Idaho is blessed to be a red state. More than 60% of Idaho voters affiliate with the Republican Party, and over 85% of our elected lawmakers ran and won as Republicans. As chair of the Idaho GOP, I represent all those voters and public officials, and that means I will always insist on real debate carried out with respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Idaho GOP represents a wide range of conservative ideas, all anchored in our party platform, which delegates reaffirm every two years at our state convention. On many issues, we stand united\u2014as when we fought and defeated ranked choice voting last year. On others, such as the proper income tax rate, there\u2019s room for spirited discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But lately, what I\u2019ve seen is not spirited discussion. It\u2019s cheap shots, dishonesty, and outright smear campaigns. Before many of our freshman legislators had even cast their first vote this past session, a Texas-based group blasted out text messages labeling them \u201ctraitors\u201d for refusing to bow to that group\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, earlier this summer, the same outfit published a secret recording of me speaking candidly to supporters, followed by an email filled with vile, scurrilous lies about one of the most conservative lawmakers in our state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s be clear: this is not dialogue. This is not debate. These are sleazy political tactics that have no place in Idaho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, it\u2019s not just out-of-state groups dragging our discourse into the gutter. Right here at home, I\u2019ve seen the same behavior. Just last week, one of our Republican senators raised serious questions about how to protect children following the latest school shooting carried out by a transgender activist. Instead of engaging the issue, some online agitators piled on with attacks and memes\u2014just like the \u201ctraitors\u201d campaign we saw earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends, this is exhausting. If your entire life revolves around waiting on social media to dunk on your political enemies, ask yourself: what are you really accomplishing? How does tearing down fellow Republicans advance the principles of faith, family, and freedom that our party stands for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should welcome debate, but we must conduct ourselves with integrity. Ronald Reagan showed us how. As governor of California, he faced a Democrat-controlled legislature. As president, he never worked with a Republican Speaker of the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet through it all, Reagan never lost his optimism. He didn\u2019t stoop to slander or cheap tricks. He was the happy warrior\u2014smiling, confident, and always focused on lifting America up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ufeffThat\u2019s the spirit we need again. Even when we disagree, we can do it with honesty, respect, and good cheer. Let Idaho Republicans lead the way\u2014not with smears, but with strength. Idaho is blessed to be a red state, so let\u2019s keep it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Idaho is blessed to be a red state. More than 60% of Idaho voters affiliate with the Republican Party, and over 85% of our elected lawmakers ran and won as Republicans. As chair of the Idaho GOP, I represent all those voters and public officials, and that means I will always insist on real debate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":18468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18900,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18899\/revisions\/18900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}