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Why would someone who enjoys the lifestyle and freedoms that Idaho residents enjoy, try to vote people into office whose whole agenda is to take away that lifestyle and those freedoms. It just doesn't make any sense. A good friend who just moved from Socal to NID just reregistered his truck to get rid of the dreaded Calif. plates ASAP. his registration went from almost $700 a year to $90 for two years. Yeah! [MOD CUT]
Sorry, but comments like this (particularly before it was moderated) don't do anything but raise the ire of those folks who aren't extremist, who aren't far left or far right, but are portrayed that way because they agree with the ideals of a particular candidate who has a D or an R after his or her name. Who says that an individual who is a Republican, or a Democrat, or an Independent, can't be reasonable in making a decision no matter which issue we're talking about?
Please stop trying to put everyone into a tidy little box - life doesn't work that way. Not ALL Democrats like taxes and big government...not ALL Republicans are pro-life. Once we as a society can learn to agree to disagree, without making a public production out of it, or bending one's back to the point of being blazingly PC about it, then maybe we'll make some progress in this regard.
I'm sorry, you can edit this if you need to, Sage, but this type of s...stuff just pisses me off!
I think Allred wasn't affiliated with either party until now. He has been a very effective centrist as an advisor to the state legislature for quite a while- much of whatever got broken out of stalemate happened with his involvement to some degree.
I also think that Allred simply saw that Butch was going to win the primary, and went to the Dems because there was an opening for him there. Otter won't have any problems defeating Rammell in the primary- Rammell has no support from the LDS, even though he's a member, and no support from either the Repubs or Tea Party, who believe he's still trying to wage war with Risch after losing his elk ranch. The folks in Idaho are conservative, but they don't vote for nutbags.
Otter never liked S.E. Idaho much, and they didn't like him much, either, in the past. A lot will depend on how the current legislative session turns out, but I tend to think that if this session is as bad as the last one was, a lot of S.E. Idaho conservatives, especially those who once voted for Cecil Andrus, may go over to Allred. While he may have the dreaded donkey next to his name, he's LDS and a decided moderate. By the election, voters may be finally tiring of the deep divisions in the right.
I'm new to the Idaho forum and just would like to say that one of the reasons my hubby and I are thinking about relocating to Idaho is because it is a conservative state with conservative values in which the residents have more freedoms and believe in opportunity over entitlements. I just hope the people of the state will use California as a lesson of what type of candidate and party agenda not to vote for.
The only problem with the *vote for the person not the party* philosophy is that that person will *usually* vote with the party. Minnick is an exception but look at all the dems falling all over themselves to support this healthcare debacle coming out of DC. Blue dogs will vote with the leadership most of the time. Liberal republicans (RINOs) will usually do the same.
They system is broken and has been for 200+ years. Nothing will change because we've all become complacent (at least the majority of Americans).
I couldn't disagree more strongly! The reason America has survived so long as a democracy is because our system works. We are all in a period of great change, but our disagreements as a nation are no different now than they were at the turn of the 20th Century, 100 years ago. Each new century creates new challenges, and many of the challenges require new ways of thinking and new approaches to deal with them.
And Idaho, more than most Western states, has a long tradition of voting for the man, not the party. In the last half of the 20th Century, Idaho had Republican and Democratic Governors equally until the 90's, when we went through the longest one-party governance of the state in that century.
We seem to always do better when we have a Governor from one party and a majority from the other. The problem now, as I see it, is our state is governed by only the conservative to ultra-conservative side of our political landscape. There is much less of the moderate conservatism that served us so well for so long.
Idaho was once a liberal state, 120 years ago, when we transitioned from being a territory to statehood, because liberalism served the state well. The liberals were the ones then who struck down the provision in the state constitution that denied Mormons the vote, and we were one of the first states in the West to create child labor laws, work safety laws, 40 hour work weeks with overtime, and many of the laws that are now a part of everyday living.
The result of thinking that our system is broken beyond repair is anarchy. Idaho went through 2 years of that, up in the Coeur D'Alenes, and a former Governor was assassinated due to it. We had Federal Troops enforcing the peace in N. Idaho and Boise, and over 2000 men were corralled and put in a compound for months, out in the open, during the winter, with no formal charges against them, no way to have a day in court, and no way to contact their families. Many of them died, possibly including some of your ancestors if your family has been here that long.
That's what anarchy inevitably brings. Our only protection against it is our active participation in civic affairs, voting, and civil discourse. As long as we talk-talk, we're better off than when we shoot-shoot. Idaho has done both in her day.
I think Butch Otter ROCKS! Him firing the first shot back at the health care scam was enough for me to vote for him.. Even if he hadnt I would still vote for him over any lefty though.. Just me.
I just don't consider Idaho Democrats in general as super lefty. The Boise delegation to the state Senate and House is pretty Liberal. But look at Walt Minnick, He is more conservative in a lot of ways than Mike Simpson. I would like to see Allred elected just because a balance of power works in my opinion.
And Allred is not a lefty, by any reach of the imagination.
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