17 Comments

I agree with everything you said. I'm tired of Republicans being the party of "nice". We will continue to lose if we don't have a backbone and fight the left and the rino's with everything we have. When we are watching the death of our country and our republic, the time for civility is over. It's time to fight like hell to the death. It's time for the snowflakes to get over it and get the hell out of the way!

Expand full comment

Winning requires conservative apathetic voters to get off their couch, pay attention to what the candidate really stands for (instead of the stupid popularity crap often preached)...and VOTE IN candidates that will DO WHAT THEY SAY. Stop staying home and thinking because we are a "RED" state things will always stay that way. The democrats are organized, play dirty and are not nice. To beat them you have to recognize the game and play by their rules to win. Our ethics and values can only come into play when we have won and are in office.

Expand full comment
Jun 30, 2023·edited Jun 30, 2023

Usually Brian’s posts range between “insightful” and “warmed-over propaganda.” This one could not be more wrong, less conservative nor pose greater danger to our civil society. Incivility turns “communication” into “noise made while pillaging.” It’s the difference between self-government and mob rule. It elicits no honest feedback, and is, therefore associated with pride and arrogance (not “winning” but pre-cursing destruction and “a fall”). For thousand of years rules of decorum exist, not as niceties of gentile culture, but as necessities to prevent bloodshed. America’s Founders all knew this experiment with self-government required lowering tempers, bringing reason and empathy into vogue. That is why Jefferson made a study of such rules, eventually publishing “Jefferson’s Manual” used still today to rein in the more uncivil accusations of both Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Green.

Expand full comment
author

Who's talking about incivility? There's nothing uncivil about calling a spade a spade. Democrats want to destroy children, destroy families, and destroy this country. Is it uncivil to say so? When Republicans make common cause with the left, desperately looking for compromise rather than victory, is it uncivil to call them out for fighting the wrong right? And when those same Republicans are more concerned with how you say something than what you're saying, is it uncivil to disagree?

The Founding Fathers understood this. They fought a bloody war against Britain for their independence. Afterward, they used rhetoric in the early ideological battles of the Republic that would make the most fire-breathing partisan cringe. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson called each other much worse things in 1800 than I've ever said about anyone in Idaho politics. Were they being uncivil?

It used to be easy to pretend that politics was a gentleman's game, with established rules and norms. The left has been ignoring those rules for decades, and now that many on the right are finally fighting back, we have people on our own side telling us to stop. The thing that annoys me the most is seeing Republicans more concerned about what people to their right are saying than what people to their left are doing.

One last thing to consider: Donald Trump does not fit anyone's idea of the gentleman politician. He made many "respectable Republicans" uncomfortable with his mean tweets and directed insults. Yet because he was a fighter who was unwilling to back down, he appointed three solid Supreme Court justices during his one term. Because of Trump's willingness to fight, Roe v Wade, affirmative action, and "bake the cake" are history. That is what winning looks like.

Expand full comment

Many "establishment Republicans" are complaining that we are being "uncivil" in officially censuring politicians that are violating their party oath and voting with democrats on the children protection issues in Idaho. We all know who these politicians are. Instead of censuring these politicians and thereby publicly and officially calling them out, establishment Republicans think we should have been more "gentlemanly" and send them a "letter" requesting they fall in line. Yeah...right...would have gone into the round filing cabinet and ignored! We must speak up and start holding the elected leaders for WHAT THEY DO and make noise about it. That is not being uncivil, that is being responsible.

Expand full comment

Communicating “what” you find objectionable is not the issue. Opinining about “who” you find objectionable is where rules of civility are needed. I disagree with you, Brian, about porn on kids cell phones, but it would be uncivil of me to call you a “porn advocate.” Policies can be debated, the worth of souls are judged by a more (shall we say) “all-seeing” perspective.

Expand full comment
author

I'm pretty sure you did call me a porn advocate, or at least that my employer was somehow benefiting from allowing porn on children's mobile phones. But that's fine, I have a thick skin, and I believe in iron sharpening iron, so I don't shy away from even coarse debate.

I'm not debating the worth of souls here. I think Daniel Silver is a good Christian man, a good husband and father, and I have no animosity toward him personally. Same with most of the folks I disagree with - there really are very few people I've encountered in Idaho politics that I personally dislike. But I am not going to let that stop me from calling things as I see them.

Expand full comment

RONR 43- "When referring to another member of the assembly, do so only in a respectful manner. When offering criticism or calling out errors of judgement or comportment, reference the offender by title, as citing the individual by name inappropriately personalizes the discussion." This is the kind of rule that makes official debate meaningful . . . and it was ignored in Challis.

Expand full comment

It is men like you that give us a weakened GOP that gets run over by the left. Fighting fire with fire makes a lot more sense than worrying about decorum for people who want to destroy our state. Grow a pair and get involved or get out of the way.

Expand full comment

Never. Marxists believe the end justifies the means. America’s Founders believed the “means” must respect the dignity of the individual for the end to be valid. The GOP gets “run over” by so-called allies who have already yielded the moral high ground and embraced the Marxist position - as you just did.

Expand full comment

The only Democrat who is being denounced and censored by Democrats is someone I consider a good guy: RFK Jr.

Expand full comment

Scott Presler is working very hard to get out the vote, and that’s what Republicans absolutely must do if they have any hope of winning anything. Here is some information from the Charlie Kirk Show: Turning Point Action Pledges $5 Million to Ballot Chase in Wisconsin with Scott Presler and Tyler Bowyer: https://charliekirk.com/podcasts/?ep=18927a51-3dc0-4c74-bd0f-b014017a884a

7/17/23 update: more info about Turning Point Action chase the vote: https://www.tpaction.com/chasethevote

Expand full comment

Too bad Idaho didn’t elect a full slate of conservatives to its executive branch, including Ammon Bundy (Governor), Priscilla Giddings (Lt. Governor), Branden Durst (Idaho State Superintendent), and Dorothy Moon (Sec. Of State).

Expand full comment

This should be mandatory reading for every Republican.

Expand full comment

We must become radical as our founding fathers were when they formed our Republic. If we don't we will surely lose to the left that are following Marxists ideals that remove right principles and replace them with the ideals of the Devil..

Expand full comment

There is a huge difference between a revolution to empower the individual (as America’s Founders fought) and a revolution to simply topple power (as Marx advocated). The Declaration of Independence itself was a “tempered reaction” advocated in lieu of more “radical” acts of rebellion. Even the instigators of the Boston Tea Party eventually apologized for destroying property and paid for the dumped tea. “Radical” is not “convincing.” If you believe in freedom, remember the words of Frederick Douglass, “In a free Republic the only legitimate power is that of persuasion.”

Expand full comment

You are a dinosaur in the likes of Mitt Romney. I know it is a tough pill to swallow when Dorothy Moon runs the GOP to victory like a true conservative and guides the GOP to new heights and established conservative principles, instead of the old style status quo GOP establishment relics you were part of that consistently grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. Reality has set in hasn't it, you are irrelevant and powerless and are going to throw temper tantrums while trying to erode the GOP and try to help the left? This is that time in your life you need to realize you are aging out. Suck it up buttercup.

Expand full comment