The Biggest Unwritten Story in #MTPol This Week

I was wrong. I know. When I get something wrong, I think it is important that I come back and tell you that I was wrong.

Last week, I told you that the Left was going to show up in force. This was their backyard after all. The radicals in charge of the Montana Federation of Employees (the labor union that is supposed to represent teachers and other public employees) was organizing against it. It typically doesn't matter what the protest is- the Left wing community organizers will show up for it in Helena. But this time it didn't happen.

On Friday, there was a "Parental Rights Rally" that took place in Helena. Many attending the rally were there to speak out against some of the bigger city school boards that have been ignoring the pleas of parents and teachers and forcing masks on kids in school. As you can see in the photo above, they had a good turnout of folks from across the state.

Montana's Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen (R-MT) also showed up in support of the parental rights rally.

Meanwhile, liberal activist and state legislator Moffie Funk (D-Helena) organized a counter protest on the other side of the capitol, which featured "a handful of people," according to the Montana Free Press.

A handful of people? What an embarrassment for the pro-mask Left. They can always turn out a crowd to rally in support of their side in the state capital, and they couldn't do it this time.

Was the rally covered? Yes. Was it written about? Yes. But the biggest unwritten story in #MTPol (the hashtag for Montana Politics) this week was the fact that the public employees union and the Montana Democrats couldn't even get support for their mask mandate cause in Helena.

Here's what else that was interesting to me: the largest teachers union in the state had come out against mask mandates in schools, and their own union at the statewide level (MFPE) has been lobbying against them.