OPINION: Fact check

"The mission of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) is to enhance freedom and prosperity by promoting fiscally and socially conservative candidates who will implement the Idaho Republican Party Platform as policy." — KCRCC Mission Statement

My job as chairman of the KCRCC is to run the meetings toward the objective of our mission; maintain decorum, and ensure the minority has its say while the majority has its way. Those that claim I am a “would be dictator” or fascist, racist, monarchist, etc., are either epically ignorant or deliberately mendacious. The fact that the KCRCC functions so well with a high degree of cooperation proves this.

Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, have an adverse reaction to being told what to do or how to think. The only management style that works well with them is to be a facilitator, not a dictator. I help members of the committee do those things they want to do because people tend to be good at the things they like doing. By working together we can tap the consensus intelligence of the members. While one member may be the smartest person on the committee, nobody is smarter than the entire committee. We have empirically demonstrated that the “wisdom of the crowd” is real.

As for the “crowd,” each member of the KCRCC hails from a different precinct making the committee the most diverse and representative political organization in the county. Other groups like DART, NIR, Chamber of Commerce, and the Realtor Association have memberships that are self-selecting. They do not require that each member is from a separate area or precinct within the county.

Progressives are often mystified when Republicans work together. In their experience, cohesion only happens when directed from authority so when they see others working together their only conclusion is there must be a dictator with an iron fist whipping the members into conformance. Psychologists call this phenomena “projection,” where the subject projects their life experience onto others. It is not in their experience to build consensus from the bottom up. You can’t expect a fish to understand fire. This also explains why Biden supporters accuse Trump of the crimes Biden appears to have committed.

Similarly one would not expect unsuccessful people to understand how successful people operate. If they did, they would be successful too. Criticism of successful people invariably comes from people who are less successful. Psychologists call this the Dunning-Kruger Effect; where low proficiency individuals have an inflated sense of self-confidence. They don’t know enough to know they’re incompetent.

When these two effects combine, Dunning-Kruger and Projection, you get some interesting, even laughable criticisms. A local Biden supporter and political gadfly characterized me as a silver spoon trust-funder carpetbagger white supremacist. Wow. Anything else?

Well, it is true that I was born into great wealth and opportunity. I’ll explain. When my parents met they were Canadian Nationals of Italian descent. At that time, Italians were considered in the bottom ethnic class, definitely not supreme. In the late '30s, my grandfather was struggling to provide for the family so he had my father drop out of high school, change his name from Zamboni to Regan and go to work in the family blacksmith and machine business. By operating under the name “Regan” they were able to secure contracts that were otherwise unavailable to someone named Zamboni.

Facing discrimination and wanting more for their children, my parents sold the Vancouver, B.C., house they themselves built and with $1,500 in hand packed my brother, sister, and all their belongings in the family car and immigrated to South San Francisco where my father had secured a job at the Schlage Lock as a supervisor on their electroplating line. The day they arrived, my parents applied to begin the five-year process of becoming U.S. citizens.

Soon I arrived, the first American in the family and born on the Fourth of July. My father left Schlage after nearly being killed in a boiler explosion and while recovering in the hospital from third-degree burns, decided to start his own business. His new company and I would grow up together.

Silver spoon or mop handle? My father worked 10 hours a day, six days a week and when I was old enough I would go with him to work on Saturdays. At 7, I got my first paying job with a time card to punch. I was paid the princely sum of 50 cents per hour to mop floors. When I was off the clock he would teach me how to use a lathe, mill, welder and other tools. My father insisted that no matter what I was doing I should strive to be the best.

At 13, I started my first business, turning scrap lead into weights for the local scuba diving shop. At 17, I built a road licensed electric car. At 18, I earned an associate's degree in electronics and decided to start another business setting the goal of being a self-made millionaire by 36. I married at 27 and co-founded a robotics business which quickly grew to over 70 employees and 90% of the world market in subsea telemanipulators. At 33, I had a seven figure net worth, three years ahead of my goal. At 35, we sold the robotics business and I started Regan Designs, specializing in mechatronics. Since then we have helped several successful startups, creating hundreds of jobs. For example, in 2008 we helped start Liquid Robotics, which sold to Boeing in 2016 for $300 million.

Trust funder or trustee? My mother is 96 and still gets a few dollars monthly pension from the Canadian government for my father’s service in their army. My older brother, who passed away in 1993, appointed me as trustee for his orphaned daughter’s trust. I managed that trust for 22 years, never taking a dime. My niece is now happily married with two daughters living in a house her beloved father, through me, was able to buy for her.

Carpetbagger? I have lived in Kootenai County for over 25 years, twice as long as anywhere else. There is no evidence that the ZIP code of your birthplace imparts any local wisdom.

I was born into great wealth, but not the monetary kind. I was born a citizen of the greatest country on Earth to parents that loved me. My father was the personification of the American Dream and he taught me perseverance, hard work, and the value of being the best you can be. He taught me the true secret to success.

It’s just common sense.

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Brent Regan is chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.