Idaho’s Borg Collective Vanquished at State Republican Convention

They keep getting shellacked. Idaho’s Borg Collective took a beating on Primary Day and now got spanked at the State Republican Convention. There comes a day when you either fish or cut bait. It doesn’t have to be this way. The Hive is affiliated with the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Before the convention, I spoke with a series of GOP stalwarts. One told me he agrees with much of what IFF promotes, but he finds its affiliates’ approach obnoxious. You know, being repugnant isn’t a good strategy in politics, nor anywhere else.

They have spent the last 12 months vilifying Dorothy Moon. The chair had been a longtime ally, but last June warned that some in the repugnant caucus wouldn’t get re-elected if they continued calling colleagues traitors and un-Christian. She was prophetic. This angered the Borg because they wanted the party’s executive board to put not just a thumb, but arms and legs, on the scale. The hive decided on a late challenge. Then failed miserably. She finished a three-way race with more than 50 percent of the vote. The tally would’ve been higher because the collective votes weren’t going to go to her other challenger from the establishment wing.

In the days leading up to Saturday’s ballot, one of her fellow board members defected and was assimilated. I kept reading that he had offered his endorsement to another. Crickey, the guy looks like the crab in the Incredible Mr. Limpet. Sure, I’ll take his advice as he crawls across the stage. Dorothy now gets another two-year term.

Take a Few Words from a Constituent

Here’s some advice for the politicians. Leave the ranting to the professionals. People like radio talk show hosts and carnival barkers. A few years ago, there were 31 of 105 state legislators loosely affiliated under the liberty banner. The number had grown from half a dozen in less than a decade. They were on their way to a possible majority before 2030. Then a lobbyist named Maria Nate moved in and started denouncing many of the 31 for not being her definition of liberty-minded. It fractured the movement. She also horned in on her husband’s business. He runs the IFF. As of yesterday, she’s no longer a state party official.

It’s also time to mop up some other messes. Many of her departing legislative allies were associated with people best known to the public for their booking photos. The overwhelming majority of Republicans (and all Americans) aren’t comfortable with people who often play on the wrong side of the law. There’s another element that needs to be addressed over the next two years, and that’s anti-Semitism. Nearly every member of the legislature claims to be a Christian (some obviously need to claim it more so than others). I saw a post from syndicated talk show host Erick Erickson. He’s ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America. Unlike Presbyterian USA, PCA is the more traditional branch. He makes it clear that faith informs your politics. It’s not a cudgel. If your pastor is legislating vicariously through you, then let him run, and the people can decide.

And Now an Upbeat Story

I have a friend named “Butch” Elzey. He’s from Delaware. The man is a patriot. He recently had a liver transplant, and there have been ups and downs. We met when he owned a catering business. After 9-11, he decided he needed to do something for our American heroes. He started holding barbecues at Walter Reed. Before the mission closed and was merged with the hospitals at Bethesda and Fort Belvoir, he had me tag along for one last barbecue. He was a beloved figure among the wounded warriors. “Butch” had a visitor last week as he’s spending a lot of time at Johns Hopkins.

A young man arrived to say hello and walked into the room. A miracle in itself. The veteran was paralyzed when the two men first met. This is what “Butch” meant to the people he touched. The blowhards in Idaho politics should take some notes.

The year I joined him at Walter Reed, he pointed out a young woman seated at a picnic table and mentioned that her permanent home was only a few miles from where I lived at the time. When I introduced myself, her face beamed, and she told me I knew her mother. I did, and while not well, I thought highly of the family. The young woman had suffered a brain injury after an IED exploded, and her legs were badly scarred. We spent the better part of an hour talking. She reminded me of my daughter and had an innocent character, which I was later told was from the brain injury.

She had been in the hospital for a long time, and outside of family, I was the first person from “home” that she saw in a while. The young lady had won several medals in the Wounded Warrior Games, and then on a field trip into downtown Washington, she had forgotten them on a bus. She was downcast about the loss. The next week, my audience more than raised the replacement cost, but we didn’t need to spend any money. Another woman had found the medals kicked under a seat, and she walked to a police precinct and turned them over. A few days later, the medals arrived at Walter Reed with an escort.

I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t have time for a lot of your self-absorbed political games. There are far better people who occupy my thoughts.

A similar version of this essay appeared at Substack.