The calls for civility from the GOP establishment seem to grow each and every year.
A recent “Our View” from the Editorial Board of the Times-News is the latest example. One of the board members is a former Republican lawmaker who lost her seat last year, Laurie Lickley.
But the calls for so-called “decorum” in the political sphere by these establishment Republicans is a facade. They don’t actually care about civility or niceness at all.
What the establishment GOP wants real conservatives to do is just get out of the political game altogether.
If you would rather watch my short podcast on this issue, you can click the video here or skip below the video to continue reading.
In recent years, groups like the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance and Idaho Freedom Foundation have begun holding politicians accountable. We disrupted the comfy lifestyle they had grown accustomed to for many years.
It was easy for these fake Republicans to go on the campaign trail, promising that they were conservative, and then go to the capitol and vote like Democrats.
When the ISAA and IFF began educating the voters in the districts of these politicians on exactly what was happening, we were called bullies. We were told that we needed to be “civil” and that there was a “process” to how things worked at the capitol.
Both the ISAA and IFF are hated by the establishment because politicians hate accountability.
Over the years, more and more citizens and other groups have also started holding these RINOs accountable. That’s why they are so furious right now. That’s why they are yelling “bullies” and “civility” more and more.
Ironically, these same people who preach decorum and civility, are some of the worst offenders when it comes to playing politics and targeting people they don’t like.
As an example, last year former State Sen. Christy Zito (R-Hammett) had a bill to expand Idaho’s Second Amendment Preservation Act. It was a great bill for Idaho’s gun owners.
Toward the end of the legislative session, gun owners started to pile on the pressure to get the bill passed. The establishment GOP leadership, as well as the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, sat down with the ISAA to discuss the issue.
It was a cordial meeting. We believed that we had a good ground to move forward on the SAPA bill.
Several days later however, the establishment had stolen Christy’s bill that she had fought for on behalf of gun owners, watered it down a little, and then left her off as a co-sponsor while putting every other Republican State Senator on it.
Does that sound like civility to you? Does that sound like a respectable group of people to you? Not one single Republican lawmaker stood up for Christy and condemned what had happened. Instead, they praised Sen. Todd Lakey (R-Nampa) for the work that he did.
It was one of the most disgusting displays of backstabbing treachery I have ever seen in Idaho’s capitol, and I’ve been doing lobby work for gun owners for over a decade.
That’s just one example. Talk to any conservative lawmaker in the capitol and they will all tell you similar stories. They will tell you stories of chairmanships being given to people with less seniority (also happened to Christy) and they will tell you of their own bills being stolen by “civil” establishment hacks.
Conservative lawmakers can tell you all about the lack of civility from the establishment and their absolute hatred of anyone that isn’t a Mitt Romney-type “Republican.”
The establishment is just as dirty in the political game as any other subset of people. I would argue they are more dishonest because they lie to the public that they are civil while doing the most dishonest things you could imagine.
On the campaign trail, the establishment GOP is also very dirty and nefarious with their campaign material.
Every dirty trick and trade is used by the RINOs. Lies, distortions, and flat-out slander are all too commonplace.
So, any politician telling you that the “right-wing” people are too uncivil and that we need to go back to how the GOP was 15 years ago, simply wants to govern like a Democrat. They don’t want you to be involved in their good old boy’s club.
The reality is that politics has never really been civil, and you need to have some thick skin to take the hits that come from any side.
Politics is a power struggle. It’s a struggle to determine who will have the power to bring about the ideology that best represents who they are or who they are elected to represent.
The political divide in this country between Democrats and Republicans is getting larger and larger. That’s not because the two sides can’t sit down and hash things out, but there isn’t anything to hash out anymore. The gap is getting wider as one side throws God out of everything, mocks Him, and says that evil is good and good is evil.
In the meantime, the GOP has its own divide of people between people who want limited government and to stop the progressive agenda, and people who want to pretend like they can “play nice” with the violent radical leftists that are sweeping the country.
The battle lines have been drawn and it’s going to continue to get worse. The GOP establishment can lie all they want about being “civil” in this fight, but real conservatives see right through the facade and we aren’t putting up with it any longer.
No one is civil in this fight and right now, we need tenacious, hard-hitting conservatives to fight the radical left until they decide Idaho is no longer for them.