Idaho Republican Party Gets a Much Needed Transfusion

Talk about sulking.  Local Republican elites picked up their ball and slithered home.  They were the hosts of the state GOP convention.  When it didn’t go their way, they put on a shameful show of petulance.  They were unhappy with new statewide party leaders and later some of them stormed out of the convention when they couldn’t steal the election.

Some Republicans who knew I was writing this piece (and this is an opinion column) quickly offered to play editor.  One told me there wasn't much serious business remaining, so some people went home.  First, one man's definition of serious isn't always another man's view.  And while I can understand the Fremont County delegation wanted to get home before dark, a number of local walkouts live within blocks of the convention site.

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At the top of the ticket for the office of party chair, Representative Dorothy Moon smoked current state party chairman Tom Luna.  It wasn’t even close.  When Raul Labrador occupied the chair, it was by a razor-thin margin.  Several delegates posting on social media claimed there was even hesitancy by the old guard to release vote totals.  Moon’s margin of victory was in the neighborhood of 150 ballots.

Here’s a message for the elites, swells, and country clubbers who skulked away.  The Republican Party isn’t your personal property!  For years you’ve told the rank and file voters they weren’t smart enough to run the outfit and that you were gifted with special knowledge.  Trust me, I know a lot of you people formerly in charge and we're not talking intellectual giants.  Heck, Luna can’t even get my station’s call signs right when he’s hosting Red Wave Radio.

What has really bothered me the last couple of years is the slavish devotion by the establishment to Lockdown Little.  Behind the scenes, party leaders would rail against His Majesty and then lick his boots whenever he came to town.  Meanwhile, when party leaders basically repeat the talking points of mainstream media, then they’ve entered an unholy alliance.

I don’t have a problem with the party’s devotion to business interests, but must it be just as servile as devotion to the cult of Lockdown Little?  This is no longer the party of George Bush or Mitt Romney.  It’s the party of flyover country.  The people who’ve been mauled by offshoring, the Great Recession, and woke culture.  The elites appear to be on board with the latter, giving it a tacit nod and telling us there’s nothing to see here!  But we see it.  We see it when we're taxed for buying inflated groceries.  We see it when we pay property taxes and rent.  We see it when we’re forced to be injected with foreign substances.

Good, leave the room, and don’t let the door hit your bottom.  As far as I’m concerned, there’s a new sheriff in town, and none too soon.  If the establishment stops belly-aching about changing the guard, it might recognize politics remains first about serving the needs of the people.