'A really interesting moment in history'

COEUR d’ALENE —Hayden resident Jennifer Locke belted out a rendition of "God Bless the U.S.A." as more than 350 guests began their meal at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday evening.

The guests filled a conference room of The Coeur d'Alene Resort, where the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee hosted the dinner and fundraiser.

"The Lincoln Day Dinner is the major fundraiser for the Republican Central Committee for Kootenai County," said Don Bradway, event chairman.

He said the funds raised are used to run the committee's day-to-day expenses, pay for things like parade entry fees and flags, and support Republican candidates, primarily in local elections.

"Raul Labrador and Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, if they were to have opponents, then we would do things to support the Republicans, but we do not focus on individuals," Bradway said. "We support the Republican party here in Kootenai County."

The evening was comprised of a live and silent auction, firearm raffles and several guest speakers. Guest speakers included Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, Congressman Raul Labrador, Lt. Gov. Brad Little, GOP Chair Steve Yates, County Commissioner Marc Eberlein and Daniel Brands, a local teenager whose speech was dubbed by Bradway as "Young America Speaks."

The keynote speaker, Matt Kibbe, made the trip from Washington, D.C., to attend the event. Bradway said Kibbe is "pleased and impressed" with the liberty movement in North Idaho.

"I think this is a really interesting moment in history for the Republican Party and the liberty movement," Kibbe said Friday in an interview with The Press. "From a snapshot-in-time perspective, things look pretty chaotic. But I think the potential here is pretty exciting because technology has liberated so many new people to get involved in the fight for ideas, in the political process and the understanding of what's actually going on in Washington, D.C."

In 2004, Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a grassroots organization of which he served as president until 2015 when he left to join a Super PAC supporting Rand Paul titled "Concerned American Voters." He is also author of the books: "Don't Hurt People and Don't take their stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto," and "Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America."

Kibbe recently started another organization and currently serves as president of Free the People. He said the organization is intended toward the Millennial generation — young people who are "trying to figure out where they stand in the political spectrum." He said most people are choosing not to register as Republican or Democrat anymore, registering as Independent instead.

"They curate everything," Kibbe said. They choose their music, they choose their friends, they literally curate their institutional association one click at a time. We need to connect with that generation and I just don't think that the current Republican Party leadership understands that model, but it is a freedom-based model."

Kibbe said young people are being "seduced" by bad ideas. He said the Democrats talk about socialism as if it is "really just people working together to solve problems," but that, from his perspective, is the liberty message and the government doesn't need to be involved in everything. Sometimes the solution is local and the "best solution" is people coming together in voluntary cooperation to do things, he said, adding that is the "polar opposite" of the definition of socialism.

"If you look at the history in the 20th century, it turns out that too much government power always turns out as a disaster," he said. "It always results in unintended consequences. A lot of people suffer under totalitarian regimes and I think we need to reconnect the meaning of those terms, the history of socialism, with young people that think that somehow this is cool — it's not."

Kibbe said one thing he believes is important to Millennials, by looking at polling numbers, is the Bill of Rights. He said they support the entire Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment. He said now, more than ever, the best way for Americans to defend themselves is not by giving up essential liberties, but by embracing the liberties defined in the Bill of Rights.

"I think you are going to see the Second Amendment and the right to defend yourself become more important, not just in the red states, but in the purple and blue states as well," Kibbe said.