Politics & Common Sense — Column by John Spencer
As we look around North Idaho today, we see a region at a crossroads. It’s not just about development, politics, or policy. It’s about identity. The question pressing on communities from Bonners Ferry to Coeur d’Alene isn’t whether change is already here. Will North Idaho slowly become indistinguishable from the places people came here to escape?
There is a reason so many people have moved here in recent years. They were drawn by the promise of peace, community, and above all, freedom. This region has long stood as a beacon of individual liberty, constitutional values, and self-reliance. These aren’t just slogans, they are principles hard-wired into the people who built this land with their hands, their grit, and their faith.
But history warns us that freedom can be fragile.
In 1776, thirteen colonies didn’t rise up against taxes. They rose against a distant power that dictated their lives with no understanding of their needs. They revolted against mandates, censorship, and centralized control. They did not trust far-off rulers to preserve their way of life and they took matters into their own hands. North Idaho must now decide if it still has that same revolutionary spine.
The fight for cultural clarity is about more than what gets taught in schools or how many houses get built on a hill. It’s about whether our public institutions still reflect our values, or whether they’ve become tools of agendas imported from elsewhere.
Are we protecting the foundations of self-governance? Are we ensuring that our children grow up understanding the Constitution, personal responsibility, and what it means to be a free citizen?
This fact is not alarmism. It is realism.
As people pour into our region from across the country, they bring with them values. Some values align, and some do not. There is tension. That is a natural outcome, but we have our history that can be used as a guide.
The American Revolution was not won by people who agreed on everything. It was won by people who knew what they could not compromise. The freedom of speech, local control, and a system where power flowed from the bottom up, not the top down.
North Idaho must do the same. We must find unity not in conformity, but in conviction. If we allow our institutions like schools, libraries, councils, churches, and local media to drift from the people they claim to serve, we risk cultural erosion from within.
Take for example the latest vote in the May 2025 election for the Community Library Network (CLN) Board of Trustees in Kootenai County, in which the contest highlighted significant ideological differences between the candidates, reflecting broader national debates on library governance and content accessibility.
The election outcome solidifies a conservative majority on the CLN Board, potentially influencing future decisions on library content, access policies, and governance. This election underscored the growing impact of local governance on public institutions and the importance of community engagement in shaping the policies of such entities.
As we move forward in defense of our Republic, our response must be deliberate. We as citizens must show up to local meetings, run for school boards, demand transparency, teach our children the truth about America, our country, and reject any narrative that rural, constitutional values are somehow outdated or dangerous.
Freedom has never been sustained by passive people. It survives when communities draw a line and project who we are and what we stand-for.
The American Revolution teaches us that ordinary people, armed with conviction and courage, can defy the most powerful forces on earth. That spirit now lives in North Idaho, but it must be nurtured, defended, and passed on to the generations that follow.
Cultural clarity isn’t about exclusion; it is about preservation. Cultural clarity is about ensuring that the next generation understands the price of liberty and the weight of responsibility that comes with it.
The fight for clarity is here. The moment is now. And as history shows us, clarity precedes courage.
If North Idaho stands together, rooted in its founding principles, it will not just survive the changes that will come before us, but will lead all of us into the future, a future that is bright.
