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John Livingston

Time for Some Common Sense

“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty,” William Buckley famously said. It looks as if his worst fear is being realized. Or by Congress or by many of our State legislators and Governors—especially in Blue States and inner cities. Is Idaho a “Blue […]

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John Livingston

Why We Can’t Afford Healthcare

The day I retired I was honored to receive a phone call from Governor Otter asking me to serve on the new Idaho Health Insurance Exchange Board. I was not in favor of the Exchange, but I saw an opportunity moving forward to possibly “privatize the exchange” and put it in the hands of health […]

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John Livingston

We Have Only Ourselves to Blame – Part 2

As I pointed out in my two previous articles about political organizations and process, Idaho conservatives have been fighting and occasionally winning individual battles. We can overcome the political powers that be in our State only with great talent. We have been fighting the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (IACI) led system by putting […]

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John Livingston

Conservative Political Philosophy

My purpose for writing has always been to explain to first my family and many of my friends—especially in the medical community the logic and predicate for my political philosophy. In past columns, I have quoted Paul Ryan as saying, “My Christian Catholic faith informs every aspect of my life” Even though I became disenchanted with […]

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John Livingston

It’s Not Yours

Former Senator Phil Graham and Mike Solon published a wonderful article in the Tues. May 24th Wall Street Journal that I will link below. Anyone who has owned and built a business and been told “you did not build that”, ranchers, private entrepreneurs, and inventors should read the article. Any retiree or worker that has […]

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John Livingston

Accountability and Perspective

The after-action reports and the Monday morning quarterbacking have yet to take place regarding our State’s Covid response. Maybe we are waiting until after the November general elections. Historically in the medical and nursing professions every death and every bad outcome is reviewed at the clinical level giving context to the analysis done at the […]

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John Livingston

We Have Ourselves to Blame

I’ve now had five days to digest the Idaho primary election results. I must admit that in the statewide races except for Raul Labrador winning the Attorney General’s race, conservatives took a “whipping”. But we have a few things to learn and if we don’t admit to our shortcomings, we will continue to make the […]

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John Livingston

IACI II

When I woke up Wednesday morning after the election, I was dejected for a couple of hours. Except for Raul Labrador winning the Attorney General Primary, conservatives running for statewide office took a shellacking. We lost much influence in the Idaho House, however, I believe Mike Moyle as Speaker will be a big positive for […]

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John Livingston

We Need “Discerning Hearts”

It is so easy today to paint with broad strokes in black and white. There is no grey at the edges or meeting of the ways in the middle. We approach history the same way. White man bad—Indian (Native American) good. Ukraine good—Russia bad. Christian good—Muslim bad. Rich man bad—poor man good. Republican good—Democrat bad. […]

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John Livingston

Tooling and Trolling

I have watched the Idaho Debates this week and in addition to listening to what the candidates have to say, I have listened to the panelists and the way they have framed questions and, on several occasions, inserted themselves into the debate. This happened once to Raul Labrador during the Attorney General Debate, and he […]

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John Livingston

United They Stand — Divided We Fall

What does Take Back Idaho (TBI) stand for? I know several of the Board members and I have the deepest respect for Ben Ysursa and Wil Overgaard. I have been introduced to Bruce Newcomb, Jim Jones, and Bob Geddes. I respect their service to our country, and to Idaho citizens and students. In my opinion […]

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John Livingston

“Hail Mary” Idaho needs a J.D.Vance

Constitutional conservative Christians are being marginalized by establishment RINOs, a lap dog media, and now their sycophants in government agencies including a minority in our traditional ally—Law Enforcement. In Ohio thanks to the backing and endorsement of Donald Trump, JD Vance overcame a ten-point deficit in three months and won the Republican Primary by ten […]

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