No matter what you think about Idaho and it's politics, you are probably wrong unless you have lived here for a while.
I've been reading Kos for years, and registered years ago. I write a lot to Idaho forums, but this is my first shot on the Big Orange. To tell the truth, I was intimidated for a long time to make a post, as this joint is full of brilliant thinkers and writers. I'm just an old Idaho cowboy gone to seed, and I'm neither!
But McJoan is a continuing inspiration to me, so I finally decided to jump on the horse. I hope I'll avoid jumping the shark.
Idaho is never what outsiders believe it to be. It is the smallest Intermountain state, and was the last of the Intermountain states to be settled. The Idaho territory consists of what all the surrounding territories didn't want.
It is cut in half by the mountains that stopped Lewis and Clark cold, and has mostly high desert and steppes in most of the southern half, where I live. The country is broken up by large lava flows here, and the rest closely resembles Mongolia.
The northern half of the state is entirely different terrain that is full of forests, narrow canyons, and mineral riches. The only thing that is shared by both halves is cold winters and lots of mountains. If Idaho was ironed flat, it would be bigger than Texas.
Idaho has it's desolate places, but driving the Interstate often gives folks the wrong perceptions- there are very few places that are flat enough to build a high speed highway on, and those are often the most desolate spots. The truth is 40 miles from anywhere is some jaw-dropping beautiful place, full of clear air and water.
The people who passed through and decided to stay have always been highly independent, stubborn, and self reliant. They are conservative because, though Idaho has an incredible wealth of riches in soil quality, precious and valuable minerals, trees and water, all of it is difficult to extract, and Idaho's terrain and weather extremes make it hard to count on anything being predictable for very long.
Idaho's people are very diverse. The southern end is highly populated by Mormons, as it is close to Utah and Salt Lake City. But the over-riding factor all Idahoans share is isolation. We have only one large city- Boise. All the rest of our larger communities are no larger than around 50,000 people, with Coeur D'Alene being the only exception with about 100,000. Most of Coeur D'Alene's population is recent, as it's a particularly beautiful place, and is attracting folks who would have moved to Montana or Colorado in earlier times.
S. Central Idaho has a large Basque population, North Idaho was populated by Italian, German and Cornish miners. Idaho's mines attracted many former Confederates after the Civil War, and we have towns name Dixie, Atlanta, as the result.
All of this history has made Idaho politics what they are. For most of it's existence as a state, Idaho has been split between Democrats and Republicans, but both parties share Idaho's ingrained independent and conservative ways. We have always veered back and forth to extremes occasionally as well. We have extreme liberals in our past just as much as extreme conservatives, and we have had both at the same time as well. The wing nuts of all stripes take seed here, but seldom flourish for long.
Our politics tend to reflect our shared deep love for Old Mother Idaho. She blesses us and scourges us, smiles at us and bites us in turn. This makes living here always uncertain in all things, but once Idaho is in a person's blood, it is there forever.