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Greg Gianforte and new money – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'June', 'Russell Rowland']

Date: 2023-06-07  

When I was in my late twenties, a series of personal and financial crises led me to make a choice I never thought I’d make. I visited my local Navy recruiter, and after two months of boot camp and another two months of school, I reported to my duty station in the charming little coastal town of New London, Connecticut in 1987.

Thanks to a couple of social clubs, I managed to make friends with a few interesting locals, including a man named Nelson.

Although Nelson usually wore jeans or khakis, and was very unassuming, including constantly chewing on a stick about the size of a golf tee, there was something sophisticated about the way he carried himself. When he learned that I was taking writing classes at Connecticut College, he told me that he was just finishing a book, and that he would be happy to take a look at my writing. Which he did, and he turned out to be very generous in his praise and advice, for which I will always be grateful.

Even when I found out Nelson’s last name, I didn’t know American history well enough to realize that Nelson Aldrich was a name of some significance. So when he told me that the name of his book was “Old Money,” it sounded interesting, but it still didn’t register. It wasn’t until the book came out that I realized that the name Nelson Aldrich was akin to royalty on the East Coast.

Nelson’s great grandfather, also named Nelson, served for thirty years as a senator from Rhode Island. He was partially responsible for the Federal Reserve System. The original Nelson also had a connection to another prominent family, when his daughter married the son of John D. Rockefeller. So my friend Nelson was also a cousin of some kind to the former vice president, Nelson Rockefeller.

So Nelson Aldrich knew a little bit about old money.

Unfortunately, his book wasn’t great. I think Nelson was too close to the subject to have the full perspective on a story that should have been interesting and insightful. Instead, it was wordy and humorless, which was disappointing because, in person, he was a very funny guy.

But he did make a few points that have stuck with me. One of which was how differently people handle wealth if they come from old money families, as opposed to those who suddenly find themselves wealthy. Nelson didn’t sugar coat his family’s history. Bribery and personal favors were commonplace in the days his grandfather was serving in the Senate, and the original Nelson benefited from some of these practices as much as anyone, even getting caught up in a couple of scandals. But the Aldrich family also developed an attitude that was common among moneyed families of that time, which was that they felt a tremendous responsibility to use their wealth to benefit the rest of society, not to simply serve their own self-interests. They also considered it distasteful at the time to use your money to impose your personal beliefs onto the people you represent. Politicians and patricians who tried this approach were reminded by their peers that they were out of line.

So you can probably imagine what Nelson had to say about those who suddenly come into money, people who don’t grasp this notion that perhaps they owe the world around them a little respect for helping bring such abundance their way. In his opinion, these people generally get so caught up in the belief that they’re smarter than the rest of us that they become single-minded about riding the wave as far as it will take them, with no consideration for the impact of their behavior on others.

Which brings me to the story of our current governor.

Greg Gianforte founded RightNow Technologies, a software service company, in 1997. It’s clear that Gianforte’s timing was impeccable, and the product found its niche, because the company grew quickly. Gianforte was able to sell RightNow Technologies to Oracle for a reported $1.5 billion in 2010. Gianforte is the personification of New Money. And in keeping with Nelson Aldrich’s theory, he has made it very clear from the time he became well known in the political and cultural arena that he is not interested in showing his gratitude by lifting others. He has also made it clear that he’s not interested in finding out what’s important to Montanans, with his town halls that feature hand-picked audiences, with questions prepared in advance.

The mission statement for his Gianforte Family Foundation, and the Montana Family Foundation, spells it out. He is only interested in helping “faith-based organizations.” And by “faith-based,” Gianforte has also made it clear that he’s not talking about any faith—only those who align with his own beliefs, which are decidedly fundamentalist.

Soon after he sold RightNow, he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a creationist museum in Glendive that promotes the idea that men walked the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. And it would seem that there has been a thread in Gianforte’s strategy ever since that would have the rest of us going back to using stone implements while he and his like-minded friends go on hunting expeditions on their expansive ranches.

Gianforte has become known for his micromanaging style of government, often recalling bills to have them rewritten if they don’t conform to his own agenda. And in this past session, despite having a super majority of Republicans in the legislature, he vetoed several bills that had the full support of both parties, for reasons that are a mystery. One of them was Senate Bill 442, which would have reallocated over $50 million in marijuana tax revenues to such infrastructure projects as county roads, parks and recreation, the HEART Fund, and veterans’ services. This bill passed 49-1 in the Senate. He also vetoed a bill that passed easily which would have provided protection for anyone who owns a mobile home from suddenly being evicted from their trailer park if a buyer comes in and decides to raise the rent. This bill was a direct response to what has become a national trend, where outsider buyers have found an easy revenue stream in buying up cheap trailer parks. Again, no explanation was forthcoming.

But the most egregious of his acts in this last session was to push through what he framed as a huge tax cut for Montanans that was in reality nothing more than tossing a few nickels toward the average Montanan, while charging almost no taxes for those in his own tax bracket. He received almost no pushback from his own party for any of these shenanigans, which is the most baffling part of it all. Because it’s clear that most of the constituents that his Republican clones represent fall in the lower tax bracket. After all, Montana has one of the lowest average incomes of any state in the union.

I have never once heard Gianforte talk about the rich history of culture and literature in Montana. He doesn’t seem to pay attention to the polls that indicate that Montanans don’t want to impose their beliefs on women. He doesn’t care that most Montanans were not interested in abusing trans people until it became a political football.

He is here to throw his money and weight around to get Montana to conform to his own beliefs for as long as he can get away with it. And it’s also clear that he doesn’t care who criticizes him for it. Mainly because there has been no indication whatsoever that any criticism will affect his ability to do whatever he wants.

I have received many emails from past editorials from Republicans who are horrified at the direction their party is taking, so I know they are out there. Much like Copper King William Clark, who left a toxic mess that still haunts Butte and moved to New York, never to return again, Greg Gianforte is only interested in Montana as a means to an end, and that should be a frightening thought to anyone who lives here. It seems sad and predictable that we have found ourselves falling into this trap again, but it is one of the things about history that is impossible to ignore. It will repeat itself.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/07/greg-gianforte-and-new-money/

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