I once heard someone explain that American leftists don’t really have international enemies—they see international figures who remind them of their domestic ones. In other words, they invoke foreign leaders not out of principle, but as weapons against their opponents here at home. Look no further than the Russiagate hoax, cooked up somewhere between Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters and Barack Obama’s Oval Office, as a tool to attack Donald Trump’s campaign and later his presidency. They were less concerned with Vladimir Putin than they were the Republican nominee for the presidency.
Unfortunately, I’m seeing this same pattern more often on the right—both nationally and locally. It’s easy to get distracted by infighting and personal vendettas, losing focus on what truly matters. I wrote about this last year, in the lead-up to the 2025 legislative session:
As voters and activists, we must be careful not to become too attached to any politician, or we risk losing our ability to call them out when they go astray. There are many legislators I like and respect, which means I need to be extra cautious not to fall into blind devotion. I need the freedom to criticize anyone without worrying about burning bridges I might need later.
That also means my criticism must be delivered in good faith, which requires building a reputation for engaging in honest discourse on political issues. I hope I’ve established that over the past three years, even though I occasionally end up angering both sides at once in the process.
The need to prioritize policy over personalities cuts both ways. Too often, conservative voters and activists decide that certain figures are the enemy and declare total war. I’ve been called to the carpet more than once for praising Republicans who were considered outside the pale of conservatism, even when the policies in question were ones all conservatives agree on.
We need a refresher. Over the past few weeks, national conservatives have spent their time trying to cancel people for using inappropriate words in private chats or for associating with the “wrong” figures. Meanwhile, they’ve neglected the real work—turning out voters for Republican candidates and addressing the explosive revelations about Arctic Frost, the Biden administration’s operation to spy on and persecute Republicans, including sitting U.S. senators.
My sense is that little of that uproar had anything to do with alleged antisemitism or other stated reasons. It’s really the first volley in what could become a contentious 2028 Republican presidential primary. The same establishment Republicans who led the party to historic defeats after the George W. Bush years—who published a National Review issue urging Republicans to reject Trump, and who have spent a decade denouncing him and his supporters—are terrified that J.D. Vance will carry Trump’s mantle.
Some of those same voices who condemned Trump in 2016 were recently holding signs declaring that Tucker Carlson was “not MAGA,” demanding he be cast out of the movement. It’s not about policy at all; it’s entirely personal. The policies and ideological positions are merely window dressing, retroactive justifications for personal grudges.
I see the same thing happening locally. Whether it’s Christian conservatives in North Idaho who’ve grown to dislike Kootenai County GOP chair Brent Regan, eastern Idaho Republicans with axes to grind against their neighbors, or a Boise-based PAC that refused to support Lynn Bradescu’s city council campaign because of past grievances—so much of our intraparty conflict stems from personal animosity rather than real policy disagreements.
Scroll through the social media feeds of some political influencers and you’ll see wall-to-wall personal attacks, with few—if any—substantive ideas. I’m not going to name or link to them here. This platform is about ideas, not gossip. My point today is simple: we should be engaging with ideas, not wallowing in the mud like angry pigs.
This shift from ideas to personal feuds not only distracts from the real work, but leads to glaring contradictions. Once you decide someone is “the devil,” you’re tempted to oppose everything they do—even when you’d otherwise agree. That mindset leads to the “it’s different when we do it” mentality, where right and wrong depend entirely on who’s involved.
Take a recent example: some conservatives recently criticized an upcoming Bonneville County fundraiser featuring House Speaker Mike Moyle and Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, calling it “access politics.” Yet these same critics host their own fundraisers featuring elected officials as speakers to help sell tickets. That’s standard practice in politics. I’ve been invited to speak at Lincoln Day Dinners and similar events where tickets are sold to cover costs or raise funds. No one accused those hosts of selling access to me.
This rhetoric reached such a fever pitch that Sen. Anthon said he received death threats serious enough to involve the Idaho State Police:
It’s especially tragic that this kind of “Mean Girls politics” is intensifying less than two months after Charlie Kirk’s murder. If anyone served as a unifying force on the right, it was Kirk. He had the ability to cut through the noise, work with every faction, and keep us focused on what mattered. During the 2024 presidential race, he used his influence not to pick fights within the movement but to organize voters in swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Yet in the wake of his death, many on our side have lost the plot. Some are even using his name to justify their own grudges—digging up old posts and private messages to claim that Kirk would have supported them over their rivals. It’s disgusting.
Consider what time it is: an outright socialist was just elected mayor of our largest city, our cultural and financial capital. In Virginia, a man who wished death on his opponent’s children was just elected attorney general. If Democrats retake Congress and the White House, the persecutions of 2021–24 will look like child’s play compared to what’s coming.
The enemy is at the gates but rather than standing together, we are wasting our time and energy attacking each other over petty slights and ancient grievances.
Look: you can either work to build a united front in defense of the values that make Idaho great, or you can waste your time playing junior high games—trying to “dunk” on people who agree with you 80, 90, even 95 percent of the time.
My advice to you, dear reader, is to rise above the pettiness. When you see personal attacks on social media, just move on. Don’t amplify them, and don’t argue with them. Let pigs wallow in the mud. Don’t try to be the tone police or the platform police. It’s not worth your time. We have a state to save.
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About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
