Guest Column–Brian Almon: The Devil’s Bargain

Last week, the Texas Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on 16 charges brought by the Texas House of Representatives. This impeachment was the latest salvo in a war between the right and left sides of the Republican Party, a war that shows no signs of cooling down.

According to the legacy media, Paxton was corrupt. However, Paxton says that he was targeted for standing up to the Republican establishment. Click here to watch his interview with Tucker Carlson. It’s true that Paxton has taken a leading position against both the Biden regime and the establishment in his own state. Outside of Idaho’s own Raúl Labrador, Paxton is probably the best attorney general in the country.

One of the reasons Paxton was able to be impeached is because the Democrats essentially control the Texas House. There are 150 representatives — 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats. However, a dozen or so leftist Republicans will always make common cause with the Democratic caucus, allowing them to make sure one of their own is always elected Speaker.

Thankfully, Idaho does not have this exact situation. The Republican caucus in the Idaho House chooses the Speaker, rather than giving the Democratic minority veto power over this important position.

However, there are signs of an alliance here in the Gem State between moderate Republicans and Democrats against conservatives. Legislative leadership pushed through several bills, including the Idaho Launch Grant, with minorities of the House Republican caucus. This is a quiet change from the so-called Bedke Rule, in which the then-House Speaker Scott Bedke refused to bring legislation to the floor without support from a majority of Republicans.

This burgeoning alliance grew much stronger this month as former three-term Republican Governor Butch Otter endorsed the jungle primary / ranked choice voting initiative. As you know, this plan makes it much easier for moderates to hold on to power, which benefits both the Republican establishment and the far left Democrats, who both fear a conservative insurgency.

It’s never a good idea to make deals with the devil. It makes you wonder about men such as Butch Otter or Jim Jones — how many of their principles were real, and how many were masks they wore to win elections? Remember when a whole group of supposedly conservative pundits turned against Donald Trump in 2016? At the time they said it was all about principles, but in the following years they ended up allying with the left on nearly every issue they once claimed to hold. That is why we say that Trump’s greatest accomplishment was in enticing so many grifters in our movement to take off their masks.

How many politicians in Idaho are wearing masks? How many Idaho Republicans would love to impeach our own champion of liberty, Raúl Labrador, if they thought they could get away with it?

Conservative voters must pay close attention to the games their elected representatives play, because it reveals both their character and their intentions. With the survival of our state and nation at stake, we don’t have time for politicians who will are interested in little more than their own power.

Note: A descendant of American pioneers, Brian writes about the importance of culture and about current events in the context of history.  His work can be found on Substack, here.