Gaining experience without exhausting luck can be harsh, but some of life’s lessons can only be learned the hard way. Here is an example. Our ranch sits at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains, so we spent many fall days during my youth chasing elk from the back of a horse. Occasionally, one of our horse deprived city friends would come along, and on this trip, our friend Jeff joined my brother Dana, and me.

Because 16-year-olds are so safety conscious, we spent hours drilling Jeff on things to do and not do around horses. Our number one rule was, no matter what; always tie your horse to a tree before you start shooting. Since he was a greenhorn, we beat that rule incessantly until we thought he understood. We were a mile from camp at the head of West Pass Creek when we broke out of the timber in a long open park. About 150 yards grazing in the distance stood 30 elk. (It actually was only about 50 yards, but that distance makes me look bad, so I’ll use my artistic license to say it was 150 yards.)

In the millisecond it takes a real cowboy to jerk his rifle from the offside of his horse as he swings from the saddle, Dana and I hit the snow with our guns a blazing. The volley of rifle fire was nearly continuous, pausing only briefly when we dug through our coat pockets for more shells. Between shooting, reloading, and repositioning I heard Jeff hollering, “What about the horses, WHAT ABOUT THE HORSES?”

We spent our final cartridge as the last elk grazed nonchalantly into the timber, and all three of our horses galloped up the ridge towards camp. Rookie Jeff had pulled his gun from the scabbard but hadn’t jerked off a single round, and he glared at us. Finally he whined, “I thought we were supposed to tie up the horses before we shot.” Here we were, skunked again and now we had to trudge a mile back to camp in knee-deep snow, packing empty rifles, with a greenhorn, condescending, know-it-all.

As the sweat ran down my back, I thought how my formerly trusty steed had left me afoot in the mountains. Just when I needed him most, and instinctively knew he would always be there, he abandoned me, and this brings me to my point. This exact thing has happened between Christian conservative Democrats and their political party. Fifty years ago, perhaps while conservatives were elk hunting; the Democrat party ran back to camp and left them afoot. Do you need proof?

Dateline July 14, 2010, Helena Montana: The school board opens a public hearing proposing an enhanced sex-education program where five-year-olds will be taught correct names of genitalia, and progressing to seven-year-olds who will be taught the normalcy of gay love. Finally, while most skinny kids are still prepubescent, middle-school students will receive instruction on intercourse positions. This announcement has provoked an enormous outcry of condemnation from area parents. If you agree this is far, far beyond the purpose of public schools and is indoctrination rather than education, Christian conservative Democrats may want to skip the rest of this column. (Proceed at your own peril.)

In the 2007 and 2009 Montana legislative session we heard HB612 and HB596, respectively, both brought to us by Rep. Teresa Henry (D) Missoula. These bills would create the groundwork for this exact Helena program, but on a state wide basis. Both bills died in committee with every Democrat voting “Do-Pass.” In the ’09 session a blast motion was made on the House floor to bring HB596 back to life and every House Democrat voted in favor of HB596. All 50 of them! (Do you see the pattern?)

The progressives have completely morphed the Democrat party into an unrecognizable social engineering machine. The question is whether conservative Democrat voters are more loyal to their party than they are to their principles. Voters can throw this Christian conservative Republican out of office if they blindly support brand X over brand Y, but your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be indoctrinated by the enhanced sex-education programs of HB596 if you do. This is exactly why politicians make great evasive efforts to never tell you what they truly believe and this is exactly why I am not a politician. For over four years I have published my core beliefs in this weekly column. If you need a subject-indexed review, you can buy my book, Ramblings of a Conservative Cow Doctor. Educate yourself and you might discover your horse ran back to camp 50 years ago. You are afoot.