‘OPEN LETTER’: To Brent Regan

As a Press reader, I am routinely exposed to your diatribe and to your KCRCC philosophical mantra. It is generous that you are given such space so often, and impressive that the IFF has for now assumed control of Idaho’s Republican Party. Acknowledged, I am equally dismayed at your approach and the resulting divisiveness felt throughout our community.

I watched and voted in the last local election cycle, where very qualified and dedicated people either held on to or assumed nonpartisan offices. Let me be frank: Many of your “vetted” nominees continued the trend of negligible qualifications and questionable histories. But they did fill out your form and seek your endorsement, competency be damned. 

The local groups that you rail against have been created in response to you, not despite you. Do you ever ask yourself why they all seem to find common ground lining up together against your dogma? It’s not because they are “in disguise” or want to “advance a socialist platform;” it’s because they prioritize our community and solutions ahead of politics. Putting whether you care aside, have you thought for even one moment how you create division amongst our neighbors? 

It is obvious that you seek to progress your version of an ideal government; that I can respect. The observation that you don’t seem to care whom or what else is affected, including our hard-earned tax dollars; that I cannot. Shame on you. 

DANA SILVA

Coeur d’Alene