Republicans Must Be Committed To Party

Sat., June 3, 2000

Adam Fogerson Special To Handle

Nothing defines membership in the Republican Party better than agreement with the Party Platform. In Idaho, any politician may call himself or herself a “Republican,” but the acid test is support for the platform.

On election day we saw that counterfeit Republican candidates can win even if their views deviate strongly from the party platform.

this will not be the case forever.

What has been portrayed as war within our local GOP is not, as some would have, the result of some supposed conservative/liberal schism.

There is no actual disunity within the Republican ranks.

Why?

Because most of those towing this line aren’t really Republicans at all. That disunity, that schism, then, is between bona fide Republicans who adhere to the platform and the faux partisans attempting to co-opt the party of Reagan to obtain the agenda of Clinton.

How can this be so? Idaho political parties are hamstrung by the dual limitations of open primaries and open registration. On election day at least 1,900 Democrats cast ballots in Republican primary races. That’s one in seven voters - easily enough to make the difference in races between candidates who pledged to uphold the platform and those who would not.

This election cycle witnessed liberal Republicans attacking their opponents over a so-called “narrow agenda” or for being “single issue.” The single issue they berate, that narrow agenda, is the platform of the Republican party. And those who don’t support it should either work to change it or go back to the other party.

And although legitimate Republicans may have lost battles on election day in Kootenai County, they still can win the war. Pro-platform Republicans won important contests at the precinct level and their numbers within the Republican Central Committee now nearly match the platform-rejecting establishment.

The platformers are well positioned to more actively shape and define the Republican party in Kootenai County in the years to come. They can offer voters a consistent Republican vision of freedom and opportunity in place of a miscellany of watered-down panaceas.

Partisan registration and closed partisan balloting should be goals embraced by leaders of all parties. Allowing Democrats to spoil Republican primaries is neither fair to the voters nor beneficial for the polity.

But until we reform the laws that impair our parties, active and principled leadership at the local level is vital to our system of government. The county party organization must be a mantle carved from the bedrock of principle, not a veil woven from the silks of expediency.

And the future is getting brighter for the Kootenai County Republican Party. Sooner or later the yoke of myopic pragmatism will be thrown off and a new, invigorated organization born in its wake.

Republican candidates can and do win in Idaho without pandering to liberal Democrats, unions and special interests. But to do so they need to be committed to the platform of limited government, economic liberty, protection of God-given rights, educational opportunity and traditional values.

A vibrant, dynamic county party can help deliver that winning message; an indifferent, unprincipled one cannot.

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