“The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a 20 percent traitor.” — Ronald Reagan
What does it mean to affiliate? We affiliate every day in some capacity: in churches, in schools, in sports teams, in professional and fraternal associations. Some may use the words “associate,” “identify,” and “affiliate” interchangeably. Identity is a big deal in the postmodern world. Many wear their identity in their email signatures, on name badges, and on ballots.
What does it mean to affiliate? Our affiliations are those people and organizations that share common bonds and work toward common goals. We affiliate with a church because we agree on doctrine or theology. We affiliate with a non-profit because we share a vision for good, and with political organizations and platforms because we share policy solutions.
Affiliating with a party’s platform is not remotely controversial. Party platforms arose in the 1830s in the infancy of the United States. At a time when mass media was not a thing, party platforms allowed voters to identify with ideas rather than with unseen and distant individuals.
In 2018, tasked with weeding out political candidates who affiliate with the Republican Party but otherwise work against its common interest, the Idaho Republican Party reinstituted the Integrity in Affiliation pledge. First instituted in 2011, this pledge tasks the Chair of the Idaho GOP with sending a brief survey to every Republican candidate for Federal, State, or Legislative office and asks for their voluntary affirmation of the main tenets of the US Constitution, the Idaho Constitution, and the Idaho Republican Party Platform. Candidates are given the opportunity to identify any exceptions they may take, and many do. The objective is that, at a minimum, candidates should read and understand their responsibilities to represent their voters and then commit to follow through.
The 2026 Idaho Republican Party Integrity in Affiliation pledge has been published, and you can view it and the candidates’ exceptions at https://idgop.org/integrity26/. Candidates from US Senator Jim Risch, Governor Brad Little, Lt. Governor Scott Bedke, Secretary of State Phil McGrane, Superintendent of Schools Debbie Critchfield, seventy-five percent of the Republican legislature, and nearly one-hundred percent of candidates for the Republican Primary signed the Integrity in Affiliation pledge. The question now for voters is who did not, and why?
When discussing conservative politics, you’ll often hear Ronald Reagan’s quote that Republican is an 80/20 label. We most often agree on 80% of issues and disagree on the remaining 20%. The twenty percent is typically the exception you’ll find noted in the survey responses above. What then can a Republican voter expect from their elected representatives? Can they expect at least 80% alignment with party values and policy objectives?
If you’re a voter in East Idaho, the answer to your question is, NOTHING. You can’t expect your elected representatives to agree with you eighty percent of the time, because that’s what they’re telling you. While the vast majority of elected Republicans and candidates in Idaho take no issue with affiliating with the Idaho Republican Party Platform, a handful of East Idaho Republicans refuse. That’s not a moral position. It’s not a blood oath that binds your vote to a set of beliefs. Nobody wants you to change your vote to align with a party platform. Voters ask that you self-identify your agreement with the platform, so that if you don’t, we can find someone who does.
The problem with politicians who identify one way for electoral benefit and vote another way is the resulting managed decline of the nation. Despite exceptionally politically popular ideas like voter ID, which enjoy polling support from upwards of 84% of Americans, politicians refuse to make it a priority. The American people are left to believe that making voter ID a priority would result in those politicians’ removal from office.
Now the question arises, how then should Republican voters respond when “Republican” politicians electively decline to associate with their voters? The voters should acknowledge their voluntary disaffiliation and then part ways. I’m looking at you, East Idaho.
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
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