GOP dysfunction
The reason there are so many avid Palmer Report readers (myself included) is because it reads like a thriller, with a sharp investigative team puzzling together clues to uncover the truth. For my pieces, I love researching to expose lesser-known-but-important details, in this case, local news. Local papers in very red areas can give an idea of what the GOP up to now, and their strategy. If my local news is any indication, the GOP are just as insane, incompetent, and auto-destructive as ever. Suffice it to say, the GOP dynamic in American politics and culture is based in conflict, misbehavior, neglect, and abuse, causing ongoing dysfunction in the whole country.
Here in my current neck of the woods of northern Idaho, the climate is out of control, and I’m not just referring to the record-breaking heat, drought, and wildfires. Just check the North Idaho Life Facebook feed for ongoing debates about “forest management” (eyeroll). Or, the Coeur d’Alene Press, Serving Kootenai County Since 1892. In a piece this week headlined, Idaho’s ICUs filling Up Again, about the cost of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, a nurse laments, “Every single one of them is unvaccinated.”
Or this from a piece headlined, Nelly: Proof of Racism, about the Grammy Award-winning rapper scheduled to perform at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. The writer says, “I have lived all over this beautiful country from coast to coast. The underlying racism in North Idaho is unique. The fact that so many deny its existence here is hilarious.”
The whole newspaper is a study in GOP dysfunction. On the front page this week the headline, Embracing Birch: GOP group stands in support of John Birch Society. The piece discusses how Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) members unanimously approved the resolution supporting the infamous John Birch Society (JBS). The KCRCC, “urges Idahoans who do not support our party platform to follow the example of Bill Brooks and voluntary disaffiliate from the Idaho Republican Party.” To be clear, the KCRCC are saying that if you disagree with embracing JBS, you can leave the party.
The piece gives examples of how the KCRCC is attempting to rebrand the JBS, but without providing much detail on the history of the JBS. According to the Washington Post, “Long before AQnon, Ronald Reagan and the GOP purged John Birch extremists from the party.” Back then, Republicans rejected accusations by JBS founder Robert Welch that most of the U.S. government, including D.D. Eisenhower, were under secret communist control. Sound familiar? Republicans back then believed that Welch’s feverish rants threatened the party’s credibility and future. How far the party has fallen.
Palmer Report shines a spotlight on the cloistered GOP in these deep red areas. Keep shining the light on them. Eventually the light will get through the darkness.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.