GOP extremists are feeling their oats, but do they misread the tea leaves?

Guest Editorial by Jim Jones

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.

About the Author

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017).

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