What’s a “moderate” Republican going to do? A number of prominent national Republicans, including George Will, Max Boot, and George Conway (founder of The Lincoln Project–and Kellyanne’s husband) have issued an answer: vote for Democrats, the Republican Party has lost its mind to Trumpian extremists and needs corrective action.
Here in Eastern Washington Republican “moderates” (one might hesitantly call them “traditional” Republicans) are in a bind: do they bow to the conspiracy theorists, the Ammon Bundy/Matt Shea/Heather Scott militia types, the white supremacist hosts of the extremists like James Allsup, the promoters of the theocratic “State of Liberty,” or do they defect, at least for this election, and actually vote for Democrats?
We have the answer for Eastern Washington in the August 9th Spokesman in an article written by Rebecca White entitled, “Primary shows Rep. Matt Shea remains big influence in GOP politics in Spokane Valley.”
We need to understand the players in this political drama–the names are confusing. The Republicans of Spokane County are the smaller group in the county. They are centered in Spokane Valley and they are the relative moderates. Their chairwoman (and spokesperson in White’s article) is Beva Miles.
The other group, Spokane County Republicans, have the bigger and richer tent under which a few relatively oblivious moderates cuddle with the Matt Shea extremists. Note, for example, that the Spokane County Republicans for a time had the hostess of Greenbluff white supremacy, Cecily Wright, as their chairwoman. Ozzie Knezovich (an outspoken critic of Matt Shea and his extremists) warned them, but no one listened. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, accepted Matt Shea’s endorsement in 2018, and with it, the endorsement of his supporters.
In this year’s August 4 Primary race in LD4 (Spokane Valley north to Mt. Spokane) the drama among local Republicans played out yet again in the contest between Leonard Christian (26%), Rob Chase (32%) and Lance Gurel (35%). The ballot turn-in was a measly 38.8%. Rob Chase, the Matt Shea supported extremist candidate, won out on the Republican side. So what’s a Republican moderate to do?
Beva Miles (chairwoman of the relative moderates) offers a carefully guarded answer in Rebecca White’s Spokesman article:
Miles said she fears the results from the primary will leave many Republicans in a difficult position: vote for conservative candidates who have allied with the far right, or vote for a Democrat, who also doesn’t reflect their values. She said if far-right candidates continue to win primaries in the district as the demographics in the district shift, it could someday push the seat to a Democrat, like Gurel. [OMG, perish the thought!]
“I don’t agree with him in any way shape or form, or with the Democrat platform,” she said. “But he’s a very reasonable-sounding and lovely man. I believe that the far-right has opened the door to let the independents rule.”
Oh, horrors! she says. A Democrat! No. No. Democrats are anathema! They don’t share “our values.” Gurel can be a “lovely man” but his positions are only “reasonable-sounding.” By inference, Lori Feagan, a respected, intelligent, nurse practitioner, running against Bob McCaslin Jr., another Matt Shea acolyte, cannot possibly deserve a vote from a member of the Republican tribe because, OMG!, she’s a Democrat. Unlike George Conway, it sounds like Beva will swallow hard and vote for the Matt Shea clones because, horrible and scary as those folks are, they are not so horrible and scary as a reasonable Democrat. So the Republicans of Spokane County are instructed to vote for the theocratic militia-types who play footsie with white supremacy.
What are the Republicans selling as their “values” and outlook? Well, let’s look at that. Go to the Spokane GOP website (the big tent folks who court the support of extremists) and check out the Facebook video featuring Caleb Heimlich, the State Republican Party Chair.
Here is Mr. Heimlich’s pitch to Republican Primary voters summarized:
1) Be fearful! Don’t let your placid Christian communities become a lawless Seattle! (Sound familiar? It’s the same campaign that Nadine Woodward pushed with the “Seattle is Dying” video.)
2) We’ve got to lower taxes. No “radical” budget! The Democrats will chase out good jobs! We’ve got to trim the fat! (Nevermind the huge budget shortfall the state now faces, nor the upside down tax system that puts the burden on those who can least afford it.)
3) Vote Republican to keep your kids safe from sex education! (Referendum 90) (After all, kids need to be kept ignorant. We can’t trust them with age-appropriate medical facts that might equip them to recognize pedophile priests and the risks of out of wedlock pregnancy.)
4) We must elect officials who will listen to their constituents, like Tim Eyman! (Well, we know how that turned out: voters didn’t like Eyman’s pitch. Republicans voted for a belligerent sheriff who says he’s running on “law and order” while he refuses to enforce the will of the people as expressed in Initiative 1639. That was the gun initiative that passed with 59% of the vote in 2018. So much for listening to the people…)
5) We must elect competent people! His example? The unemployment money lost to scammers. (We can agree about the need for competency. We should vote for an accountant [Lance Gurel] and a medical professional [Lori Feagan] in LD4.)
“Moderate” Republicans in LD4 (and elsewhere) have a dilemma. They are so brainwashed against anyone not wearing the Republican label they feel they must swallow hard and vote for the worrisome, extremist, theocratic Matt Shea clones or their greatest fears will come to pass. The only thing I give the Republicans of Spokane County credit for is recognizing the “Threats We Face” (Ozzie Knezovich’s lecture) from the Matt Shea wing of their party. Now they need the stomach to actually cast votes that will displace that threat.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. To see how “moderate” Republicans in eastern Washington are treated by the extremists, and how competent Democratic candidates are vilified check out this web article published in “The Inland Northwest Report” There is a whole electronic media ecosystem out there that keeps up the tribal drumbeat.