The Gulf Between Republicans and Democrats

It's pretty big

As conservatives, we often feel frustrated with moderate Republicans. I often hear there is zero difference between a moderate Republican and a Democrat, and “moderate Republican” is sometimes defined so strictly as to exclude all but a dozen or so conservative rock stars.

However, the difference between even the most moderate Republican and the Democrats comes into focus when using a metric such as the Idaho GOP Platform Rating from the Institute for Legislative Analysis:

The dropoff from the lowest scoring Republican, former Sen. Abby Lee, to the highest scoring Democrat, Rep. Steve Berch, is significant — 21%. Now, that is clearly smaller than the difference between Lee and the highest scoring Republicans, but you can still see a significant line.

This difference was demonstrated during several committee hearings this morning.

Sen. Kelly Anthon presented Senate Bill 1027 in Senate State Affairs this morning. This bill would prohibit big financial institutions from “debanking” Idaho citizens due to political or religious viewpoints. Sen. James Ruchti, a Democrat, argued against the bill, saying that banks should be allowed to discriminate against “unsavory people” who engage in “hate” and “extremism”. Watch the clip via Idaho Signal here:

As Sen. Ben Toews pointed out in the clip, most everyone on the right has been labeled “hateful” or an “extremist” at some point in the past decade. I doubt Sen. Ruchti is worried about radical climate protestors or anti-gun activists being debanked; he surely knows that this discrimination has lately only gone in one direction.

At 57.14% on ILA’s platform rating score, Sen. Anthon is only barely closer to former Sen. Scott Herndon (100%) than to Sen. Ruchti (8.57%). However, there is clearly a difference between Anthon and Ruchti that is not measured by scorecards, some distinction between their worldviews. Kelly Anthon believes that people should not be locked out of the public square for holding certain political or religious viewpoints, while James Ruchti thinks that is a reasonable and proper thing to do.

Another debate this week shed light on the fundamental differences between the parties. Rep. Judy Boyle introduced house Bill 98, which would prohibit taxpayer money from supporting teacher’s unions. Rep. Todd Achilles, a Democrat from Boise, argued that this could diminish the relationship between school districts and unions. He suggested student outcomes could suffer if unions were lacking tax dollars.

At 80.95%. Rep. Boyle rates fairly high on the platform scorecard, but her 60.4% rating on Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Freedom Index has caused some conservatives to view her with skepticism. However, Rep. Achilles — 5.41% on the platform rating — is clearly in a different world. Judy Boyle believes that tax dollars should not support a public sector union, one that many believe is exerting undue influence on the public school system, while Rep. Achilles thinks it is right and proper.

Finally, this morning in House Health & Welfare Rep. Jordan Redman introduced a bill to remove soda and candy from the list of foods eligible to be purchased with SNAP benefits. Redman explained that, in the name of making America healthy again, taxpayers should not be subsidizing such unhealthy options.

Rep. Megan Egbert, a freshman Democrat from Boise, asked Redman if he had consulted with dieticians about this bill, suggesting it might impact what people with special dietary needs could purchase.

Rep. Redman scored 87.8% on the ILA platform scorecard last year, while Rep. Egbert was only just elected. However, once again we see a vast difference in worldview: Jordan Redman believes taxpayers should not have to subsidize the purchase of junk food, while Megan Egbert is at the very least skeptical of such a prohibition.

Conservative voters should hold their elected Republicans accountable, urging them to govern as conservatively as possible. However, it’s important to remember that Republicans and Democrats see the world in fundamentally different ways. In most cases, Republicans should stand united against the Democratic agenda, resolving internal disagreements behind the scenes while presenting a strong, unified front against the radical left.