Republicans And The Big Tent
Why Platforms And Standards Matter
The local Coeur d’Alene Press and their various liberal minions that claim to be Republicans have been hollering about Brent Regan and the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. They accuse the local Republicans of being narrow-minded, radical, traditional conservatives who actually expect those running under the banner of the party to have some adherence to the standards, aka “the party platform.”
The latest column in the paper on Saturday, April 24th was written by former State Senator John Goedde. He would like you to believe that no matter what he stands for, as long as he has an “R” after his name, he is deserving of Republican support. John served a dozen years in the Idaho Senate as a “fake” Republican and in 2014, with the help of a local political action committee, was defeated by Mary Souza. John outspent Mary by more than ten to one but when the voters were shown John’s views on Common Core and other issues, he was gone! Let’s take some of John’s comments about the local KCRCC and see if they hold any hold water:
John stated, “Previously, the Central Committee allowed Republican candidates to run for office and then offered support for the winner of the primary. They were not involved in electioneering in primaries or nonpartisan elections and trusted the will of the voters who did not have to be force-fed the results of a small group’s screening to vote “correctly.”
Apparently, Mr. Goedde thinks the KCRCC does not believe the average Republican voter is smart enough to make their own informed choice, which history has proven false. John, you were a different person who whined and complained when Mary Souza handily beat you in the primary based on your record! You can’t have it both ways. Either the voters are capable or as you said in 2014 they were hoodwinked!
Mr. Goedde went on to say, “I firmly believe in President Ronald Reagan’s Big Tent theory, but it has had unintended consequences. When political activists who are aligned with the John Birch Society, the Libertarian Party and the Constitutional Party realized they had no political power on their own, members affiliated themselves with the Republican Party in an attempt to take it over. And, in this region, they have.”
On one hand we are a “Big Tent Party” but if one adheres to JBS,Tea Party, MAGA or Libertarian and/or Constitutional Party beliefs, you are no longer welcome in the tent, even though you aligned to the local GOP platform. You might be a Democrat and realized you cannot be elected unless you run as a Republican (been there, seen that) and you can legislate as a Democrat would. That is John’s definition of “Big Tent”.
John concludes this diatribe with this admonition: “This manipulative KCRCC vetting process must be stopped. Right now, I ask all Republican voters to pay closer attention to individual candidate qualifications and make their own decisions on which contender is best suited for the job.”
I don’t know about the rest of the voters but I am more concerned about the candidates beliefs, adherence to the Constitution and traditional values than I am to “candidate qualifications.” Thank you, Brent Regan and the rest of the KCRCC for keeping the party on track. We see for ourselves the political train wreck in Boise with the RINO Republicans and their cronyism. When you read the editorials and columns in the paper attacking the KCRCC, Idaho Freedom Foundation and our conservative leaders then realize where it is coming from. Maybe if each county organization would take the strategy that KCRCC has then we wouldn’t have a Brad Little, John Goedde or Senator Jim Woodward trying to stop the conservative movement in Boise.
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