The Enemy Within
The Republican establishment is a greater threat to Idaho than the Democrats
I recently saw a Facebook post by the Idaho GOP boasting about the new teacher insurance program. It says, “Contrary to what the Democrat Party may be saying the Idaho Republican Party is making major investments in education and our teachers.” It is easy to get caught up in the binary nature of the political battle. Red versus blue, Republican versus Democrat, conservative versus liberal, capitalist versus communist. “Fighting the Democrats” and “Stop socialism” are often the rallying cries of the Idaho Republican Party.
Consider, however, that Idaho is a very red state. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win Idaho’s electoral votes was Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and the Republican candidate has won the last four presidential elections by an average of 32%. The last time a Democrat represented Idaho in the US Senate was 1981. The last Democratic governor of Idaho left office in 1994.
We are basically a one-party state, with the Republicans as powerful here as the Democrats are in California. The State Senate is 80% Republican while the State House is nearly 83% Republican. With supermajorities in both houses, as well as firm control of the executive branch, the Republican Party can do anything it wants in Idaho. Republicans do not need the support of a single Democrat in the entire state to accomplish their will.
The Democratic Party has zero power in this state, but Republican politicians campaign as if every race is the turning point that will turn Idaho blue for good. Obviously we all want Idaho to remain a red state and we must zealously guard it against left-wing attempts to take over, in the same manner they took over California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. However, the biggest obstacle to freedom and reform in Boise right now is not the Idaho Democrats, but the Republican establishment. The leadership of the Republican Party, however, would rather keep you focused on the external enemy than the ones within.
The real battle in this state is not between red and blue, but between the varying shades of red on the right. The real elections are not in November, but in May, when the Republican primary determines who will win the general election. The real enemies, therefore, are the Republicans who stand in the way of meaningful reform, and whose actions allow Marxists and progressives to move Idaho slowly but surely leftward.
Under the current Republican leadership, the left is expanding in our state, even if they are not winning elected office. Public schools are using the tenets of Critical Race Theory to teach white children that they are inherently evil and minority students that they are eternal victims. Public schools are also - under the direction of Idaho state government - teaching children degenerate sexual morality. The state bureaucracy is full of the same sort of left-wing activists that characterize the “deep state” at the national level. While Republican leaders such as Governor Little, Speaker Bedke, Superintendent Ybarra, and Attorney General Wasden pay lip service to conservative values, their staffs are hard at work enacting progressive policies throughout the government.
This June, Boise State University is hosting a conference aimed at combating extremism, with an emphasis on supposed “right-wing terrorism”. This conference, partly funded by the Biden administration, is sponsored by the Idaho State Board of Education. As you will remember, this board consists of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction as well as seven others who are hand-picked by the governor. These people apparently believe that “right-wing terrorism” is a huge threat to Idaho, while left-wing terrorism, as when BLM and Antifa burned, looted, and murdered their way across the country in 2020, is no big deal.
This is the problem facing good conservatives today. It is one thing for Democrats like Joe Biden to paint us as terrorists and insurrectionists - we are in a cold civil war, so that is to be expected. But why are our Republican leaders joining them? Why are Republicans so enthusiastic about pointing their guns to the right while the left wreaks havoc in our cities?
Too many Republicans accept the premise that the extreme left are our legitimate counterparts in politics. They make the fatal mistake of believing that the left acts in good faith when they say they want to make our country better, and so Republicans are willing to find middle ground. The left says “Let’s go a mile further,” so the right says “Let’s go half a mile instead.” Republicans pat themselves on the back for their “bipartisanship” and “compromise” despite having just assisted in the further degradation of our society.
A century of Republican compromise has resulted in a country that has strayed extremely far from its foundational principles. Opinions that were considered normal, even progressive, just twenty years ago are now derided by the left as backwards, bigoted, extremist, and hateful. Many conservatives will simply go with the flow for fear of being called those mean words. The average Republican today holds positions that would have been far to the left of the average Democrat twenty years ago. What will the average Republican of 2040 look like?
We have to stop giving up ground. Why is the biggest newspaper in the state, the Idaho Statesman, run by extreme left-wing activists who show their bias in every story? Why does Boise, our capital and largest city, resemble Portland and San Francisco more than it does the rest of Idaho? Why are our public schools controlled by Marxist teacher unions? These things should not be so in a state as red as ours.
We need leaders who understand the gravity of the situation. We need leaders who will not simply slow the leftward march of our state, but will stop it and take concrete steps to restore and protect our traditional values. We need elected officials who understand that it is not enough to simply tap the breaks on this runaway train; rather we need to turn it around and go back. We need a Republican Party that will do more than manage our decline.
The biggest threats to liberty in Idaho are not Paulette Jordan, Shelley Brock, Senator Michelle Stennett, or Representative Ilana Rubel. They have zero political power, yet their movement is flourishing here. Why? Because Republicans like Governor Brad Little, Superintendent Ybarra, and Attorney General Wasden allow it to. The vast state bureaucracy - supposedly controlled by the executive branch - is full of left-wing activists who are passionate about turning this state blue.
If we want to save Idaho, we need to stop worrying about the Democrats and the socialists so much as the establishment Republicans who are paving the way for them.
I remember learning in kindergarten that "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me". Kind of surreal how everyone (on the right and the left) seems to have forgotten this age old adage or perhaps nowadays they just can't even begin to comprehend it. 😐