{"id":18979,"date":"2025-10-05T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=18979"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:10:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:10:29","slug":"bosie-will-be-the-death-of-conservative-idaho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/bosie-will-be-the-death-of-conservative-idaho\/","title":{"rendered":"Bosie will be the Death of Conservative Idaho"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Idaho\u2019s Conservative Cannibalism Problem: <\/strong>For most of my life I was not wrapped up in Idaho politics. I never believed in social media so I didn\u2019t spend my time chasing every skirmish on line. Instead, I was working hard, raising a family and building a life here with my wife of twenty-five years. Now I finally have the time and capacity to look up and pay attention and what I see is very troubling. I call it Conservative Cannibalism or conservative doing more damage to each other than to their liberal opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiefdoms of the Republican Party<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enforcers (scorecards and litmus tests): <\/strong>The Idaho Freedom Foundation\u2019s Freedom Index scores bills and lawmakers. Admirers call it \u201ctransparency.\u201d Critics say it pressures votes and fuels primaries against Republicans to stray from heir ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Purists (caucus vs caucus): <\/strong>Idaho\u2019s Freedom Caucus was fractured in 2024 with public resignations, brand custody fights and even a leaked recording of a conservative power broker berating a sitting lawmaker for praising Speaker Mike Moyle. It is purity contests on tape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Populists and PAC\u2019s (paid assassins): <\/strong>Outside groups pour money into negative ads during primaries, often targeting Republicans. A Libertarian-aligned PAC, Make Liberty Win, was singled out for funding attack ads in Idaho races. State data show out of state spending drove many of the 2024 negative ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Social Media Pirates (pile-on\u2019s and performative outrage): <\/strong>A cottage industry of local X accounts hurls insults at \u201cinsufficiently conservative\u201d neighbors, often turning \u201cWe have been here\u201d vs \u201cJust got here\u201d into personal dog piles. It is loud, vulgar and at times it reflects poorly on the movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Establishment Bloc (leadership and growth-first politics): <\/strong>Speaker Mike Moyle\u2019s leadership has muscled through large packages and tax moves. Allies see pragmatism. Detractors see power politics. Either way it is an axis in the interparty fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Institutional Conservatives (sheriffs, commissioners, local officials): <\/strong>Those who are trying to govern budgets, roads, and facilities are often sidelined while factions above trade purity points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile: Boise is growing, but not only with conservatives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idaho is a magnet a proverbial melting pot:<\/strong> Net in Migration has driven much of our growth and Ada County keeps swelling like the belly of a fattened hog. Boise just re-elected an ultra-progressive mayor and the city\u2019s planning documents project continued population growth. Translation: <\/strong>While Conservatives fight each other Boise\u2019s liberal enclave continues to grow larger and faster. If good-natured conservatives are not careful, we will wake up with an Oregon-style divide or a dominant metro with different priorities than the rest of the state and a conservative movement too fractured to deliver results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Am I? Who Cares? What Am I Asking?: <\/strong>I have Heard the \u201cJab\u201d. \u201cWhere have you Been? Welcome to the party\u201d. Some say it as if not having been deeply involved is a weakness. I see it as a strength. I am not tangled in old grudges. I see what is happening on the surface: energy is being wasted on scoring purity points instead of solving problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ask is simple: <\/strong>It is time for Idaho conservatives to become more statesmanlike, professional, respectful and considerate even of their like-minded opponents. We need to align, not splinter and bring forward candidates who can unite us so we can turn Boise back toward Idaho before Boise turns Idaho into Boise. We must keep Idaho as it was when it drew people here with real governance and protect the state as a whole from being overrun by the liberal opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Idaho deserves maturity and unity. Let us conserve Idaho, not each other\u2019s reputations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idaho\u2019s Conservative Cannibalism Problem: For most of my life I was not wrapped up in Idaho politics. I never believed in social media so I didn\u2019t spend my time chasing every skirmish on line. Instead, I was working hard, raising a family and building a life here with my wife of twenty-five years. Now I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":11802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-18979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","tag-boise","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979","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\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18980,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979\/revisions\/18980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}