There's nutrition — and rat feces — in alphabet soup

DARTNDOCCEQEC spells TROUBLE for IFFKCRCC.

Sorry. Let’s decipher the alphabet soup.

DART stands for Democrats And Republicans Together.

NDOC is Nonpartisan Doctors of Coeur d’Alene.

CEQEC stands for Citizens to Elect Qualified and Experienced Candidates.

On the other side of the political ledger you have Idaho Freedom Foundation and Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, conjoined twins who love the John Birch Society, perpetuate proven myths, advocate for ideologically aligned candidates regardless of aptitude for public service, and represent just about everything Ronald Reagan — you remember, a real Republican — would find reprehensible.

What all of these initials add up to is one heck of an election year ahead.

Who would have guessed a decade ago that conscientious conservatives would be joining forces not just with independents, but Democrats as well? That’s what the muck threatening to swallow Idaho requires.

Because of the head start and the incredibly deep (and dark) pockets of IFFKCRCC, the other initials are likely to incur at least as many losses as they register victories. IFFKCRCC has run unchecked for years. It has done a masterful job of dissimulation, convincing many thousands of Idahoans that they’re the good guys and everybody else belongs to bands of hell-bent thugs.

That depiction could hardly be more misleading.

It will take several election cycles to reverse the negative momentum, starting at the Republican Party precinct level. Just a decade ago, the local GOP was composed mostly of conservatives who could work with just about anybody. Sure, they were loyal to their party, but their party wasn’t the be-all, end-all.

Their goal was not division and alienation, like current central committee inhabitants, but concentrated efforts to sustain and improve upon the many things that made our region a great place to live, work and play.

Business. Education. Health care. Public safety. Infrastructure investment. Real issues impacting everyday people.

CRT, threatened 2A rights and distrust in election results? These are non-issues in Idaho, yet they’re among the animated scarecrows erected by IFFKCRCC, and they’re scaring the bejeebus out of many voters.

So why are we telling you all this? First, to again remind unaffiliated voters that if they want to have a say in the May 17 GOP primary, where extremism will go head-to-head with more rational candidates, contact the Kootenai County Elections Office this week and register Republican.

We also want to explain what the plethora of abbreviations and acronyms stand for so you can keep your scorecard up to date. That way you'll know who’s putting what in your political alphabet soup.