When will Idaho become a single political party state?

Political is a short-hand term to label policy and control for resources: money, land and people. Idaho is approaching single-party status. Currently all Idaho state officers, most county commissioners and 84 percent of the Idaho Legislature are Republicans. Republicans argue that city and school board elections should be partisan. The 2022 election cycle can move the needle toward more Republican control. Tom Luna outlined the Idaho GOP platform in Idaho State Journal commentary on Jan. 15. Chad Christensen summarized the conservative platform in the same issue.

A single-party state is a type of government in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution.

All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. Sometimes the term de facto one-party state is used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike the one-party state, allows (at least nominally) democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning power. Countries like China are single party. Dozens of countries became single party through military coups or a dominant nationalist or fascist ideology then returned to multi-party governance such as the former Soviet Union. Is Idaho in transition from de facto one-party (Republican) power with limited opposition to an authoritarian system with a single voice and ideology?

Idaho has been moving toward Republican dominance of politics since the 1970s and toward extremist conservative ideology. Conservative religions have moved away from Democrats in opposition to liberal social issues like feminism, abortion and LGBT rights, racial equity and environmentalism. Evolving trickle-down economics shifted thinking from relative sharing to transferring more wealth, land and political power to the rich. With the Citizens United decision, cash has flown into the Idaho Freedom Foundation to influence faster political shift to the right. Cash comes from out of state like Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, two donor-advised funds that are not required to disclose their donors. IFF is a member of the State Policy Network, a consortium of conservative and libertarian think tanks that focus on state-level policy. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives that draft and share model legislation for distribution among Republican state governments.

The Idaho GOP, IFF and ALEC use a range of tools and methods to influence legislators, political candidates and voters. IFF/GOP decides which candidates are unacceptable — like all Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans — then works to block primary candidacy or reelection through funded misinformation. Thoughtful Republicans who speak out for good governance like Jim Jones, Trent Clark, Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and the late Stephen Hartgen have been attacked in media and campaign advertising. County Republican committees and extremist legislators push for restrictive or exclusionary rules like voter purity requirements and gerrymandering to block non-Republican voters.

More recently, Republicans such as Janice McGeachin and Barbara Ehardt have campaigned against Idaho education, claiming that educators are radicalizing students to learn about diversity and racial history. Republican legislation, maybe with ALEC help, has punished state universities and Idaho’s tiny population of transgender girls. School trustee recalls have increased. Republican legislation attempted to further privatize and underfund public education (Luna Laws), block expansion of Medicaid for the working poor and block ballot initiatives. Republican legislation and policies push to exclude ordinary Idaho citizens from access to public lands or transfer these lands to the rich.

Idaho has many non-government organizations that operate as voices for the poor, LGBT, non-Christians, women, people of color, public lands and wildlife, green energy, strong public education and for working people not well served by Republican ideology and political platforms. Thoughtful, moderate Republicans know that full participation of all citizens (inclusion) builds a stronger economy and safer, more livable communities. If Idaho is not to become a single-party state then voters can select moderate and non-Republicans in the 2022 election cycle to achieve better political balance.

Larry Gebhardt of Pocatello is a retired submarine captain and manufacturing manager.