Op-Ed: GOP Showdown
By Eric Parker • June 15, 2024When delegates at the 2022 Idaho Republican Convention overwhelmingly selected Dorothy Moon to be the next State Chair, they chose her partially due to her stance on party platform adherence. Moon was quickly labeled a “gatekeeper,” “tyrant,” and “dictator” by long-time party insiders who supported the outgoing State Chair, Tom Luna.
Over the last two years, Moon’s opponents went several steps further with their criticism and accused her of allowing “Nazis” into the Idaho Republican Party. Hired guns even traveled around the state working with groups like the Farm Bureau to hold secret meetings where they gave presentations to rooms full of carefully selected Republicans, making the argument that “white supremacists” were taking over the party. These political operatives and establishment Republicans presented their solution, the only solution, a final solution, if you will: Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries.
Proponents of this radical approach to conducting elections are attempting to scare regular Idahoans with exaggerated claims because they can’t sell their risky and confusing proposition based on its merits.
Mary Souza, the ‘sour grapes’ vote splitter who is a representative of the neo-progressive wing of the Republican Party, is one of the leading establishment voices who regularly accuse Moon and conservative Idahoans across the state of being extremists. Now Souza is running for State Chair at this week’s Idaho Republican Convention.
Souza has spent the last two years gaslighting Idahoans into thinking supremacists are successfully taking over the party and Dorothy Moon is allowing it. The reality is that her State Chair candidacy is actually about feeding her ego and avenging her distant third place finish during the Republican Secretary of State primary contest in 2022. Souza has no interest in party unity or civility or promoting conservative Republican values; she wants to purge anyone from the party who questions her progressive beliefs or who has gotten in the way of her ambitions over the years.
I agree with Moon on the importance of party platform adherence. The Republican Party is a private club built around free association. For free association to work, there must be ideological congruency. The litmus test for that congruency is the party platform. You can associate with the club if you agree with the platform. Do you believe in equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity? What about our traditional culture and safeguarding our identity as a free people? Do you believe in American exceptionalism? Does life begin at conception? These are simple questions that most Republicans can agree on how to answer.
I’m expecting to witness a lot of dirty tricks at this week’s Idaho Republican Convention in Coeur d’Alene, with the old guard using misinformation and slander in their attempt to retake control of the party. What we need to remember is that Dorothy Moon doesn’t get to say who is a Republican, and neither does Mary Souza. The grassroots of the Republican Party – the delegates who attend the convention – vote on the party platform. When Souza and her allies accuse principled Republicans of being extremists or supremacists, she’s directly insulting the grassroots of the party and the delegates who will choose the next State Chair.
Convention delegates shouldn’t allow Souza and her allies to manipulate their way into a position of power so that they can weaken the party through dangerous ideas like Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries. Voters sent a strong message during the May 2024 Primary Election about the kind of Republican Party that they want, and that’s a party committed to conservative principles.
Eric Parker
State Committeeman, Blaine County Republican Central Committee
This Op-Ed was submitted by Eric Parker. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
Tags: 2024 GOP Convention, Blaine County, Coeur d'Alene, Dorothy Moon, Eric Parker, Extremist, GOP, Idaho Republican Party, Mary Souza, Open Primaries, party platform, Ranked Choice Voting, RCV, Republican Central Committee, Tom Luna
“Nazi”, “White Supremacist”, “Extremist”, Right wing extremist”, “raycisss”, blah blah blah… are all desperate attempts to stop the opposition and get their way through their media monopoly (6-8 companies own all the entire media in the USA including the papers (globalist rags) in Idaho…that’s why they all have the same talking points). These people are wicked to the core and full of hate. They are communists. They hate those who stand for the constitution, and particularly white people because whites in general (not all) give them the most opposition. They need a boogieman. They want to turn the whole country and world into one big Mexico… a world filled with corruption at every level, crime abounding everywhere and wicked gangs running things. Be careful who you vote for. Especially if it’s a demon-crat (traitor), or a “rhino” (demon-crat partner in crime/ traitor).
meant rino not rhino.
Dorothy Moon won, Souza lost, the party has been preserved from the Gem State Conservatives and wolf in sheeps clothing Democrats.
Establishment republicans are leftists that haven’t come out of the closet but they are showing their true colors.
That’s a fact. I keep telling people that.
Go to “ limitedgov.org “ to see the actual voting records of your representatives. Most are RINO’s, including Little, especially Simpson, and a distressing number of the rest. Wake up, Idaho. Not only have we lost the party, we have lost the state.
REJECT THE RINO’s IN ‘24 .
The Idaho Republican Party is full of Leftists, wrapped in blankets of wool. They throw out names against TRUE republicans to smear their good names during elections to try to swing the votes in their favor. They speak conservative speak and then when they get in office, they vote with a full on leftist agenda. Be careful who you vote for! You need to be informed voters, by checking their previous voting records and looking into their money streams. BE WISE IDAHO!!!!
Go to “ protectthevote.com “ to see how you can help restore integrity to the November elections. And please, don’t fall for this Bird-Brain plandemic they’re cooking up now.
Well according to this, I guess I have to identify as a Nazi, as I support Dorothy Moon and her efforts. I’m sure it’s a thankless job, but thank her anyway
Souza pulling commie tricks…everyone who doesn’t agree with me is a nazi…
Meridian has a representative (or two I believe), who calls himself a “Republican” yet has his pronouns listed under his name on emails!!! And the Mayor of Meridian (a “Republican”) made a “pride” (perversion) pronouncement and thinks it’s extremist to get rid of perverted books out of the public library.
How people vote for these phonies is beyond me. They vote Republican for someone who is a tried and true democrat. It’s unbelievable how ignorant a lot of Republican voters are these days. The brainwashing has paid off.
Take a firm stand, Idahoans! Stick with Moon and dump the progressive interlopers who would flood us with insane policies.
Dorothy Moon needs to be gone! She just accuses without ever checking on the circumstances.
Example please.
“She…” accuses?
Gaslight much?
Keep up the good work Idaho Dispatch!!
The RINO GOP are all UniParty players who exert a holding action while the propaganda machines move the Overton Window goalposts farther into Marxist territory. Once the populace has been conditioned to accept more and more Leftist philosophy, then the RINOs begin codifying that philosophy into law. It’s a piecemeal strategy. BUT….there has been a Great Awakening (aka MAGA), that is reversing this trend. This has RINOs doing handstands and cartwheels over the losses they have taken. So, now we get Rigged Choice Voting thrown in our faces. They also have to call us bogus names in the media. LOSERS always sound and look like RINOs do when they are in retreat.