Former Kalispell Mayor Tammi Fisher and Montana House Majority Leader Keith Regier (Daily Inter Lake letters, Sept. 10 and 13) have ignited a battle over conservative ideology. Their battle is part of the ideological war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. The outcome of this war will affect your future.

Tammi is correct. I will tell you why.

First, you must understand the four faces in the Republican Party. (For more details, see edberry.com).

Keith represents the Very Conservative Evangelicals (VCEs). They are 20 percent of the Republican Party. Ten percent of all voters. They dominate and are Montana’s Tea Party. VCEs are the only face that does not regularly support the Republican nominee.

U.S. Sen. Tester, Gov. Bullock, and other Democrats owe their elections to VCEs who voted Libertarian rather than Republican. It does not matter to VCEs that their Libertarian votes empowered Tester to push Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, and the Iran deal on America.

True to form, VCEs Regier and Matt Rosendale did not support Ryan Zinke for Congress after Republican voters nominated him.

Tammi represents the three Republican faces that make up the 80 percent. They regularly support the Republican nominees. They elected Ryan Zinke to Congress.

The problem is VCEs are more politically active than other Republicans. Their 20 percent elected 80 percent of Montana’s 2015 House. VCEs control almost half of Montana’s Republican Central Committees. The Flathead Central Committee is one. Sugar daddies plow money through these central committees to help elect more VCEs.

Now VCEs think they represent the whole Republican Party. They want to wag the Republican dog. The VCEs’ choice for Montana GOP chairman, Dan Happel, made this very clear.

They want to isolate Republicans who are not like them. They are like a church. They don’t accept “sinners”  — like Republicans who properly vote the same as Democrats on non-partisan bills.

Keith Regier’s VCEs think every bill is partisan. They think Republicans should always vote opposite of the Democrats. They think if Democrats want paved highways then, by golly, all Republicans should vote for gravel highways.

Keith claims this is about “honesty in representing the ideology of the party platform as defined by the group at large.”

VCEs have their TAB scores and Legistats scores. They think their near 100 percent on these scores makes them better Republicans than those with lower scores. In fact, these scores only prove their hypothesis about who is a good Republican is wrong.

Keith thinks because VCEs elected 80 percent of the 2015 Montana House that all Republicans should always vote with the VCEs. He thinks the majority implies truth. It does not. We have known since Aristotle that Keith’s belief is wrong.

The Salish and Kootenai Wwater compact and the tribal purchase of the Salish Kootenai Dam are part of this ideological war. The compact was a non-partisan bill. But the VCEs made it partisan when they opposed it.

VCEs opposed the compact before they reviewed it. In fact, they never reviewed it. They believe the compact is a federal government conspiracy to steal their water and land. Part of Agenda 21. They also believe “chemtrails” are a government conspiracy to poison them. With their irrational minds already made up, they invented arguments to oppose the compact.

To understand the compact, I spent some 200 hours to review it. I read the arguments on both sides. Only then did I understand that Montana needs the compact. Opponents made no valid arguments. Proponents rebutted all opponents’ claims. No opponent ever countered a proponent rebuttal. When you don’t counter a rebuttal it means you agree with the rebuttal.

Compact attorneys rebutted Regier’s claims against the compact. But Rep. Regier never acknowledged their rebuttals. Finally, Regier opposed the compact because, he said, a WHEREAS paragraph was wrong.

Neither Keith Regier nor any compact opponent addressed the compact’s key question: Will Montana be better served with or without the compact?

I testified in support of the compact. When I said, “The compact is an organized solution to a complex problem,” Rep. Regier almost fell out of his chair. His actions show he does not understand the compact, or a solution to a problem, or what is best for Montana.

The problem is Keith’s VCEs almost stopped the compact.

Had Keith’s VCEs prevailed under his House leadership, Montana would have lost the compact… forever. And forced Montanans to spend a whole generation in costly futile legal battles against the U.S. government.

But now, with the compact passed, VCEs can stop the compact if their claims are valid. But so far, they have lost every legal case they have filed.

All Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans have a stake in the next election. We will always have partisan ideological differences. We can live with that. We cannot live with the destruction VCEs will cause if they remain the majority of Montana’s Republican legislature.

We 80 percent of Republican voters must reverse the VCEs’ control of Montana. We must find worthy opponents to VCE legislators and central committees. Then we must remove VCEs from representing Montana in the next election, just like they want to remove us.

By their votes we shall know them.

Berry is a resident of Bigfork.