When right goes wrong

Idaho needs more jobs, wise spending and better education.

So what does the Republican Party come up with during its state convention? Loyalty oaths, repealing the 17th Amendment and firing up the militia.

If that didn't startle you out of your rocking chair, what will?

This is not a slam on the Republican Party. Not the Republican Party that has represented a broad segment of Idaho's conscientious populace for many years, anyway. It is an alarm about the razor-thin but intensely motivated, well-organized segment of people from the far right fringe of religious fervor and political conservatism.

Think for a moment about the party's support for repealing the 17th Amendment, which allows citizens to elect their U.S. senators. Now, why would anyone in the Republican Party want to wrest that precious right away from Idaho citizens and place it in the hands of a fistful of state legislators? Because those party members know that it's easier to handpick a fistful of extremist legislators than it is to fool a whole state full of qualified voters choosing their U.S. senators.

If you're napping or simply don't care, it's easy to snooze through this chapter in our state's history. It's also easy to be confused. Where once you could vote Republican and know you were staking a claim for fiscal conservatism and personal responsibility, now you don't know what you're voting for. As a Republican, are you automatically a Tea Party member? Do you belong to Rally Right? The Reagan Republicans? The Pachyderms? Where do these groups agree? How do they differ?

If someone from a Tea Party implores every Idahoan to remove his or her children from public schools, is that now a plank in the Republican platform? We submit that it is not a Republican policy but rather one example of the bizarre, destructive and indefensible behavior that is threatening the constitutional rights guaranteed every citizen.

As Idahoans, we have two choices. We can sit back and merely wait for this bright but ill-fated fuse to burn out, or we can risk an explosion that could leave a bloody crater in the Idaho Constitution - the very document these activists purport to uphold.

Arm yourself with accurate information. Choose your political allegiances wisely. And please, stand up for your neighbor's rights, even if you disagree with him politically, philosophically or religiously.