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Political tolerance is a liberal and “establishment” mandate, not a virtue. The hypocrisy of tolerance is currently displayed at every political level.

President Donald Trump has been a marked man, maligned and accused since winning the Republican Party nomination (Sen. Mike Crapo). Trump is a threat to the “establishment” (senior officials of both the Republican and Democrat party) within the current political system, which is suffering political whiplash. Political tolerance is dismissed locally by Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Shawn Woodward’s “redoubt” characterizations that represent a closed society attitude. Furthermore, why state Sen. Shawn Keough recently stated marginalization and intolerance by identifying constituents as “redoubters” is perplexing.

The common theme is liberal and “establishment.” I’m now inspired to doubt Keough’s compassion, in as much as I’ve often doubted her conservative-liberty voting record. Unrepentant wage-earning voters occupying “redoubt” territory see through Keough’s vote to repeal the grocery tax. Keough knew that Gov. Otter would veto the grocery tax repeal, thus the grocery tax continues to burden her constituents. Keough has not signed onto the court challenge against the governor, being heard on June 15. Does Keough understand that parents of 50 percent (plus or minus) of the LPOSD lunch subsidy students can’t afford the $6 in grocery tax on $100 of groceries. A constituent residing in the “redoubt” with egg-laying chickens, alternating oatmeal ($3) banana ($2) and hand-picked huckleberries with garden omelets ($1), can have weeks of modest breakfasts at their table for $6. The intolerance of “establishment” politics is being identified.

Having tolerated Obama and Keough, tolerating the swamp draining is anticipatory.

DANIEL ROSE

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