gun control · housing crisis · Medicaid · Montana · property tax · public land · Ryan Busse

Also: People: Barack Obama · Donald Trump · Mae Nan Ellingson · Raph Graybill · Steve Daines · Thomas Jefferson · Tim Sheehy · William A. Clark

Works: Bible · The Handmaid's Tale

Organizations: Billings Clinic · Democratic Party · Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum · Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services · Republican Party · Twitter

Groups: Copper Kings

Concepts: attention economy · campaign finance · climate change · coal · education · energy storage · energy transition · fear · fundamentalism · inflation · Labor rights · local government · myocardial infarction · nuclear power · optimism · Postal voting · privacy · small modular reactor · social media · solar power · Stegosaurus · trade union · young Earth creationism

Places: Blackfeet Indian Reservation · Bozeman, Montana · Colstrip Power Plant · East Gallatin River · Glacier National Park · Idaho · Kalispell, Montana · Las Vegas · Mars · Miles City, Montana · Missoula, Montana · North Dakota · Portland, Oregon · San Francisco · South Dakota · Texas · Venus · Wyoming · Yellowstone National Park

Events: COVID-19 pandemic · George Floyd protests

Policies: Held v. Montana · Montana Initiative 128 · Montana Senate Bill 154 · Montana Stream Access Law · Social Security

Myths: Noah's Ark

Only in the description or credits: Gunfight

Also centred on gun control: Trump, Guns, and Net Neutrality...With Governor Steve Bullock?! · The Time for Politics

Also centred on housing crisis: Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg · The AI Question that No AI Person Asks

Also centred on Medicaid: Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals

Also centred on public land: Who Owns Oregon? Some Historical Context on the so-called Militia Occupation of Public Lands

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