The extremist branch of Idaho’s Republican Party, presided over by Dorothy Moon, has been feeling its oats after the 2024 elections. They defeated a number of reasonable, problem-solving Republicans in the May primary and made a few gains in the general election, but they may be misreading the tea leaves. Those leaves point to a growing dissatisfaction with fake culture-war issues amongst a large swath of Idaho voters, including many traditional Republicans. American history demonstrates that extremism loses its luster with the passage of time. A number of factors point to a return to reason.
The Moon faction of the GOP has partnered with dark money groups, like the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) and Idaho Family Policy Center, to drive Idaho politics to the farthest rightward fringes. Moderate Republicans, who are actually interested in addressing serious problems, are primaried by extremists who win votes by stoking fear and outrage over non-existent culture war problems—CRT, DEI, ESG, harmful books, gun control, sex change surgery at schools, you name it. They have succeeded in purging a number of Republicans dedicated to serving the public interest.
The Moon faction has been emboldened to the extent that it has engineered the defeat of a reasonable Republican, even when it resulted in a Democratic victory. IFF operatives have been chortling at their recent success in defeating Laurie Lickley, a conservative Republican candidate from Jerome. IFF supported an “independent” spoiler candidate, who drew enough GOP votes to defeat Lickley. That resulted in the re-election of Senator Ron Taylor, a well-regarded Democrat. Moon’s radicals won’t hesitate to purge those who refuse to strictly comply with their extremist dictates.
The next extremist target is Hyrum Erickson, a Republican precinct committeeman from Rexburg. Hyrum is a remarkable young man–an accomplished lawyer, a legislative assistant to former Senator Larry Craig, a current Commissioner on the Idaho Human Rights Commission and an engaged member of his community. Hyrum became an effective spokesman for Prop. 1, which threatened the stranglehold that Moon and her cronies have maintained over the Republican Party with the closed GOP primary.
Bryan Smith, IFF’s vice chair and the Idaho GOP’s National Committeeman, is demanding that Erickson be censured for speaking out in favor of Prop. 1. He claims Erickson must be disciplined “for aiding and abetting Democrats, leftists, liberals, socialists, communists and the like in their efforts to destroy” the Republican Party. Smith seems to believe that only communists could support ranked choice voting, despite the fact that his and Moon’s party used a variety of ranked choice methodology earlier this year in its presidential preference caucus.
A caucus works by conducting multiple rounds of voting where the candidate receiving the fewest votes in each round is eliminated until one candidate receives a majority of the vote. The ranked voting method was also used by the U.S. Senate Republicans in choosing their new majority leader earlier this month. It’s hard to see this as creeping communism. In fact, communists are well known for eliminating party members who fail to scrupulously follow the party line. It would appear Smith wishes to adopt the purge mentality favored by the communists. Any rational political party would welcome an articulate and energetic person like Erickson into its ranks, instead of purging him.
Now to the tea leaves that I mentioned earlier. Despite extremist efforts to purge GOP ranks of Party members who like to think for themselves, there has been a growing resistance to that type of bossism. Senator-elect Jim Woodward courageously challenged an extremist clone in the GOP primary and won by reason, honesty and hard work. Extremist candidates bent on destroying North Idaho College were tossed out on their ears by the concerted effort of local citizens in Kootenai County. Stehanie Mickelsen employed courage and hard work in winning reelection against two extremists after telling Smith and his hard-right pals to take a hike when they tried to censure her. A number of other reasonable Republicans in eastern Idaho won their races by standing tall for their constituents, instead of caving in to the extremists.
There are definite signs that the tide is turning against extremists who have nothing to offer except meaningless culture war issues designed to win votes by stoking fear, anger and division. The people want public officials who will work to solve societal problems, instead of creating them.
I am disgusted to the point where we will sell our home & move to another state. I will no longer pay my income tax, sales tax and property tax to a state so blind & so lost that they do not care about what is right & wrong, I’m disgusted & I’m gone….
Karen: I certainly understand your disgust with our wretched political leadership. On the other hand, we need good people like you to give hope to the rest of us. Regardless of your decision, my best to you and your family, including Thanksgiving wishes. Jim
Years ago I read Da Chen’s memoir, “Colors of the Mountain”. The book recounted the author’s childhood growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The descriptions of party structure are eerily similar to what we are seeing today with absolute obedience and purges. Also evident then and today are the attacks on science and education.
Jim, Thank you for your insights. Sometimes it seems like the human race has no capacity to learn generational knowledge, It’s very difficult and frustrating to understand how people can come to the conclusion that brings us to the point where we all are now. I personally think it’s simply based upon fear! some people can exploit others fears and basically mold it into whatever they believe leads them into power. It seems the Human race is headed for another tumultuous period of history that will eventually lead to a more stable society, how long it will last is unclear. Let’s take a deep breath reflect on what we can do as individuals to create a better future for ourselves, I have some close people who Voted for the new administration, now they seem almost embarrassed by the thought that we will have to live with this government for the next few years, We have to all learn to work together to give future generations a chance at a decent life on this planet. People need to realize this Rock we are all hurling though space on could care less if it is occupied by Humans or not. It’s up to all of us to decide what type of Rock we want. Have a great Holiday Season and enjoy Thanksgiving. Human beings are a pretty resilient species!
Jeff:
Your thoughts about our current situation are right on point. The country has periodically gone through rough patches, but we have generally recovered over time. It will take some time to recover from the second Trump presidency. His appeal will start wearing off by the end of the year when people realize that many of his promises were false–tax breaks of every nature for everyone–and that some of his promises were true–tearing up the country to expel so many people who make our agricultural, construction and personal services industries run efficiently. There is a good chance he will be successful in crashing the economy. That will usher in large Republican losses in the 2026 elections. He won’t be able to do too much more damage as a lame duck. The country will take some time to recover, but it will over time. After the rough times we will remember for a time that it is not wise to turn over the country to a charlatan. We will then have fairly clear sailing until the next time we lose our minds. Hang in there. Thanks for your comments.
Jim
“”” IFF operatives have been chortling at their recent success in defeating Laurie Lickley, a conservative Republican candidate from Jerome. IFF supported an “independent” spoiler candidate, who drew enough GOP votes to defeat Lickley. That resulted in the re-election of Senator Ron Taylor, a well-regarded Democrat. Moon’s radicals won’t hesitate to purge those who refuse to strictly comply with their extremist dictates. “””
The exact same thing happened in Washington State’s 3rd Congressional district in the 2022. Not satisfied with the reasonable Jaime Herrera-Beutler, the MAGA wing of the GOP primaried her from the right with a candidate who was too crazy for SW Washington State. So WA now has 8 Dem and 2 GOP representatives. It would be more representative if it was 7-3 or even 6-4. But the lopsided distribution has *nothing* to do with gerrymandering, and *everything* to do with the neanderthalian wing of the GOP.
Jaime Herrera-Beutler is one of the very few GOP Representatives who voted to impeach Trump the second time; another was Dan Newhouse (central WA). WA was the *only* State which had *two* GOP Reps vote to impeach.
As I’m a Spokane liberal (Democrat) you might think that I’m delighted by the MAGA-chaos in the Republican Party … but I’m not pleased, I’m concerned.
The Democrats are capable of going off the rails themselves if they are not intellectually challenged by a functioning center-Right Republican Party.
PS: hats off! to the North Idaho Republicans who swept the three seats on the NIC Board. … and a Very Special thanks to Brad Corkill and Tarie Zimmerman who stuck with the NIC Board for some really dark, twisted, incompetent, and expensive years.
I really appreciate your comments, John. The extremists in both of our states are fixated on power, rather than policy. They have a burn-it-all-down philosophy, if you can call it a philosophy. If you don’t follow the party line scrupulously, they will destroy you. They are much like the communist zealots I fought in the former Republic of South Vietnam. I was introduced to Republican politics by former Idaho Senator Len Jordan, who served from 1962 to 1972. As legislative assistant to Jordan, I saw that working across the aisle was the way to get things done. Jordan voted along with President Nixon most of the time, but refused to support two Supreme Court nominees who had segregationist records. He also opposed Nixon’s impoundment of funds, which I’ll be writing about soon. Voting your conscience is almost unheard of in today’s highly charged political atmosphere. On the other hand, the defeat of the crazies on the North Idaho College board is a hopeful sign. Perhaps that pendulum that we were all expecting to swing back toward sanity has finally changed direction. Best holiday wishes to you and