Plenty of options for Republican primary voters

Dear editor:

After reading your 4/6/11 editorial "A swing to the radical right," I am now Deeply Concerned for the fate of Idaho's Beleaguered Independent Voters! I may even decide to View With Alarm!!

Gosh, what a severe problem those eeeevil Republicans are causing by wanting people to register as Republicans before voting on the Republican ballot in the Idaho primaries. I do appreciate your concession that the Republican Party has "the right to choose with whom they associated." But now, alas, the poor, hapless Independent voters would have to "formally register as Republicans," or else they will no longer be able to vote in the GOP primary! Oh, the agony! The humanity! The Existential Angst! The lack of the cherished "moderating influence" on selections of Republican candidates! (OK, maybe there are a few too many exclamation points in this paragraph. I blame it on the lack of an independent moderating influence on my opinion.)

At the risk of appearing radical, I have a few suggestions that might provide an alternative to your proposal that the GOP allow Democrats, Independents, Greens, Libertarians, Peace & Freedom-ites and other non-Republicans dictate how the Republican Party should run its primaries:

1) Independents can form their own political party (call it, oh, maybe the "Independent Party" and have their own primary. Nahhh, won't work -- most Independents are too independent to form an organized group.

2) Independents can infiltrate the Democrat Party, take over the party infrastructure, and become a moderating influence on the radical leftists who currently control the Democrat Party in Idaho. That way, Idaho might be able to return to the two-party parity that Democrats claim to love. Nahhh, won't work -- Idaho Democrats are so far out on the left fringe that no respectable Independent would want to be associated with them.

3) The Democrat Party could rename itself the "Fairly Independent But Secretly Democrat Party," in hopes of fooling Independents into voting for their radical leftist candidates. Nahhh, won't work -- they would give themselves away as soon as they give an interview to the news media.

4) Independents could register as Republicans, attend the county GOP meetings, provide their "moderating influence" at the local level, and maybe get themselves nominated for the Legislature. Nahhh, won't work -- that would require actually working as part of a structured group, and Independents are too independent to do that.

5) Newspaper editors could try to develop some trust in the voters of Idaho to select and vote for candidates who best reflect the voters' political views. Nahhh, won't work -- what would you have to kvetch about?

So it looks as if we are back to the requirement that the Independents register as Republicans if they want to vote the GOP ticket in the primaries. Gee, that's going to be tough -- I mean, they will actually have to fill out a form and send it in, or even go to the County Courthouse and register there. And of course, this registration will have an immediate severe impact on Independent voters, in addition to the existential angst of being forced to say they are Republicans when they are really Independents. They are likely to start receiving fundralsing appeals from the Republican Party! OOOOH, that's gonna hurt! Those recycling bins might suffer overflow! Oh well, no pain no gain.

-- Peter Humm

(Editor's note: Excellent riposte Pete, but I think you missed the point. Since I don't think the Democrats will be able to offer any viable alternatives in most races, the winner of the Republican Primary is going to win in November. Independents tend to be middle of the road leaning slightly toward conservative. If the GOP winds up with too many right wing candidates, those independent voters are not going to have anybody on the ballot they really want to vote for -- and that hurts the entire process in the long run. And while it will be easy to register as a Republican, many independents aren't going to want to.)