High-minded disdain for one’s own state political party might be one of the few things these days that unites Nevada’s Democratic and Republican ruling classes. Their state parties are run by ineffective ideologues who hinder more than help those partisans who actually run the state. Or so the theory goes. 

State parties (and their leaders) are a long way from perfect. They take extreme positions at times, and add fuel to the worst of our political fires. Normies can be wacky too, fighting like mad for relatively thankless jobs. Where else but state party meetings can ANTIFA warriors and QAnon Shaman blend in? But to dismiss the value of and need for state parties would be a mistake. They can and should play key roles in the electoral process, regardless of how intolerable they may seem to those living in political penthouses. 

I doubt that Nevada’s official Republican and Democratic parties could see each other on an ideological map. Belief-wise, they have about as much in common as Olympic curling and surfing. But they do serve similar purposes and share certain features. There are also tens of thousands of Nevadans who belong to or serve in minor state parties. Their sacrifices are even greater as they labor without any real hope of electoral success. For the purposes of this piece, however, I am focused on the two major state parties. 

The Nevada Republican Party is largely run by the most fervently conservative elements of the party. They are not afraid to chastise their own electeds and go to war with their own members. No RINOS allowed. For them, the party must be more than just a slightly preferable option to the Democratic alternative. The lesser of two evils is still evil. If they are going to lose general elections, it will be on their terms, with their message, and with absolute fidelity to their champions. They have no plans to go gently into the night. 

For many years, the Nevada Republican Party was defined by its anti-establishment posture. More moderate, less dogmatic candidates and officials often kept their distance. But with the nomination and election of state-party favorite President Donald Trump, and the widespread support the former president still carries among the ranks of most Nevada Republicans, the anti-establishment became the establishment almost overnight. The Nevada Republican Party is on the outside no longer. Like it or not, it is a pretty big deal when Michael McDonald, the chair of a minority party in a relatively small state, spends time with the president on Air Force One and in the Oval Office. 

As for Nevada Democrats, they seem to be watching a similar show but in reverse. The Nevada Democratic Party had been a model of establishment power and efficiency for decades. Through the direction of former U.S Sen. Harry Reid and his team (one of the nation's very best), Nevada Democrats had a singular focus: electing Democrats up and down the ballot. To the end, they ran the broad party apparatus with a firm grip, avoiding many of the public divisions (and primary fights) that plagued Republicans. To be sure, Nevada’s Democrats did not abandon policy goals and ideological commitments. But they seemed to filter even those fights through the lens of political necessity. You can’t make policy if you don’t win elections. Winning came first. 

This year, though, the local Democratic establishment appeared to finally lose control. Leftistish supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders swept all but one seat in the state party elections. Taking its cues from anti-establishment insurgent political figures such as the “Squad” in Washington, D.C., the Nevada Democratic Party is now far more ideologically driven, far more radical, and far less willing to go along to get along. And like their Nevada Republican opposites, they are far more likely to challenge their own officials and members to toe a party line the state party sets. Indeed, one of their supporters has already announced a primary challenge to sitting Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus. 

Nevada Democrats seem to have broken from their national compatriots at the same time that Nevada Republicans merged with theirs. But to view the two parties simply in reference to their positions vis-a-vis their national compatriots misses the key fact that both parties increasingly look like each other. They are no longer vehicles for the powerful and entrenched, but for the yearnings of their respective bases who will be silent no more. The people rule; the unruly rabble-rousers now lead. They actually believe what they say, and in what their parties are supposed to stand for. It is not enough that the right team wins; the right ideas must win too.

Fanaticism is easy to mock, especially when the return on the effort seems so small compared to the effort itself. And fanatics are easier to loathe. State parties are run by selfish, inconsiderate, ideologues, who do not understand what it takes to win, the principled party prince might say. To the critic, state party leaders’ thoughts are disordered; their aims unrealistic; their gatherings chaotic. Anyone willing to give so much unrequited love and uncompensated time is not worth listening to anyway. They would be sad, if they were not so irrelevant.

But state parties are neither sad nor irrelevant. They serve as political lightning rods and safety valves, harnessing and redirecting the hottest political energies into more productive (or, at least, less destructive) ends. They also run point for fermenting political movements. The rise of Donald Trump, for instance, should not have surprised anyone paying attention to the Nevada Republican Party since at least 2008. And the relative Democratic Socialist takeover of the Nevada Democratic Party likely presages the thinking of future Democratic candidates. 

Regardless of what you may think of them or the directions they have taken their movements, state parties have deep historical roots in American Republican Democracy. We live in an age when the disgruntled and frustrated take brickbats to the institutions that they cannot just ignore. In the last year and a half, we have seen all sorts of unchanneled (and competing) civil outrage spill out into city streets and the Halls of Congress, bringing death and destruction in its wake.  Toppling power centers seems preferable to controlling them. 

State party leaders went another way. They fought for control of their institutions, using hard work, perseverance, and democracy. They usually worked within established rules and systems. Of course, they also used court orders, criminal complaints, and police as well. But they almost never resorted to violence, or disrupted any non-participant’s life or livelihood. From the outside, the intensity of these intraparty fights might ring odd, but as the late Christipher Hitchens said about some of Sigmund Freud’s findings “the most vicious and irreconcilable quarrels often arise between peoples who are to most outward appearances nearly identical.”

Every election since I turned 18 has been billed as the most important of our lifetimes, with the future of the world and America seemingly in the balance. And yet, only so many partisans are willing to really act like that is really true. Truth be told, I prefer it that way. Apocalyptic preaching inspires apocalyptic behavior, where middle-of-the-road people like me are judged to be uselessly lukewarm. But I cannot help but wonder if things would be worse without organizations like state parties. There, the true believers can take the vows and don the robes of their partisan priesthood of choice. The rest of us can freely exercise our electoral needs whenever our political spirits so move.  

We may disagree strongly with our state parties. We may even rationally fear their missions. But the people themselves are rarely evil. They are concerned Americans, whose actions actually match their convictions. For good or ill, our system needs them. They may or may not deserve our support; but they almost certainly do not deserve our scorn. 

Daniel H. Stewart is a fifth-generation Nevadan and a partner with Hutchison & Steffen. He was Gov. Brian Sandoval’s general counsel and has represented various GOP elected officials and groups.