Huckleberries Online

Carlson: Idaho R’s, D’s Narrow Base

Posted by DFO

Feb. 8, 2012 9:15 a.m. • 2 comments

in his St. Maries Gazette Record column, Chris Carlson notes how Idaho D's have drifted “away from common sense conservation, balanced budgets, continuing investment in Idaho education and protecting the values which make Idaho such a great place to live. Instead, being on the correct side of hot button issues such as abortion, guns and more wilderness became the goal of what other Idahoans perceived as a party growing out of touch and into the hands of the “wine and cheese” liberal set as represented by multi-millionaires living in Blaine County.” From the mid 90’s on, he continues, Idaho Democrats have appeared hell bent on narrowing their base of support. The voters noted and duly administered rebukes which should have awakened the D’s but so far haven’t. Now, corrupted by power, Carlson says, the GOP hell bent on narrowing its base. More here.

Question: Are Idaho Republicans immune from a voter backlash?

Two comments on this post so far. Add yours!

duroc on February 08 at 9:21 a.m.
I hope not (some backlash is certainly deserved), but only time will tell.
ShoshoneConservative on February 08 at 9:47 a.m.
He makes some good points, but the Idaho Democrats are still “perceived as a party growing out of touch and into the hands of the ‘wine and cheese’ liberal set as represented by multi-millionaires living in Blaine County.’ ” So, where are the Idaho voters going to go? The Constitution Party, who are too busy throwing hamburger grease at a Hindu statue to get their act together and present themselves as a conservative alternative to the Republicans?

In Canada there are examples of the main conservative party collapsing when they became too out of touch and arrogant - BC Social Credit and the federal Progressive Conservatives. However, in those cases conservative voters had somewhere to go - the SoCreds went to the BC Liberals (who aren’t really “liberal” in the American sense), and PC’s went to the Reform Party. In Idaho, we don’t have any viable third parties like that “waiting in the wings.” So, it’s the Republicans by default.

Unless Carlson thinks we’ll start to see Democrats in Idaho like this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Conley

« Back to Huckleberries Online

You must be logged in to post comments.
Please create a profile or log in here.

About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.