- Oct 17, 2011
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In a place with a history of hate, an unlikely fight against GOP extremism (gift link)
North Idaho has beaten the far right before. Now renegade Republicans are seeking to root it out of their own party, with a crucial test in Tuesday’s primary.For much of the two decades since [an Aryan Nations compound was bankrupted and destroyed], civic leaders have focused on moving beyond the image of North Idaho as a white-power fiefdom.
This time, activists say, the threat is no longer on the fringes of society, dressed in Nazi garb at a hideout in the woods. Instead, they see it in theleadership of the local Republican Party, which has mirrored the lurch to the right of the national conservative movement during the Trump era on matters of race, religion and sexuality. The bigotry of the past, they say, now has mainstream political cover.
In this ruby-red state, the pushback is being led from within the party. A group of disaffected, self-described “traditional” Republicans has spent the past two years planning to wrest back control from leaders who they accuse of steering the local GOP toward extremism, a charge the officials vehemently deny. A crucial measure of the challengers’ efforts comes Tuesday, Idaho’s primary day.
The rebels have focused their efforts on precinct committee seats, the building blocks of local party power. On Tuesday, they need to win 37 seats out of 73 to force a change in local party leadership, but they’re hoping for a rout.
“I want a full sweep,” said Christa Hazel, 50, a Republican organizer who has been doxed and harassed since resigning from the party’s central committee in 2017 over concerns about extremism and a lack of transparency. “I want a full referendum on the ugliness, chaos and division.”
Hazel and her allies blame local leaders for ideological fights that have left North Idaho College on the brink of losing its accreditation. Doctors, especially reproductive health specialists, are leaving the area, with one local hospital recently shuttering its maternity ward. Extremism researchers and local media outlets have documented the ties between GOP officials and far-right figures.
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