The MAGA movement is running its course both at the national and state level. Fiscal mismanagement abounds in Washington and Boise. Culture war issues at both levels are needlessly dividing us. They do nothing to put food on the family table or address the serious shortage of affordable housing and medical care. The objective of the MAGA warriors appears to be playing a reversal of Robin Hood–taking from the poor to help the rich. It is not a recipe that will continue to sell well with a majority of voters.
On the national level, we have an administration that inherited a growing economy and saddled it with massive, unsustainable debt and illegal tariffs. We are now in an unlawful and unnecessary war in Iran, with no strategy to disengage. The war has caused a massive jump in fuel prices, as well as fertilizer and many other products essential to our economy. From being the most admired nation on Earth, which helped immensely in making our economy the strongest, we have become the most warlike. Other nations will shrink back from helping the U.S. to continue financing its colossal $38.9 trillion national debt.
Trump grossly miscalculated the impact Iran could have on the world economy by closing off the Strait of Hormuz. Not being a student of history, he obviously did not recall the massive shocks that cutoffs of Middle East oil caused to the world in 1973, 1979 and 1990. Iran can keep the spigot closed, regardless of Trump’s massive bombing campaign, until he cries uncle. The new Ayatollah has Trump by the unmentionables and won’t let go until he gives them a favorable deal.
Both the national and state governments are making it difficult for rural families to keep their heads above water. Medicaid programs that are essential to keep both urban and rural families healthy are being ripped away by MAGA warriors at both the state and national level. When the state and federal spending cuts approved by the Idaho Legislature and our entire Congressional delegation start to sink in toward the end of the year, rural hospitals will close, doctors may have to relocate and people will die.
Farm workers, who are essential to growing our crops and milking our cows, are living in a state of fear. Most of Idaho’s 35,000 undocumented workers have been here for years. The great majority are law-abiding and tax-paying residents. They don’t deserve to be terrorized by masked federal agents. Yet, MAGA warriors in the Legislature continue to use them as punching bags while the workers try to render their essential services. These state politicians should take note that Donald Trump has recently acknowledged the farm worker shortage but done nothing effective to address it. In May 2024, a comprehensive bi-partisan immigration bill was teed up to resolve this and a host of other immigration issues but Trump killed it solely for political purposes.
Speaking of our farm economy, which is the lifeblood of Idaho, the combination of the illegal tariffs and unlawful war is a devastating one-two punch. The cost of fuel, fertilizer, farm machinery and a variety of other essentials is growing by the day. Prices have suffered from the loss of long-time markets as a result of tariff retaliation. Trump’s upping of beef imports has certainly not helped Idaho beef producers.
Idaho sugar beet growers are being severely impacted by sugar imports. Trump and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, who heads up the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over sugar imports, could solve the problem. When I worked for former Senator Len Jordan in the early 1970s, one of my jobs was to deal with Sugar Act issues. Jordan always worked hard, and successfully, with other Finance Committee members to protect Idaho beet growers from imported sugar. Our current MAGA officials could and should do likewise.
Instead of dealing with the real problems facing Idaho, MAGA legislators are tilting windmills on meaningless culture war issues–gay marriage, book bans, vaccine bans, torturing public schools and their teachers, you name it. A growing cadre of reasonable, pragmatic Republicans has stepped forward in the last two years to actually do the job of legislating to make lives better for Idahoans. They will undoubtedly be challenged in the GOP primary by MAGA warriors heavily financed by out-of-state money, but I think voters have had their fill of the culture wars.
By the time the November election comes around, the MAGA movement will have lost much of its appeal. The U.S. House will change hands and, possibly, the Senate. The Idaho Legislature will have fewer MAGA followers. There will be more reasonable Republicans willing to work across the aisle to address real problems facing the Gem State. Amen.
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