Five counties in deep-blue Oregon want to make a change. Not a change of leadership, but a change of venue. Specifically, these counties want to leave the Beaver State altogether and join Idaho.
The Washington Times reports that Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur and Sherman counties may become part of Idaho after the next election. The Move Oregon’s Border, or Greater Idaho, initiative managed to qualify for the May 18 special election:
“Oregon is a powder keg because counties that belong in a red-state like Idaho are ruled by Portlanders,” said Mike McCarter, president of Move Oregon’s Border, in a statement.
He cited the impact of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown’s novel coronavirus restrictions; ongoing Antifa unrest in Portland; a state task force’s unsuccessful effort to prioritize “Black, Indigenous and people of color” for novel coronavirus vaccines, and what he described as the state legislature’s bias in favor of Portland over rural communities.
“This state protects Antifa arsonists, not normal Oregonians, it prioritizes one race above another for vaccines and program money and in the school curriculum, and it prioritizes Willamette Valley above rural Oregon,” McCarter says.
Abandoning Oregon may be the right move. The Left hates conservatives, and we find ourselves facing discrimination in blue states. Right now, people in these Red counties are held hostage, forced to deal with being treated like second-class citizens. They wouldn’t be in Idaho, where support for the GOP is much higher.
It’s unclear if this effort to expand Idaho’s border at the expense of Oregon will be successful, but it has the potential to change both states — and the national political landscape — for good. We’ll be eagerly watching the results of this. If it can happen successfully in Oregon, why not New York? California? The possibilities are endless.
