Cronyism Cartelism, and Corruption

Conservatives running in Statewide and local races in Idaho are doing a very poor job of connecting with moderates—not all moderates are RINOs, when it comes to defining the penultimate issues that are important to everyday working men and women and their families they need to connect. The people who pay taxes, go to work every day, tradesmen, owners of small businesses, ranchers and farmers, know the reality of their lives. They know when they get a 2% pay raise and inflation is 6.2% they are actually losing money. They know when gasoline at the pump (up 23%), heating oil, beef, eggs, and bread are more expensive by almost 10% today than before Joe Biden was elected. The fruit of their labors doesn’t go as far as it did last year. When health insurance premiums are going up every year and they are told that ‘they aren’t going up as fast as the used too” but copays and deductibles continue to go up.

They understand the difference between what politicians are telling them and what the experience of their everyday lives tells them. They know they are working more and receiving less in real income—isn’t it interesting that all government reports use nominal—the face value of a number instead of the real value when adjusted for inflation and taxes. When we are told that Idaho has the number one economy in the country, yet our taxes are amongst the highest and we ask where all the Covid money has gone—to hospitals and insurance carriers. We see big shopping malls and shopping centers half closed and help wanted signs in front of many businesses. We know. After all this we are told that 62% of us are racist, bigoted, privileged, and entitled. The political progressive left wants to divide us into political “assimilation groups”—how is that for an oxymoron “in situ”, when they are really wanting to divide us based on race, sexual preference or gender—you chose, disability, or even skin color.

Conservative candidates running in Statewide and local elections have appropriately focused their aim on issues of political philosophy and policy when the overriding issues are moral, ethical and I believe legal. Most issues are “prudential” and subject to negotiation and compromise. There are certain issues that are “Providential” and are not—protection of self and family, protection of the unborn, and may I add corruption and cronyism. These are the very issues that the people of Loudin County and Virginia thought were more important than political party. This issue alone rises above the politics of party or political philosophy. Cronyism, collusion, and cartels are ubiquitous in the political process in our state and country. I would like to address two areas of concern and how if leveraged properly could be used to inform the debate and upcoming elections.

EDUCATION: Who really runs our schools and universities? Ans. Teachers unions who hand pick school board members and businesses that sell curriculum and textbooks that no longer teach the classic or Christian virtues, but replace them with social justice and critical race theory (CRT). They tell us the CRT is not “in the curriculum”, but when parents led by a Muslim woman saw for themselves what was being taught on the internet by the teachers teaching their children the “mama bears” were unleashed—What does Rudyard Kipling say about THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES?

WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male

No one should come between a mother and her cubs. Not the government. Not the teachers’ unions. Not the hospital or medical associations, unions, and trade groups.

MEDICINE: Who runs medicine? Government agencies and large hospital networks and insurance carriers, and their lobbyists, the Hospital and Medical Associations, and The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry (IACI). Not doctors or nurses or patients. When the transaction between doctor and nurse, and patient is circumvented clinically or financially the process becomes tainted.

These are all cartels. They exist to serve not their customers—patients and students, but their members and those they do business with. There leaders have not been in “the trenches” for years—if ever.

So, my advice to conservatives trying to unseat a RINO Governor, Senator, US Representative, or state office holder talk about political philosophy and specific issues 10% of the time. If you want to wake up the sleeping giant talk about corruption, cronyism, and cartelism 90% of the time. Be very careful though many of those that we are trying to unseat know a lot about those issues. They have lived them for their long—sometimes across generations, political careers. When backed into a corner they will deploy all the resources of the Washington DC and Idaho “deep state”. But “We the People” should have a great hope that we can win. Just look at what happened in Loudin County and Virginia and New Jersey, and across the rest of the nation two weeks ago.

Families and faith vs. cronyism and corruption. Those are the battle lines. Keep it simple and we win.