Using Politics to Settle Scores

We fight amongst ourselves even as the enemy stands outside our gates

I once heard someone explain that American leftists don’t have international enemies, rather they see international figures that remind them of their domestic enemies. That is, they will use rhetoric about foreign leaders not because of principles, but as cudgels against their nemeses here in America. Look no further than the entire Russiagate hoax, which was cooked up somewhere between Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters and Barack Obama’s Oval Office as a tool to attack the Donald Trump campaign, and later his presidential administration.

This is a paradigm I’m seeing far too much, both at the national and local level. It’s all too easy to become distracted by infighting and personal vendettas, taking your time and attention away from things that really matter. I wrote about this last year, in the leadup to the 2025 legislative session:

As voters and activists, we must be careful not to become too attached to any politician, or we risk losing our ability to call them out when they go astray. There are many legislators I like and respect, which means I need to be extra cautious not to fall into blind devotion. I need the freedom to criticize anyone without worrying about burning bridges I might need later.

That also means my criticism must be delivered in good faith, which requires building a reputation for engaging in honest discourse on political issues. I hope I’ve established that over the past three years, even though I occasionally end up angering both sides at once in the process.

The need to prioritize policy over personalities cuts both ways. Too often, conservative voters and activists decide that certain figures are the enemy and declare total war. I’ve been called to the carpet more than once for praising Republicans who were considered outside the pale of conservatism, even when the policies in question were ones all conservatives agree on.

I think we need a refresher. National conservatives spent the last three weeks trying to cancel people for using naughty words in private group chats or by platforming people they disagree with rather than getting out the vote for Republican candidates or discussing the incredible revelations about Arctic Frost, the Biden Administration operation to spy on and persecute Republicans, up to and including sitting United States Senators.

My sense is that very little of that brouhaha was about alleged antisemitism or any of the other reasons that were given. No, it’s just the first shots of what could be a contentious 2028 Republican presidential primary. The same old guard Republicans who led the party to historic defeats following the George W. Bush presidency, who published a special edition of National Review calling on Republicans to reject Donald Trump, and who have attacked and denounced Trump and his supporters at every turn for the past decade, are desperately afraid that J.D. Vance will take up Trump’s mantle.

Some of the same names that denounced Trump in 2016 held signs last week stating that Tucker Carlson was “not MAGA” and demanding he be read out of the movement. In short, it’s not about policy, it’s personal. The policies and ideological positions are simply window dressing, ex post facto rationalization for engaging in personal vendettas.

I see this happening locally too. Whether it’s Christian conservatives in North Idaho who have grown to dislike Kootenai County GOP chair Brent Regan, eastern Idaho Republicans who have an axe to grind against their neighbors, or a Boise-based PAC that refused to support Lynn Bradescu’s campaign for City Council because of past hurt feelings, so much of our intra-party conflict is driven by personal grudges rather than substantive disagreements.

Scroll through the social media feeds of some political influencers and you’ll see wall-to-wall personal attacks, with few—if any—substantive ideas. I’m not going to name or link to them here. This platform is about ideas, not gossip. My point today is simple: we should be engaging with ideas, not wallowing in the mud like angry pigs.

This shift from ideas to personal feuds not only distracts from the real work, but leads to glaring contradictions. Once you decide someone is “the devil,” you’re tempted to oppose everything they do—even when you’d otherwise agree. That mindset leads to the “it’s different when we do it” mentality, where right and wrong depend entirely on who’s involved.

Take a recent example: some conservatives recently criticized an upcoming Bonneville County fundraiser featuring House Speaker Mike Moyle and Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, calling it “access politics.” Yet these same critics [EDIT: Not all who publicly criticized the Bonneville event, which is a joint venture between the Bonneville GOP and the Idaho Majority Club, have hosted fundraisers featuring elected officials as keynote speakers.] host their own fundraisers featuring elected officials as speakers to help sell tickets. That’s standard practice in politics. I’ve been invited to speak at Lincoln Day Dinners and similar events where tickets are sold to cover costs or raise funds. No one accused those hosts of selling access to me.

This rhetoric reached such a fever pitch that Sen. Anthon said he received death threats serious enough to involve the Idaho State Police:

It’s especially tragic that this kind of “Mean Girls politics” is intensifying less than two months after Charlie Kirk’s murder. If anyone served as a unifying force on the right, it was Kirk. He had the ability to cut through the noise, work with every faction, and keep us focused on what mattered. During the 2024 presidential race, he used his influence not to pick fights within the movement but to organize voters in swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Yet in the wake of his death, many on our side have lost the plot. Some are even using his name to justify their own grudges—digging up old posts and private messages to claim that Kirk would have supported them over their rivals. It’s disgusting.

Consider what time it is: an outright socialist was just elected mayor of our largest city, our cultural and financial capital. In Virginia, a man who wished death on his opponent’s children was just elected attorney general. If Democrats retake Congress and the White House, the persecutions of 2021–24 will look like child’s play compared to what’s coming.

The enemy is at the gates but rather than standing together, we are wasting our time and energy attacking each other over petty slights and ancient grievances.

Look: you can either work to build a united front in defense of the values that make Idaho great, or you can waste your time playing junior high games—trying to “dunk” on people who agree with you 80, 90, even 95 percent of the time.

My advice to you, dear reader, is to rise above the pettiness. When you see personal attacks on social media, just move on. Don’t amplify them, and don’t argue with them. Let pigs wallow in the mud. Don’t try to be the tone police or the platform police. It’s not worth your time. We have a state to save.

Bonus note for paid subscribers below: