When the chickens run the fox house

January 5, 2023

By Mike Weland

There have always been people convinced, in spite of all evidence, that they possess truth indisputable. They call themselves prescient, knowing. For most of history, those not so blessed but forced to listen to such blandishments called such people lunatics. Throughout history, lunatics have been relegated to the fringe, sharing their inane theories among themselves, largely in secret, forming cabals of inadequacy and resentful that the majority among whom they abide won't take them seriously.

The lunatics are loud in the Republican Party today, top to bottom, fore to aft, and they are gaining power.. The people who once swore "wrassling is real," that the National Enquirer is news and "Rush is right" pushed a fraud into the White House in 2016, bought that con man's lies, and have been elevated from the fringe to the mainstream. They are on the verge of destroying completely the venerable party of Lincoln.

During his tenure and despite his every false assertion, Donald J. Trump was a laughing stock, a failure. Indisputable leader of a confederacy of dunces who somehow convinced a majority of Americans that their boy was a great businessman, rich, smart and capable despite the indisputable fact that his every assertion was a lie.

Our feckless 45th United States president won an election but lost everything else, fulfilling not a single promise he made to the American people except as befitted him.

What he did do, as king of the lunatic fringe, is convince the most gullible of our electorate to throw open the doors of our nation's governance to the least intelligent, most self-centered crop of unqualified candidates to have ever stood for election, self proclaimed "conservative Republicans" who are far closer in ideology to communist Nazis than any notion of conservatism or democracy.

It is inconceivable that such useless Trump sycophants as Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, John Kennedy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and so many more have been elected to offices of public trust, or that each took a solemn oath to protect, defend and uphold the United States Constitution, only to betray it. All instead upheld Trump and supported insurrection.

While hundreds of foot soldiers have been held accountable for the attack on the U .S. Capitol, the leaders of that insurrection gloat and continue to egregiously violate their oaths of office, doing their best to abrogate their lawful obligations as elected public servants and thwart any semblance of democracy. Insisting their self-righteous minority ought be considered the undisputed arbiters of truth, justice and the American way, even though their grandfathers fought and died on foreign grounds not so very long ago in defiance of just such absurdity.

Each today holds the GOP hostage, each for selfish reasons.

"That's national!" you might abjure. "What does it have to do with me in Bonners Ferry?!"

Long before the dysfunction we see today on the Republican side of the aisle in the U.S. House, proud Boundary County "conservatives" fell headlong for the inane bluster of pundits such as Rush Limbaugh. We found ourselves on the vanguard of the fringe lunatics, our very own chapter, early on, of the Oath Keepers. We turned our chickens loose to run the fox house.

In 2016, many in our Christian community fell headlong for Trump's lies of faith, hearing only his promises to make this a Christian nation, to end the "abomination" of abortion. To bring their God back to his rightful place in a nation whose constitution forbids Congress to establish any law respecting establishment of a religion.

None of the Donald's obvious iniquities dissuaded the gullible from their adoration. Soon, a sign went up by the golf course, proclaiming Boundary County "Trump Country." Of late, small but vocal groups echoing national playbooks to the letter raise continuous unfounded allegations against the very institutions that not long ago elicited community pride, demanding nothing short of abject capitulation to their demands in exchange for absolution of sins that don't exist.

Like the right wing minority wreaking such tragic silliness in the House, our lunatic fringe insists they know what's best for us, and insist in the name of righteousness, patriotism and freedom that we, the majority, ought well know that and capitulate to their righteous wisdom.

As Kevin McCarthy tries to reason and negotiate with his small and treasonous cabal of self-serving right wing fringe lunatics, to no avail, Boundary County institutions and elected officials are being incessantly besieged by baseless allegations made by lunatics who offer no solutions or compromise, but only foment confusion, anger and distrust.

We don't have to look east to find our very own lunatic fringe; our merry band of raucous and needlessly disruptive misfits are self evident; Adrienne Norris, Mark Moseley, Donna Capurso, Fay Almond and more, bent not on making our community better, but on claiming an oversized voice for themselves and their personal causes, to tear down and besmirch the good work of generations so as to make way for such ill-conceived concepts as a Redoubt, a defensible fortress for like minded people who made their fortunes elsewhere but lacked the wherewithal to defend their homes against the "encroaching hordes" they now insist the government protect them from.

Poor, feckless fools. They profess to be Christian, but refuse to recognize any but like-minded neighbors.

In our nation's capitol, the far from stalwart House speaker hopeful tried to gain office by currying favor, making concessions and offering bribes of unmerited power to the fringe members of his caucus, to no avail. The same is happening here.

We would be better served to stand strong on our principles, to invite reasonable debate but refuse to concede or negotiate with domestic political terrorists who refuse to countenance either logic or reason. We should never be hesitant to call them out by name and let them answer for their unfounded assaults on our communities, our Constitution and this nation's democracy. We should never be hesitant to hold them accountable.