Is our country going in the right direction?

A View from the Valley

By Georgia Earley

As of November 2025, 60 to 70% of US citizens said our country is headed in the wrong direction. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, since 1964 polls have shown more than 50% have had a lack of trust in our government with a few brief exceptions: February 1991 post first Gulf War, January 1993 after Clinton’s inauguration, and for 9 months post 9/11/ 2001.

So why the dissatisfaction and distrust? One can easily point to fiscal policies that continually widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor, growing overt corruption, and fragmented media fueling polarization. But it’s mostly because of us, our lack of civic education and our complacency.

Thomas Jefferson said, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” Yet most U.S. citizens do not know the reasons the U.S. constitution, which grants our freedoms, has endured longer than any other written national constitution. Most Idahoans don’t know that in 2025 our Idaho legislature introduced 1,385 bills and have little knowledge of the 340 Idaho laws that it did pass.

But most concerning is that the vast majority of citizens have never attended a town hall meeting, don’t know who or what is on the ballot in local elections and even the primaries, and don’t vote in primary elections.

And why does that matter?

The direction of our country is largely determined by citizen engagement and primary, NOT general, elections. So, if you don’t like the direction the country is heading, attending town hall meetings and voting in primary elections are your best chances to change it.

How’s that?

Town hall meetings and primary elections are where influence is greatest. Those who attend town hall meetings are often highly motivated and agenda-driven, so lawmakers listen to them because they show up and vote. And candidates who win primaries set their party’s direction for the next two to six years. So, by the general election, voters are left choosing between candidates already shaped by the motivated few.

And when less than 40% of US citizens and less than 30% of Idahoans typically vote in national primaries, and even fewer attend town hall meetings, the few rule the many.

And how can a country go in the right direction for the majority, if the minority is calling the shots?

Furthermore, if primary candidates fear backlash from their base, they’ll resist compromise and push narrow agendas when elected. This breeds partisanship which compromises both the democratic process and our constitutional freedoms.

So if we continue to vote for lawmakers who we expect to “stand firm” for our agendas, we’ll continue to have increasingly wider swings to the right one election and to the left the next. And the more unyielding the party nominees for the general elections, the more partisan the politics.

And in Idaho we’ve seen partisanship intensify after the legislature closed Republican primaries in 2012. Closed primaries limit independent and moderate voters, who typically vote across party lines, to voting only for candidates of a single party. This reduces the chances of more moderate candidates being elected and increases the influence of ideological extremes and partisanship.

So how are we supposed to know where candidates stand on issues and what our legislature is doing? At town hall meetings elected lawmakers give briefings. And government websites have voting records and legislative updates. But most importantly we need to insist that our news sources include newsletters from, and interviews with, lawmakers and candidates across the political spectrum clearly outlining their priorities and positions on issues. If a news source doesn’t, switch—and tell them why.

Thomas Jefferson said, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

So, if the majority chooses to be uneducated and complacent, allowing minority rule by not participating especially in the primaries; and if we continue to choose uncompromising leaders who do not prioritize preserving a fair democratic process and our constitutional freedoms, we’ll continue down the same road breeding more partisanship, distrust, and discontent.

In 1940 Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.”  So, if we don’t want our country’s direction to reflect the priorities of only the minority, it’s up to us to put it back into the hands of the majority.