Put Me In, Coach!
Time to get off the bench and in the game
On Thursday night I attended the regular meeting of the District 14 Republicans and had a great time conversing with incumbents and candidates alike. Everyone who will be on the ballot had a few moments to speak to the group, from Representative Mike Moyle, the Majority Leader in the State House to me, candidate for Precinct Committeeman.
One of the most fun things about being involved in local politics is having an opportunity to talk with our elected officials. In my old home state of Washington, our legislators seemed very distant from us regular folks. Even as a PC in King County, a visit from our elected delegates felt like a special treat. Not here. All three LD14 delegates regularly attend district and county meetings, and often make time to talk with anyone who wants to. The mayor of Eagle sits down with the public every Wednesday morning for coffee, and both he and his counterpart in Star are extremely accessible. (I had no who was mayor of the city I lived in before moving to Idaho.)
When I was young, I assumed that you had to be part of a special class of people to be involved in politics. You were born into it, like George W. Bush or John F. Kennedy, you bought into it, like Donald Trump or Herbert Hoover, or you were in the right place at the right time to catch the zeitgeist, like Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama.
My experience over the last two years has taught me that politicians are just regular people like you and me. Sure, some of them might be extremely rich, walking in social circles I will never know. Some of them stay in politics so long that they completely forget how regular people live. Yet all of them are part of the same experience with precinct committees, state conventions, campaigns, and voter drives that are accessible to you and me.
A lot of people who run for office do it for ambition. Power attracts those who seek power, which makes it even more important for those of us who are concerned about the country we will leave our children and grandchildren to get involved.
It is easy to complain about our country. Taxes are too high, public schools are indoctrinating instead of educating, politicians are corrupt, and they are too busy patting themselves on the back to do the peoples’ business. So what can do we do about it?
Get involved. Call and write to your representatives. Join advocacy groups. Knock on doors for candidates or issues. Show up to party meetings and call out your elected officials in person. Offer public testimony on bills at the Capitol. Become a Precinct Committeeman. Run for elected office.
PCs represent their neighborhoods in the party, and represent the party to their neighborhoods. Most people do not have the time nor the inclination to go to these meetings, to follow the legislative session, or to visit the Capitol. PCs are there to keep them updated, to share what is going on in government, and to take their concerns back to the party committees and our elected officials.
PCs are also the foundation of the party. After the primary election in May, the new PCs will gather together and select one of their own to be district chairman. This person will represent the district in the state party, and will also have the ear of the elected delegates from that district. This year, District 14 will have thirty precincts, which means it takes barely more than a dozen people to decide the direction that we will go, the issues we will emphasize, and the leaders we will champion.
Add that dozen or so with the other districts in Idaho, and you can see how only a few hundred people are directing the ship. The future belongs to those who show up.
Take a look at the list of candidates who have filed for local office this year. You have seen some of these names in the news, but many are probably unknown. These are your neighbors, local businessmen and women, fathers, mothers, veterans, lifelong Idahoans, and new transplants. There is nothing stopping you from putting your name on that list too.
When you look at the PCs who have filed, notice how sparse the Democrat list is. Like the Republicans in Washington and California, Democrats in Idaho are demoralized. They have been losing for so long that they probably wonder why bother with the paperwork. I looked up one of the PC candidates for District 14, a young lady who has also filed to run for the open House seat. Her public Facebook feed is full of generic low-information Democrat memes, and I am sure we disagree on 99% of issues. Nevertheless, kudos to her for taking the time to show up.
While the Democratic Party in Idaho might be broken and demoralized, the progressive movement is not. They know that Democratic candidates have little chance of winning outside of the wealthy suburbs of Boise, so they have changed their tactics. Progressive activists from across the country have dumped millions of dollars into innocent-sounding groups such as Reclaim Idaho, Idaho 97, and SOS Eagle. They do not identify themselves as Democratic, progressive, left-wing, liberal, or Marxist - even though they absolutely are all those things. Pretending to be nonpartisan is the only way they can get anything done in this deep red state, so that is what they do. It is our job to expose them, to educate the public about their true colors, and keep them from pushing Idaho any further to the left.
The blue tide is threatening us from all sides, but Idaho’s Republican rank-and-file are enthusiastic about doing whatever they can to stop it. The open House seat in LD14 has attracted four different Republican candidates, all of whom are good patriots. It is a shame we have to pick just one. Having so much interest is a good sign, not a bad one, though it is certainly stressful for the candidates themselves. I will have more to say about this and the other local races in a future newsletter.
It is a privilege to be able to talk in person with our legislative delegation. I told Representative Moyle on Thursday night that the more involved I get, the more complicated the problems I see in our government. He agreed, and expressed his own frustration at the slow speed of reform. This from someone who has been in government for many years. While we are in a much better position here than our fellow Americans in the Marxist hellholes of Washington, California, New York, or Illinois, we still have a lot of work to do. It’s time to get off the bench and get in the game!
I couldn't agree more
Excellent comments about subversion groups such as Reclaim Idaho, Idaho 97, and SOS Eagle.