By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
North Idaho wasn’t always like this.
Believe it or not, there was a time in the not-too-distant past when North Idaho was a more politically balanced region. Our district often sent more Democrats to Boise than Republicans, and both parties were largely concerned with issues that affected us here in the panhandle: jobs, infrastructure, conservation, protection of public lands, stewardship of wildlife and a shared mission to represent the working class.
These so-called “lunchbox Democrats” of Idaho — people like Jim Stoicheff, Frank Church and Cecil Andrus, among others — were mostly concerned with meeting their constituents’ basic needs.
Sure, North Idaho has always contained veins of libertarianism and conservatism while anti-government sentiments ran through the hills like spring rivers; but, in the seemingly quaint political era of the 1970s-’80s, your party affiliation didn’t matter so much. Rather, what counted for our elected officials was what they did to better the lives of their constituents.
Then, in the early 1990s, a shift began to occur. The economy started to slide. The price of precious metals tanked, mines closed, lumber mills shut down and Idaho (having passed right-to-work legislation in the mid-’80s) handcuffed the unions that had grown powerful in the panhandle.
At the same time, a dramatic shift was happening in southern California. There was a recession, earthquakes and a riot that marked the beginning of an exodus. From 1992-2000, California lost 1.8 million more people than it gained, while other Western states gained roughly the same amount. Of all those who migrated to Idaho during that period, more than half came from California. By the end of the 1990s, a reported 500 California police officers retired to North Idaho, including Mark Fuhrman, whose perjury and recorded racism during the O.J. Simpson trial helped paint this region as tolerant of intolerance.
In the early- to mid-1990s, elections were often tight between Republicans and Democrats, but with the influx of deeply conservative newcomers flooding into North Idaho, that soon became a bygone era.
Fewer Democrats were elected to office in each subsequent election until there were essentially none left. In 1992, there were 20 Democrats elected to the Idaho House and 50 Republicans. Those numbers dwindled to nine Democrats to 61 Republicans by 2000 and — except for a short boost for Democrats during the Obama years — has now settled back to the same ratio for the most recent legislative session.
Since 1995, Idaho has been under one-party rule, with Republicans claiming the trifecta of Senate, House and Governor’s Office.
As is common in organisms living out of balance with the world around them, Idaho politics have been rotting for decades.
Buoyed by wave after wave of out-of-state conservatives — many unironically calling themselves “political refugees” — the Idaho Republican Party has tacked further and further to the right, creating a party with an ideological platform that is nearly unrecognizable to Republicans of the past.
Influenced by the larger political swing to the right that’s occurred around the country, Idaho was off to the races. Ideological bills became red meat for lawmakers to toss to their constituents, and we passed a disgusting series of bills into law that further pushed marginalized populations away. Some were reversed after being found unconstitutional, but many stand as a reminder of the ugly new reality of politics in North Idaho.
It’s a tricky reality for these Idaho conservatives today, because a large part of that ideology depends on pointing to Democrats as the ones to blame for all the evils of the world — a tough ask, especially since North Idaho hasn’t sent a Democrat to Boise for more than 30 years.
As a result, North Idaho Republicans have taken to henpecking one another and establishing litmus tests to classify what a “true” conservative is.
This is, again, ironic, since the vast majority of these so-called “true” conservatives moved here from California, bought one of those stupid Idaho-shaped-like-a-gun-shooting-a-pine-tree stickers and proclaimed themselves to be ambassadors — and protectors — of “North Idaho values.”
This yeasty ferment — frothing and eating itself constantly — might convince others that their conservative fever dream is normal or good, but those of us who have been around longer than them know the score. We know that their brand of extremism, wrapped in an American flag and punching down at anyone who questions it, has eaten the host and is here to stay.
Like wolves let into the henhouse, they will continue to pick us off, one by one, until there is nothing left but wolves, gnashing and yipping at one another, eager to find another group to blame. Rinse and repeat.
That’s the new Idaho way.
