As Democrats, we hear this a lot: “We need to be more moderate. Meet people in the middle. Don’t scare off the Republicans who might be willing to vote for a Democrat.”
I understand the instinct. Idaho is a tough state for Democrats, and there’s a temptation to soften edges, hedge positions, and split every difference. After years of working in this state’s communities, I’ve learned moderation isn’t a strategy. Too often, it’s an excuse.
When a family in Twin Falls can’t afford insulin, they don’t need a carefully calibrated response. They need Medicare for All. When a young couple in Pocatello is priced out of every home, they don’t need a task force studying the housing market. They need homes people can afford. When a dairy worker in Jerome is earning $9 an hour, they don’t need a politician who’ll “explore options around wage policy.” They need a living wage, $15 to $17 an hour, indexed to reality, not political convenience.
These aren’t radical ideas. They’re popular. Poll after poll, including in red states, shows majority support for universal healthcare, affordable housing, and wages that keep pace with the cost of living. Voters want these things. The issue is that too many politicians have decided that wanting them is impolite.
Centrism sounds nice in theory, but in practice it often amounts not to a principled middle ground, but a permission structure for inaction. It lets politicians claim they care about healthcare while voting against any concrete plan to fix it. They decry the housing crisis while doing nothing to meaningfully change a family’s circumstances. Inthe most straightforward sense, it’s a way of doing nothing while looking responsible.
We have been electing “moderates” and the “lesser of two evils” in Idaho for years. What’s the record of moderation there? What did all that careful, measured, don’t-rock-the-boat governance actually deliver for working Idaho families? Nothing.
I’m not interested in finding a comfortable position between helping people and not helping people. I don’t think Idahoans are either.
What I’ve found meeting people across this state is that voters aren’t looking for less ambition. They’re looking for authenticity. They want to know you mean what you say and will fight for it. They’re tired of politicians who speak in careful half-measures, vote against what they promised, and then wonder why nobody shows up to vote.
The path forward for Idaho is clarity. Clear about the problems. Clear about the solutions. Clear about who you’re working for.
If working for the Idaho family rationing their medication, the young couple sleeping in their car because rent is out of reach or the farmer who feeds this country is too progressive for some people’s tastes, we, as Democrats, need to learn to live with that.
Idaho deserves better than the “strategy” moderates have had us following for the last 15 years. And it’s time we started acting like it.
David Roth is a nonprofit and marketing consultant, and a member of the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee.