Welcome to the Community Sportage Best of the Left Podcast, which clips today from

Mother Jones Radio, Fire on the Prairie, the BBC, Ring of Fire and the Young Turks.

Even before the November elections, people were talking about the emergence of a new kind of Democrat,

or as the New York Times put it last fall, Republican bastions in the Western States

are losing ground to a new Democratic brand of libertarian-tinged prairie populism.

That article profiled my guest Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Governor, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you very much for having me on.

You were spending most of your time in politics first. Can I get a feel for our listeners?

Most of whom live in urban areas, what it's like to live in Montana.

Just because I know it's going to be so different, I looked at the population of New York,

gives people 26,000 in one square mile of people.

And if you go to Montana and the whole state, there are 6.9 people per square mile.

You have a whole different life out there.

Well, if you compare the map of Montana to the Northeast, just take the whole map of Montana

and then place it on the Northeast and run from New York City to Indianapolis,

and we have 920,000 people.

Montana is just one small town with a very long main street.

We have large distances to contend with.

The largest city in Montana is Billings with 100,000 people to capital,

where I live is 35,000 people.

Montana is a remarkable place.

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