IN WESTERN politics, the idea of young people being at the forefront, the trendsetters of opposition to neo-authoritarianism, is an increasingly real proposition. As formerly leftist parties in Britain and the EU sink back into centrist pragmatism, young activists are gaining more and more traction.  

Democracy is faltering in the US due to conspiracy theorists, deranged Donald Trump supporters and militia groups. One state is experiencing this on a truly explicit scale — Idaho.  

Idaho has never been the most liberal state on the US map. In every presidential election since 1968, it has voted for the Republican candidate by a wide margin. Yet, what many are experiencing within the state now is nothing short of an insurgency.  

“It is indicative of a failure to understand the danger that extremism poses to our community,” notes Shiva Rajbhandari. In early September, Rajbhandari, an 18-year-old student activist, won a school board election in the state capital, Boise.  

His opponent was Steve Schmidt, a moderate Republican who had won the support of the Idaho Liberty Dogs, a far-right militia group. Throughout the campaign, Schmidt had repeatedly refused to distance himself the militant conservative group’s endorsement.  

Speaking of this outright refusal to rebuff a group linked to white nationalism, Rajbhandari agues that “mainstream conservatives’ unwillingness to do this is the real threat to democratic institutions around the world.”

This was not the first time he had had a political run-in with the invigorated fascist organisations in Idaho. 

Rajbhandari was first introduced to politics by climate activism. In a state and nation where climate change is increasingly becoming a taboo topic in schools, owing in part to the consistent denial and negationism of its ruling parties, Rajbhandari found a political home in organising local Extinction Rebellion groups. 

It was at a climate protest where Rajbhandari first encountered the Liberty Dogs: “They came to our climate rallies with AR-15s [semi-automatic rifles].” Then, before long, they were organising and intimidating within local education as well. “They’ve tried to organise armed protests at my school, they’ve intimidated librarians, and they’ve taken over school boards in nearby towns,” Rajbhandari explains.  

Commanding the low-level insurgency across the state is a shady, ambiguously funded organisation known as the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF).

Aligned to the beliefs of the Republican Party’s extremist wing, they believe in the complete stripping of welfare, restrictions on LGBT+ rights and abortion, alongside the promotion of various conspiracy theories, spanning from the non-existence of Covid-19 to Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. 

Wrapping this up in the flag of a mutant form of libertarianism, the IFF has poured thousands of dollars into Republican primaries for the state house and Senate, removing even strong conservatives in favour of conspiracy theorists and militiamen.  

“Their stated goal is to abolish public education,” Rajbhandari explains. On this basis, the IFF present a clear threat: taking their ultraconservative indoctrination straight into the minds of the next generation of Idahoans, wiping progressive education away and replacing it with private schools tailored to the bashing of “woke culture” and the final remaining sinews of social democracy itself.  

This dynamic is not just contained in Idaho. It is spreading through the US’s conservative heartlands and into the very fabric of democracy itself. The Capitol Hill riot in January 2021 brought the far right into coalescence from all corners of the country — state representatives, leaders of militia groups like the Oath Keepers, violent street organisations like the Proud Boys and even the then-president himself, all participated.

Individuals like Rajbhandari are indicative of the resistance to far-right influence in Idaho. They are youth activists, willing to show the powerful alternatives and radicalism that dominant Republican lawmakers and the liberal establishment are failing to do. His victory, alongside the success of other progressives in the Boise school board elections, has paved the way for a fightback in Idaho against radical Republicans.  

Rajbhandari finishes his response with a simple proposition: “Representation matters. Young people belong in all places where decisions are being made, but especially... in education.”