Low turnout encouraging

Followers of Rep. Phil Hart's message of freedom, personal responsibility and courage to fend off governmental intrusion gathered in a gun store for a fundraiser Saturday night.

The shotgun turned into a popgun.

A mere 40 Hart supporters showed up. At $25 a head, the collection plate would pay off less than one third of 1 percent Hart owes in taxes and penalties from years of refusing to pay his fair share as an American citizen.

But today's editorial isn't just another rebuke of Hart, a truly fascinating man whose hypocrisy overshadows an otherwise competent, friendly and intelligent personality. It's the expression of hope that the unhealthy extremism Hart represents might be on the wane.

Fliers were circulated among the Rally Right faithful, encouraging people to attend the fundraiser and, in exchange for their $25, they'd get a pep talk from Hart and a copy of his book in print or DVD.

The Press also published an advance story on the event in Saturday's print and online editions, so the general public throughout the region was notified as well.

Hart said Saturday night that the turnout was greater than he expected. Seriously? Rally Right alone reportedly has a couple hundred members. Were 80 percent of them home watching the Zags game?

Actually, we know better. Earlier Saturday some of the county's most conservative Republicans - more like Constitutionalist/Libertarian hybrids - gathered at another event, ostensibly to plot ways to shape Republicanism in their own image. It's just that few of them followed Hart to the fundraiser.

If this really is indicative of Hart's waning influence, that's encouraging not just for Kootenai County, but for mainstream Republicans who still comprise the majority of the party but need to heed the wakeup calls that extremists are leaving.

Extremism in any direction is an agent of alienation and antithetical to the principles of democracy. The voice of the few deserves to be heard, but not necessarily heeded.