OPINION: Your House > The White House

How’s your grocery bill doing these days? Could you fix your car if it broke down tomorrow? Are you confident you’ll continue to have a job that can provide for life's basic necessities? If you had to move, could you afford a new home? 

What about higher education for your kids, or for you to grow your career?

These are not small questions; they are everything, and they should be at the heart of our political discussions. Governments exist to empower as many people as possible to achieve as much opportunity as possible.

The Preamble to our Constitution makes that clear:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Really read those words. Is American government — both statewide and nationally — living up to these words and their promises?

The White House exists to support your house. And yet, the White House under the Trump administration is laser-focused on its own pet projects.

Checking an athlete’s genitals is irrelevant, and frankly disgusting. What’s more important is that families can’t afford food, health care or housing, and international trade is crippled. 

For far too long, Republicans’ political discourse has been dominated by clickbait issues. Republicans had the luxury of focusing on these things because our basic American infrastructure was safe under the presidential leadership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. 

Not anymore. 

Americans in growing numbers are worried about the basic necessities of life: food, shelter and safety. 

This is because Trump is disgustingly out of touch with the economics of the average American home. Case in point, his recent statement on the impact of tariffs on Christmas gifting: “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”

As he announced sweeping escalations in tariffs at an April rally, Trump mused on the meaning of the word “Groceries.”

“It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries," he said. "It sort of says a bag with different things in it."

Does this sound like a person who has ever shopped for his family or put items back at the register because he couldn’t afford the monthly grocery bill?

We need a government that understands something as simple as putting food on the family table. 

Instead, Trump and his acolytes are focused on personal power, not the welfare of the American people. 

We need leaders both nationally and locally who work to fulfill the promises of our Constitution. Political parties should be vehicles to prosperity, not click bait cults. 

Republicans say “there is no such thing as nonpartisan local politics.” That is how we get a partisan hack in every local office, from the Board of County Commissioners and the Sheriff to the Boards of Trustees at North Idaho College and the Community Library Network. The best qualification for a non-partisan office is that person’s understanding of libraries, the law or higher education — not the sponsor who is pulling their purse strings. 

Republican partisans destroy, they don’t build. 

This destructive mindset is a direct result of Trumpian politics. The Trump Train barrels ahead, blind to the economic cliffs, only focused on its own needs, and ignoring the homes it passes by. The Trump Train is steamrolling dissent, and is ready to crush anyone who dares jump off. 

Compare that to the Democratic Party — a diverse, sometimes noisy coalition driving the “freedom bus.” It’s not always fast. It’s not always flashy. But the Democrats will take you to school, to work, and back home. And our party lets you hop on and off the bus when it makes sense for you.

It’s time to ask ourselves, what kind of community do we want? What kind of home?

If you’d like a glimpse of what a joyful, welcoming Democratic community looks like, join us on June 22, from noon to 3 p.m. at Majestic Park in Rathdrum. We’re throwing a picnic with live folk music, a $10 BBQ buffet (smoked sausages, hot dogs, a variety of summer salads, dessert, and more), and a short, uplifting speech from Idaho Gubernatorial Candidate Teri Pickens.

Get tickets here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/redwhitebluebbq

Come as you are. Bring a friend. Let’s talk about your house — and how we can make it stronger, together.

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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.