This morning around 9 o'clock, I was enjoying another cup of morning coffee and happily writing in my journal when the phone rang.
It's a fine summer day here in Old Mother Idaho. It's calm, sunny and warm again after a recent bout of rainstorms and wind from the leftovers of the Pacific hurricane that swept onshore a little while back.
The Pacific has finally calmed down after the recent hurricane, and there's nothing more pleasant than an Idaho summer when it's summery. The rainstorms in the valley of a few weeks ago were snowstorms up in the mountains; it can snow here any time of year, and has. One storm made for a memorable July 4th, years ago.
Since I never pick up the phone when the display shows a number I don't know, I let the recorder take the message and if it's junk, I erase it.
The robo-call I got this morning wasn't typical junk. I was shocked to the bone when I listened to it.
Read on for the grim details.
I don't think I've ever written down a robo-call in it's entirety ever until this morning.
I didn't write down the whole thing, as the last half of it was nothing but promotion info for the American Freedom Party. And, by then, I was already so mad I was swearing at the robot.
Here's the meat of the message verbatim:
"Jews headed to Idaho. Boise mayor lays out the welcome mat. Idaho's Hispanic population [growing] at it's fastest rate ever.
Wake up, Idaho! Diversity equals white genocide. Europe, America and all white countries are fast becoming overwhelmingly non-white because you are afraid to take a stand!"
The message went on to ask for the support of the American Freedom Party's presidential candidate, a guy by the name of Bob Whitaker, one of the directors on the organization's executive board.
I was going to make a link to their website, but decided against it. If any of you want to get your day ruined because you are all pissed off, I'll let you search out their website for yourself.
Be forewarned- these people are nothing but a bunch of slimy neo-Nazis. The only difference between them and Stormfront is they wear business suits and have college degrees covering their swastika tattoos. They are rabidly racial, and obviously thought they could make some headway here.
Old Mother Idaho is a conservative state for a fact.
But our conservatism has always come, in large part, from our home, as self-reliance and a Libertarian attitude have always played a large part in living here, in this state of natural extremes. Traditionally, both our conservatives and our liberals have been more moderate when it comes to politics than extremists in either direction.
Apparently, the fact that we drove out our little bunch of neo-Nazis 20 years ago, by forcing the Ayran Nations into bankruptcy, has been forgotten by outsiders.
It has also been forgotten that one of our fine native sons later bought the former Butler compound from the bankruptcy court just to have the pleasure of razing the compound buildings and then burning everything to the ground.
...and then turning it into a state park where diversity is celebrated.
It's also been forgotten that the good folks in Coeur d'Alene fought Butler and his little bunch of skinhead alcoholics tooth and fang for years earlier. So hard they stayed out of that town forever after the last street fight.
Idaho is veering further toward conservative extremism, but it's not anywhere close to what the American Freedom Party thinks it is here just yet.
The mainstream Republicans still won overwhelmingly over their extreme challengers in the 2014 primary elections, despite enormous amounts of money spent on the GOP primaries on both sides.
The far right's biggest target, our senior Representative Mike Simpson, won re-election handily over his extremist opponent. While I disagree quite often with Simpson, Mike does consider the common good over partisan politics pretty often in the House, and has always worked hard for his district.
One of his greatest accomplishments, a proposal to create a unique wilderness area that takes all his varied constituents into account- the hikers, land owners, horseback riders, dirt bikers, XC skiiers, and snowmobilers all in equal consideration- is now likely to pass after many years of his bill being tabled.
Simpson held many meetings with them all to hammer out his proposal, and he kept on bringing it to the floor year after year. If it's passed, it could well become the model for other states in the west as a way of protecting their best and most scenic wilderness areas.
Simpson is not exceptional here. We have other Republicans like him, in both our state government and in our national delegation to Washington. I have voted for some of them in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, as these folks are the ones keeping my beloved state on course and being as responsible as is possible.
Here, a Democrat often only has the choice of one Republican or another in most of the state and county offices in the general election.
Idaho has attracted a lot of extremists over the past decade. Many are coming up from California, but they are coming from everywhere as well.
I hate to generalize. Folks are moving here for lots of reasons. Our costs of living are low, as are our housing prices in most of the state, and we are finally getting back on our feet again after the Great Recession.
Our agriculture here is an economic powerhouse these days, as we haven't been hit as hard by the persistent drought as some of our western neighbors, and our low wages have attracted some new businesses; in these times, a low wage is better than no wage, apparently, even though our employment picture could be a lot better.
The Californians seem to be congregating in our panhandle, an area that is essentially cut off from the other 2/3 of the state by impassible mountains.
The reasons for this popularity of that region are rather complicated, but as often as not, the California immigrants are pretty ignorant of the rest of the state, and some are bringing a lot of urban bitterness and a lot of Hispanic anger with them when they come. Big city anger, the kind never much seen before now.
I'm not very worried as yet about these guys.
Our winters have been very mild for quite a while now, but sooner or later, we will get 3 or 4 bad ones in a row, as we always do, and the newcomers will freeze out, just as they always do, and decamp for warmer climes in Arizona, or move back to where they came from. A cold winter here can begin on October 1st and last to the end of May.
I just hope that our essential moderation will prevail. We all get along here because we have to- wilderness, the real deal wilderness where no one else is around for miles in any direction- is only 30 miles away in all directions from all our cities, and there's only one true metro area in the state. Isolation is our norm here, and all the dangers that come with it.
All Idahoans, natives or immigrants, learn they have to stop and help someone in trouble out in our boonies. We don't do it out of pure friendliness or Christian charity; we stop and help because we all know our turn may be next, and we'll need someone to stop to help us out when our turn comes. And it always comes, sooner or later. No one can ever be fully prepared for what may happen either. The odds of seeing any human for a full day are still greater than being caught in a traffic jam in this state.
Even so, once someone bails you out of a big ball o' trouble, you will remember it. It's the social lubricant that is part of what makes this state special. Bailing a stranger out of trouble makes for a new friend, as often as not.
But I just hate it when some presumptive, ignorant bonehead spoils a nice summer morning of mine with a dumbass robocall. If any of you can figure out a way to smite these bastards, I would sure appreciate hearing it.