I like to make a point of reading legislative resolutions, largely because they’re one of the few political documents that reveal what a party finds important behind closed doors when they aren’t trying to persuade anyone. Campaigns promise everything to everyone, but resolutions are different because they answer a much more interesting question of what the parties think deserves our attention.
That is the exact question that reentered my mind when recently perusing the Idaho Republican Party’s 2026 resolution establishing a “Traditional American Family Values Month.” I agree families should be celebrated, just not in this symbolic (and frankly exclusionary) way when there are opportunities to support all families through meaningful legislative action. Political parties often reveal themselves through habit. When an idea keeps resurfacing over the course of years, it’s reasonable to conclude that it occupies a meaningful place in the party’s imagination. That realization left me wondering whether the modern Republican Party in Idaho has become less interested in governing and more interested in expressing the personal beliefs of its most extreme members.
It should be noted that there is an important distinction. Government can certainly express values. It recognizes veterans, commemorates historical events, and occasionally reminds us of the ideals a community hopes to embody. Those gestures have their place. Governing, however, requires an entirely different approach. Governing should be about how public policy might improve the lives of the people already here. That distinctionseems increasingly absent from the Republican Party politics pushed by its leaders.
The debate over “traditional family values” resolution adopted at the recent Idaho GOP statewide meeting is a good example. The resolution takes the time to explicitly define an ideal family structure of a “natural female mother, male father, children, and extended relatives” and prioritizes “marriage between man and woman.” What it doesn’t do is ask why so many young families struggle to afford a home, why access to healthcare continues to challenge communities across the state, or why the overall cost of living has skyrocketed. Those are family issues too, but they require more than declarations.
This is what concerns me about the Idaho Republican Party. It has become exceptionally good at communicating its worldview to the point where it eclipses their need to provide an answer when asked how that worldview translates into substantive policy. A commemorative month is an expression. A housing policy for those families is governance.
Political parties should absolutely tell voters what they believe. Democracy depends on it. The problem begins when expression starts to replace action and when describing the society we want replaces the task of actually building it. The question Idaho voters should be asking is no longer what the Republican Party values. It’s whether expressing those values has become a substitute for putting in the work to govern.
Dane Dunker is the Community and Events Chair for the Bonneville County Young Democrats and a volunteer working with the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee.