Don't let the liberals destroy North Idaho

One of my greatest joys is my yearly visit to Sandpoint. I appreciate northern Idaho for its raw beauty, history and splendid inhabitants.

I recently had the fortune to meet a local couple who own a small business in Sandpoint. During the conversation, they shared that there are some California liberal transplants who are agitating for change. Let me share a warning: you must stop them at any cost.

I have lived in Southern California my whole life and the California of my youth is dead, precisely because of these type of people. Jerry Brown’s election in 1974 commenced the decline and his reelection will finish the job. We are the most heavily taxed, regulated and controlled state in the nation; we’re the ninth largest economy in the world, yet are $100s of billions in arrears.

Liberal ascendency always starts with a benign proposition: “You want safe streets, don’t you?” “You want clean air, don’t you?” – and then the control begins and never ends. Once liberals start they cannot stop, they are compelled to destroy freedom and bring about collectivism wherever they go. The liberals have destroyed California as sure as they will Idaho, if you give them the chance; please stop them before they take root.

MICHAEL HOSKINSON

Huntington Beach, Calif.