Thoughts on a three-way truce

Please take time to read Ann Seddon’s letter to the editor.

She’s the Kootenai County GOP’s representative from Precinct 66. Ann is also a frequent critic of The Press and many issues she considers progressive. She’s a devoted soldier in Brent Regan’s Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

But she’s more than that, too.

Ann is a 23-year Press subscriber who notes that she’s someone “who believes local papers are important.” She is open to evaluating not just data, but her positions based on that data.

Read her letter and, in particular, consider her last sentence regarding a truce between Republicans, Democrats and the newspaper.

We applaud the sentiment behind that expression. We believe Ann is sincere in encouraging the most honest and respectful steps forward as our community, region and state go through political upheaval unlike anything many of us have seen before.

Trying to look at the conflict dispassionately, here are several observations:

• Many among us object to extremism of any kind. We believe that a more inclusive, centrist approach to solving problems does the most good for the most people. That was also part of Cheri Zao’s brief introduction in Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor section.

• What, exactly, is the difference between Republican and Democrat? Depends not just on your views, but on where you live. Then-U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador once said in a Press interview that many Idaho Democrats would be viewed in Washington, D.C., as Republicans. His point: Even our most liberal citizens tend not to be nearly as liberal as many Blue Staters.

• The Press does its best to report on local issues as objectively as possible. The Opinions page, particularly locally written editorials from the editor and publisher, do tend to push back — sometimes hard — against extremism. If the editor and publisher saw extremism from the left running rampant, you would be reading editorials railing against that. But extremism in our county is almost entirely from the far right. Watch the public comment periods of any school board, county commission, library board or city council meeting and then dare disagree with that assessment. Or just read the Letters to the Editor.

• The Press has, for most of the past decade, encouraged unaffiliated voters to register as Republicans because a) Republicans control almost all phases of local government and b) it is our belief that most unaffiliated voters who live here lean right anyway — just not edge-of-the-cliff right.

We do not encourage Democrats to register Republican just for the sake of voting, but we do think the door should be open to centrists of any political flavor who want some say in how they’re represented.

• We agree that one party trying to infiltrate the other, be it through covert precinct control or seeking elective office under false colors, is unethical. But it is up to every individual, from Cheri Zao to David Reilly, to decide where on a particular party’s broad platform they belong and then act accordingly.

• Ultimately, it’s up to voters to decide who will best represent them. That, we hope everyone can agree, is what makes America great.