The more I speak with the average Idaho Falls voter, the more I find we have in common. We may not agree on every issue, but I find that, more often than not, there are commonalities in our ways of thinking. That being said, what tends to perplex me at times is when a member of our community and I agree on many issues, and they proceed to tell me that they are either unaffiliated or registered as a Republican. I often curiously ask why that is the case. The answer is almost always the same in one form or another. The answer boils down to the fact that they don’t believe Idaho can become more progressive. In their minds, it is either a lost cause, or they vote Republican so that they can vote for the moderate, making their vote “actually matter.”
Now, I don’t mean to offend by recounting my experience. In fact, I find the difference in approach interesting. I can even, at some level, understand where this mentality comes from. It is no secret that the Democratic Party in Idaho isn’t the largest in the state. It also isn’t a secret that much of the party’s focus is on the Treasure Valley. What surprises me, however, is how many people, rather than just disengaging altogether, will try an approach I find hard to see as anything beyond compromising.
In my line of work outside of politics, we focus on sales. Within sales, there is the concept of negotiations. In negotiations, you have different strategies; two of those strategies are compromise and collaboration. Those are the two I tend to focus on and understand better. In my way of thinking, I prioritize collaboration over compromise. Collaboration allows both parties to walk away feeling as though they won, and that is because they both did.
Relating this back to politics: as a voter, ask yourself this question when looking at a candidate—is my vote for this candidate a collaboration or a compromise? As I begin to think that way, I find fewer reasons to vote for a moderate Republican who tends to vote with their party regardless of how terrible the legislation is, and I find myself longing for a candidate I can collaborate with, even if I don’t agree with them entirely. The message is: if you were to vote for this individual, do you feel like you—the voter—walked away from the polling station with as much of a win as the candidate did?
Chance Marshall is a political organizer and president of the Bonneville County Young Democrats, where he chartered the chapter to amplify youth voices in Idaho politics. A former conservative turned progressive after a transformative personal journey, he was raised across the Rural South and Urban West.