Guest Opinion
By Arthur Macomber of Coeur d’Alene
In our current political scene, it looks like Republicans in North Idaho are doing the splits. We have a far right extremely small splinter group largely composed of out-of-state agitators who are either Catholic monarchists, anti-Semites, Christian Nationalist authoritarians, or some combination of those or other tiny faction. Then we have the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC), the official organization for Republicans to the left of the formerly described splinter groups. This is the same KCRCC composed of nearly 70 precinct committeemen and women who are elected by people in their neighborhoods, even though the KCRCC is also the main pillar in a negative narrative pushed by the Coeur d’Alene Press for the last few years. Then, allegedly on the center, but actually a little further to the left of center, is the North Idaho Republicans.
None of these three factions appear to want to have much to do with the other, but they all call themselves Republicans. What gives?
The North Idaho Republicans are composed of a lot of the same people who are friends with people I met with monthly on the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Committee. I belonged to that committee and contributed to it for nine years. My friends Len Crosby and Dean Haagenson, as well as Christa Hazel, who in my opinion is much further to the left than either Len or Dean, typify the North Idaho Republicans. The major political fault of these Republicans is that for decades they have acquiesced to keeping Idaho dependent. Apparently, they don’t believe all the mom and apple pie statements of Christa Hazel about free enterprise and liberty.
I get it. After the federal government more or less shut down the natural resource industries of North Idaho in the 1970s, triggering the Hagadone-initiated tourism boom, these North Idaho Republicans have become very dependent on PILT funds, Schools Act of 2005 funds, COVID funds, ARPA funds, and all sorts of federal money. Even the budget of our beloved North Idaho College is 80 percent federal and state money. In my personal experience, trying to push a long-term economic plan for North Idaho independence from the federal money trough is next to impossible. I won’t go so far as to say that the North Idaho Republicans would rather see North
Idahoans remain dependent on the federal government so that those Republicans can retain their power. However, what I will say is that even with all the Jobs Plus, urban renewal, and other efforts over the past few decades, there is no plan to turn down federal funds. This is true even though the federal debt grows by nearly $1 trillion every 100 days.
There is another major societal deficit that the North Idaho Republicans have brought to and nurtured in North Idaho. Their philosophy appears to be that as long as federal
funding and government dependency remain intact in North Idaho and controlled by their power brokerage, it is okay to allow drag queen shows, gay pride parades, and other reckless abandonments of morality to slip past. In my view, this quasi-libertarian bent has disrupted, if not terminated, familial conversations that used to occur about male and female morals and temperance.
This phenomenon has occurred over time to the point where traditional family values and Christian morality have become increasingly popular in the neighborhoods of North Idaho as a defense, so that your local KCRCC precinct committeeperson is someone who abhors federal and state financial dependence, wants moral teachings to dominate in schools, and wants the libraries to take age-inappropriate books and put them on a higher shelf away from young eyes. Watching and listening carefully, one can see the far right Christian Nationalist fringe criticizing a regular KCRCC member as too far left. They wager those North Idaho Republicans have to be communists at best, and Joe Biden-affiliated treasonous Americans advocating for open borders so illegal immigrants can provide cheap undocumented farm labor for Idaho
corporations.
As to the North Idaho Republicans, this group doesn’t appear to hold regular meetings and the only way to communicate with them, according to their website, is to mail them a letter. I could find no email or telephone number, so apparently it is a secret group. From their perspective based on their public writings, it looks like they believe the KCRCC is composed of extremists who not only want to destroy North Idaho College, but close down public schools completely, and who follow their chairman Brent Regan around with a ring in their collective nose.
As a KCRCC precinct committeeman, I can tell you that when I brought my pro-Israel resolution to the February meeting, it took an hour and a half, an executive session, and 3 to 5 members around the table walking out to get the resolution passed. I also understand that some members of the executive board of the KCRCC and some members of its subcommittees are not even elected precinct committeemen. This is as if the House of Representatives said, “Well, we need people that we believe will do a good job, so doesn’t matter if they were elected or not.” In my view, this is bogus.
On the other hand, the KCRCC is not the only assembly in North Idaho with problems, and it took my official NIC report to cause the North Idaho College Foundation to alter its articles and bylaws last summer. Now the North Idaho College Foundation can use foundation funds to defend any current or former officer of that non-profit corporation, most interestingly including President Swayne of NIC who was an officer prior to my report. At least Mr. Swayne does not have fiduciary responsibilities to both the college and the foundation at the same time due to
my recommendations.
These local political battles are mildly interesting and for our small town, parochial
environment cause gossip and newspaper flare-ups that likely make a high school girl blush from the drama and those of us older folk left gritting our teeth. What can be done?
The answer is pretty simple. The people of Kootenai County have to stop fighting national battles, as if this was San Francisco or Chicago. The agitators who want Catholic monarchism or some form of Christian Nationalism need to understand how fringe they actually are, and that while their solutions may appeal to other agitators on a national level, most of us here in North Idaho could care less about those types of rantings.
Good Republicans, called by one faction or another to be extremist or not, need to start publicly discussing and genuinely offering beneficial political solutions to Kootenai County and Idaho problems without federal or state money. This means the North Idaho Republicans need to stop carping from the sidelines and get involved with the official Republican party organ, which is the KCRCC. This also means that the KCRCC has to start acting less shrill, and start publicly enunciating connections between the official Republican platform and problems in Kootenai County that need addressing. It would be beneficial if KCRCC Chair Regan stopped talking about various psychological problems, such as brainwashing and projection, and actually acted the political leader by offering real solutions to real problems.
The last day to file for election to be a precinct committeeman on the KCRCC is Friday, March 15, 2024. I strongly suggest anyone in any neighborhood that wants to file should first read the official Republican platform and make sure it aligns with their values. If the North Idaho Republicans could wean themselves from federal money, I’m sure they would find their values align with 80 percent of the rest of us. My call to the North Idaho Republicans is to come down off their high horses and get back into the trenches with the rest of us. I’m pretty sure the agitators will agitate, like an old washing machine that you know will eventually break down.
People need to fight for what they believe, but they shouldn’t masquerade as being something they’re not. North Idaho Republicans should not masquerade as conservatives, when they exercise power in a way that maintains dependency on money that was not generated here in North Idaho, and while they acquiesce to a false tolerance for immorality. This is where somebody says that federal money is all of our taxpayer money, and my reply is that your great grandchildren haven’t even begun to create the wealth that we are spending today for your creature comforts, so please put a sock in it. Run for office and make a difference.
North Idaho can do better, and Republicans need to stop doing the splits.
Art Macomber is a citizen who has been politically active for decades. One of his careers is as an attorney. Another career is telling it the way he sees it, come what may.
