Conventional Wisdom?

Jerry: Did you hear about the theatrics at the recent state Republican and Democratic Party conventions?

Carrie: Of course. I followed them on Twitter and talked to some attendees.

Jerry: Am I correct that the Republicans passed a resolution to remove the color blue from their party’s state logo? Their resolution says the logo is “a blue elephant wearing red clothes, which has been often taken to mean a Democrat wearing Republican clothes, being a seriously bad look for the dominant party of this state.”

Carrie: Gasp! Their elephant is a “RINO” (Republican in name only) in disguise?

Jerry: That’s silly. How can anyone do a patriotic “red, white and blue” theme without blue? Will the Republican legislators stop accepting donations from Blue Cross?

Carrie: Doubtful! But wait there’s more! Early on, a resolution was introduced that the party respect the will of the voters.

Jerry: Horrors!

Carrie: No worries; the resolution was quickly withdrawn. But they did support a resolution opposing Medicaid expansion which, thanks to a voter initiative, will likely be on the November ballot.

Jerry: Did you hear what they proposed for an alternate solution to Medicaid Expansion.

Carrie: I’m all ears!

Jerry: Their resolution claims “many uninsured workers with part time jobs cut their hours to become eligible for the Medicaid Expansion, saving them more money by not working.”

Carrie: Don’t they know that a father working full time making $23,000 annually to support his family of four falls in the Medicaid Gap? It’s the working poor who fall in the gap, not folks who hardly work at all.

Jerry: According to their resolution, the answer is to “incentivize health providers and other businesses to create nonprofit health care clinics for the uninsured to receive basic health care without relying on taxpayer money and federal government control.”

Carrie: That’s no help for someone diagnosed with prostate or breast cancer.

Jerry: Correct. “Basic health care” doesn’t cover major surgeries or chemo treatments. Apparently the Republican extreme right folks think the uninsured should announce their life threatening disease on Facebook in the hope that some kind souls will donate the $100,000 or whatever it takes to cover their treatment.

Carrie: Since the working poor can’t pay for costly treatment, Idaho taxpayers end up covering their bills through our county indigent and state catastrophic funds.

Jerry: Getting back to the resolution silliness, they passed all thirteen of them during the Saturday general session in about five minutes. The delegates weren’t allowed to vote on each resolution individually. It was an “all or nothing” deal.

Carrie: Another issue which drew some heat was a proposed amendment to the Republican Party platform requiring stiffer penalties against employers who hire illegals.

Jerry: An attendee told me that North Idaho’s Region 1 Chair called us farmers “organized crime.” Don’t they know we follow the government’s requirements for checking identity papers but we aren’t document specialists?

Carrie: Who knew the Godfather was an Idaho potato farmer?

Jerry: Fortunately a bunch of our “goodfella” farmers were delegates at the convention so that one didn’t pass.

Carrie: We could fill this entire page with the Republican nonsense but it’s time to move onto the Democrat convention.

Jerry: I’d like to see the Democrats do better. Some of our extreme right wing politics would be minimized if Idaho had a more balanced “two party” state.

Carrie: Here’s my pet peeve with the Democrats. They never seem “to miss a chance to miss a chance.”

Jerry: How’s that?

Carrie: They are the minority party in a very conservative state. With the Republican Party shifting further right, they have an opportunity to attract some Independents and disenchanted Republicans to their party.

Jerry: So what did they do?

Carrie: They added a new plank to their platform to legalize recreational marijuana. Do they really think that will appeal to potential swing voters in this state?

Jerry: Sigh….looks like the Democrats’ chances may go up in smoke?

- • •

Jerry is a retired farmer/rancher and native Idahoan. Carrie is a retired nonprofit administrator. They live in Idaho Falls.