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Posts published in July 2022

Politics as war

schmidt

I remember Senator Bart Davis’ comment to the Idaho Senate, but more I remember my naive reaction to it. I can’t remember the context or his exact words, but it was something like “Politics is war, without the bombs and brutality. Politics is done so we don’t have to have war or kill each other.” I apologize for misquoting.

My reaction was one of revulsion, but I respected the man, so I did some pondering and research. It turns out the sentiment was not unique to him. From the 19th century Prussian General Clausewitz to the 20th century Frenchman Foucault, other statesman and philosophers have shared the view.

So, with this blending of images and actions (war as politics, or politics as war) in mind, how are we to look at the state of war (politics) in Idaho right now after the Idaho State Republican Party convention has concluded?

Didn’t you notice? It was last weekend. I would encourage you to read up on the news.
But ignorance of this convention might explain some things. Idaho, indeed, our country tends to limit our awareness of politics. Just like the folks in Ukraine go about their business of growing crops or feeding their families as Russian missiles rain down on their kindergartens, all people tend to focus on their immediate needs. Like what to watch on Netflix tonight.

May I remind you, when Governor Otter was in the Capitol, Idahoans were ten times more likely to Google the aquatic mammal than Butch. We don’t always have a lot of political awareness when there’s wood to get and fish to catch.

So, should we consider the convention a cabal of the generals waging a war for the hearts and minds of Idahoans? Or was it a freak show echo chamber where the crazies could scream their paranoid fantasies and not expect much blow back?

Unfortunately, I believe the answer is both of the above.

I have evidence for my conclusion. For a long time, the Idaho Republican Party has had in their platform a call to return to the gold and silver standard, despite the economic inanity of such a policy. It hasn’t hurt their numbers in the polls a bit. Add in their call to repeal the direct election of US Senators, the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. This year they added a call to repeal the 16th Amendment, which authorized Congress’ ability to tax income. Now THAT would make for smaller government.

Please also note Idaho Republicans call for making laws to codify abortion as capital murder, with no exceptions for the mother’s health. So, a woman who will die from an ectopic pregnancy could not get care in this state. And mothers with nonviable fetuses must carry them full term. Remember, there is no statute of limitations on capital crimes, so such a classification would make accessories of women who had abortions 40 years ago. Really? This is how you want to win this war?

But just like Russians can bomb apartments and schools in one town of Ukraine, but the next town over maintains their street markets for shoppers and vendors, sometimes we don’t notice the real atrocities, or even the proposed ones.

Party politics can be very powerful, darn them. Just remember 1930’s Germany.

I think this blending of politics and war was not lost on the newly elected Chairman of the Idaho Republican. Dorothy Moon, in her acceptance speech said, “Democrats are coming for us full force, our barriers are up, our guns are loaded and ready to keep this state free.”

Her slate of radical Republicans won all the seats in the party, and she got elected to man the helm. Most of the radical planks got added to the platform. Now, if Idahoans are paying attention, the battle for their hearts and minds begins.

Or not. Ukrainians denied Russians were on their borders until the bombs began to rain down.
 

Why I do this

malloy

Happy birthday … to me.

Eighteen years ago, I didn’t think I’d make it this far – especially after a cardiologist told me that I was a candidate for “dropping” at any time. But here I am, 72 years old and feeling like a million dollars. Make that a billion dollars, with inflation.

And I can say that life has never been better. I have plenty of time to do things I enjoy – such as travel, golf, bowling and writing these commentaries. I have a wife of 32 years (Vicki) who loves me and thinks it’s a good idea for keeping the wheels of my brain turning. She forgives me, even when I forget to take out the garbage.

People ask me why I continue to do this. I don’t work for a news organization, or get paid. And with politics the way it is, people are skeptical about almost anything that appears on the editorial page. I’ve been called everything from a flaming liberal to a right-wing wacko.

The truth is that I can’t identify with either political party. I don’t endorse Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, nor do I embrace the Democratic Party’s efforts to turn the United States into a socialist republic. Both ends of the scale are guided by hatred and there is no middle ground. It’s no wonder that Republicans and Democrats do such a horrible job of governing effectively when they have control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

So, why do I continue writing about politics – and essentially banging my head against the wall? Largely, it’s out of fear of what might happen if I didn’t write.

There’s a process that goes with this little operation. It starts with coming up with ideas, both for the short-term and weeks ahead. Then it’s finding sources to help tell the story. I generally don’t write straight opinion pieces; for one thing, I’m not nearly smart enough or talented enough to bowl over readers with “my view” every week. So, I rely on sources – such as members of Congress or candidates running for public offices – to tell their sides of various issues.

The writing part is not as easy as one might think. I generally compose a “rough draft,” which basically is putting down whatever comes to mind. Then I let it simmer for a day or two before getting back to it. I may write, and rewrite, a couple more times before sending it off to the best editor I’ve ever had – my big sister, Marian. She is a magnet for catching silly little mistakes, such as typos and punctuation errors. Many years ago, Marian typed and edited theses and dissertations for graduate students at Washington State University, so reading my columns is light work for her.

And she takes pride in bailing out her “little” brother and keeping him from looking like a world-class fool. She’s the greatest editor, and best big sister, in the world. Well … tied for best with my other big sister, Dorothy.

So, when I contemplate hanging it up, I wonder what would happen if I didn’t challenge myself and go through this process. Vicki probably wouldn’t like so much having me sitting around the house all day watching old-time TV westerns (when I’m not playing golf or bowling). Beyond that, what I’m doing is fun as well as challenging.

I’ve had conversations with a few of my 70-something friends about the importance of brain exercise. We’ve shared stories about not being as sharp as we once were, or bouts of forgetfulness. But readers, and trusted editors, tell me I have not lost anything on the writing end – and I don’t think those are empty words to make an old guy feel better.

Editors throughout the state run my columns every week and I continue to receive feedback – positive and negative.

Sooooo … why pack it in now? Life is better than ever, and I feel there is plenty more for me to offer.

The best thing about what I do is that I “work” under my own terms. I can quit at any time, but can’t be fired. It’s one more thing that makes life incredibly good.

ctmalloy@outlook. Chuck Malloy is a long-time Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com
 

A broader use for the hotline

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Where do hate crimes come from? From mass shootings to those of smaller scope, more understanding of the dynamics behind them can be a critical element to coping with them.

A new tool launched by the Oregon legislature three years ago may help provide someof that insight - if it is put to its most effective use.

The 2019 Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 577, which restructured how the state approaches the crimes, renaming the crime of “intimidation” as a “bias crime.” The bill analysis said it “proposes to shift the focus toward the nature of the harm and use and gthreat of violence in addition to the motives behind the crime of violence.”

More concretely, it required the state Department of Justice to set up the Bias Response Hotline, a staffed place in which “any victim of a bias or a hate incident can call … to report an incident, connect with trained staff and receive a referral to law enforcement, if appropriate.” The hotline now is in its third year.

The law also required an annual report from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission reviewing bias (or hate) crimes, drawing on information from various local, state and federal sources and also from the hotline. The third annual report was released in late June.

It provided useful information. It could be more useful.

There’s plenty of data. A summary said “Reports to the Hotline increased by 53% between 2020 and 2021, from 1,101 to 1,683. Bias crimes accounted for 28% of reports in both years. Anti-Asian incidents increased by almost 200% overall, and anti-Asian bias crimes increased by 300%. Bias incidents in schools increased by 300% in this period, from 36 to 157 reports. There was also a 300% increase in bias incidents targeting Hotline advocates between 2020 and 2021, which has continued into 2022.”

On the surface, this suggests hate crimes have been growing rapidly in the last couple of years, which is possible. The numbers also could reflect that the case pipeline from law enforcement and other sources through to the hotline is getting better, not necessarily that the number of crimes is increasing. But it may also suggest the efficacy of the hotline may be growing for understanding the dynamic of what is happening and why.

The hotline information has some other limitations. People who call in are self-selecting, among people who happen to know about the service or are specially motivated to call.

The information isn’t immediately cross-checked unless it is referred to law enforcement or another entity. The hotline’s website advises, “The advocate will listen, and you can share as much or as little information about the bias you experienced or witnessed; it’s your choice. You do not have to share information like your name, your location, or your protected class information, but the advocate may ask you if it helps us respond better to you on the hotline or to connect you with some potential resources and/or support options in your community.”

The hotline’s formal stance toward callers is to believe them - useful from the standpoint of providing assistance and encouragement to victims, though maybe less so as a matter of dispassionate analysis.

The hotline may be highly useful in another way: Understanding the dynamics of what is happening, and how, in the cases of hate crime incidents.

This year’s annual report also, for example, included this:

“Unlike typical violent crimes that tend to be committed by solitary defendants, bias crimes are commonly perpetrated by multiple defendants – who are unlikely to engage in similar acts in a solitary setting where diffusion of responsibility and social acceptance of their aggressive behavior is not possible – or by a solitary defendant in a situation where they believe others support their beliefs. Rather than being acts perpetrated by individuals due to a disdain of differences, bias acts are influenced by defendants’ real and perceived access to resources in that specific situation, the location of the event, the presence of real and perceived sympathetic witnesses/collaborators to reduce stigma of the act and a target who is vulnerable in that situation. Accordingly, vulnerability is situational and victimization patterns will change as groups’ relative access to social, political and economic resources shifts.”

That kind of information - and that paragraph wasn’t all the report contained - provides a lever into understanding how these crimes occur, and maybe suggest ways of heading them off. Some of this is new and not inherently obvious, could - if developed more expansively and in detail - provide the kind of insight that would help pushing back against hate crimes.
 

Rot

rainey

Whatever you’re doing, STOP!

O.K., now, SIT DOWN. Sit in a comfortable position in your most comfortable chair. Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Take a moment - then read on.

“Since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float
over to China’s bad air. So, when China gets our good
air, their bad air got to move. So, it moves over to our
good air space. Then - now we got to clean it backup.”

No, those words are not from a child trying to explain climate change to a patient teacher. No, those words are not from a 4-year-old talking to a patient parent. No. Those ARE the words of a U.S. Senate candidate at a recent Georgia Republican event.

Herschel Walker.

The former Heisman winner is the GOP candidate running against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. Georgia Republicans have placed their bets on Walker. He’s their “horse” in the Senate race.

In the first few months, pollsters had Walker over Warnock by a point or two. Almost dead-even. Then, as Walker - who refused to debate Warnock - made some campaign appearances, the numbers began to shift. For Walker, the shift was down. Most recent Quinnipiac University sampling has it 54%-44% Warnock.

In addition to the above cited example of Walker’s “grasp” of major issues, he’s lied about quite a few things. Like a non-existent career in law enforcement, being CEO of a large company and his at-first denial of having three kids by three women he wasn’t married to. Being a Georgia resident which he isn’t and wasn’t. And much more.

Walker is already being called the male version of Marjorie Taylor-Greene who, by the way, is really from Georgia. And, who appears to be headed to re-election. Whether Walker will join her along the banks of the Potomac is still up for grabs.

Republican nutballs are running things in Georgia. Their current choices of “candidates” for high office confirm that.

But, don’t laugh. The same is true for several states. Including our very own Idaho. The only real difference in Idaho is, once in office, always in office. If you’re a Republican. Right, Jim? Right, Mike and Mike? Makes less work for the state’s GOP committee chiefs who come and go.

Ohio, Florida, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin also are fielding candidates who’d be hard-pressed to explain the duties of the offices they’re seeking. In Arkansas, odds are truth-challenged Sarah Huckabee-Sanders appears to be on track to be the state’s next Governor. Now, there’s a scary thought. But, sadly, all too true.

Don’t look for things to change as long as the state committees are filled with Trump-loving folks. The Republican Party’s acceptance of him is poisoning the system from the inside out.

Look no further than the banishment to the Republican wastelands of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. They’re being disowned for simply showing the political character traits of honesty, truth and just plain guts that used to be hallmarks of the GOP. Think John McCain. Margaret Chase Smith. Bob Dole. Mark Hatfield.

The halcyon days of the Republican Party are way, way in the past. As long as the GOP is Trump-infested, those days won’t return. Until they do, you’ll see more Walkers, Taylor-Greens and Huckabee-Sanders. All of whom are filling seats and voting on issues without the knowledge or understanding of same. Their ignorance is a cancer on the “body politic” at a time when this country needs its “best and brightest.”

But, you won’t see the changes necessary if you attack the problem at the top. No, the answer is closer to the bottom. The various central committees. In many states, those are the folks “choosing” who runs and who doesn’t. Until those committees are filled with solid, right-thinking Republicans, all we can expect is more of the same. And, that’s not good enough!

I’d like to give you more “Walkerisms” but the hour is late. And, after a few hours of such research, I need a drink.

The AG slot

jones

Back in the 1980s, during my Attorney General days, Idaho had a healthy two-party system. There were about equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature. While legislators of either party advanced competing policies, they were willing to work across the aisle to move the State forward. Compromise was not a forbidden word. Extremism rarely raised its ugly head.

What a difference several decades can make. Now, we have very few Democrats in the Legislature and, consequently, no check on unbridled extremism. The lop-sided Republican majority is loosely divided into two warring factions. On the one side are the extreme right-wing Republicans, who thrive on meaningless culture-war issues. On the other side are traditional Republicans, who try to address the State’s real-world issues.

I served with two Democrat Governors and, while there were occasional disagreements on the correct interpretation of various laws, we worked cooperatively. Back then, a Democrat had a fighting chance of winning a statewide office. It is a remote possibility at present.

There are a number of reasons why Democrats have had difficulties at the ballot box in Idaho in recent years, but one that stands out is a failure to regularly field quality candidates for important offices. I realize there is a strong disincentive for Democrats to throw their hat in the ring for every office in a one-party state, but you have to start somewhere. It’s kind of like the lottery–you can’t expect to win if you don’t buy a ticket.

I am familiar with several Democrats currently vying for high office who have the qualities necessary to run a strong race. Terri Pickens Manweiler, running for Lieutenant Governor, is an accomplished attorney who impressed me during several appearances before the Idaho Supreme Court. State School Superintendent candidate Terry Gilbert is a qualified educator who understands the danger that school voucher programs pose to public school funding. Kaylee Peterson, challenging Congressman Fulcher, is an engaging, common-sense candidate.

What mystifies me is why the Democrats have not fielded a candidate for the important position of Attorney General. I hired attorney Steve Scanlin to serve in the office during my tenure, but he is just a placeholder on the Democrat ticket–to give the Party an opportunity to replace him on the ticket in case AG Wasden did not survive the GOP primary. The Democrats need to run a strong candidate for Attorney General in order to preserve their claim to be a viable political party in Idaho.

That is not to imply that the Attorney General’s office is a political office. It is a legal office, charged with providing politics-free advice and representation to State agencies. Politics can only corrupt and cheapen the office. In a perfect world, the AG would run on a non-partisan ticket, as district and appellate judges do in Idaho.

The Republican candidate, Raul Labrador, has vowed to run the office in a political fashion. That would be an insult to the rule of law and would be costly for the State. In my estimation, Labrador disqualified himself for the office when he proudly announced that he would have supported the ill-fated Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. The suit was bogus, having no support in either the facts or the law. The Texas Attorney General, who dreamed up the suit as a publicity stunt, is now being sued by the Texas Bar Association for misconduct. He, and all those who supported the suit, displayed utter contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law in America.

A Democrat candidate for Idaho Attorney General could bring out sharp contrasts with candidate Labrador. A candidate with broad experience and a fine reputation in the legal community would stand out against Labrador’s narrow experience and unenviable legal reputation. Devoted party loyalty is not a prerequisite for the job. A candidate from anywhere across the legal spectrum would be well qualified, so long as the person is dedicated to giving bias-free legal advice and assistance–something people demand of their attorney in their private lives and business affairs.

Democrats owe it to the people of Idaho to find a candidate to fill their Attorney General slot on the November ballot. It will be a step toward rebuilding the Party and helping to restore a healthy two-party system in the Gem State.
 

Storytelling

readings

A guest opinion from Michael Strickland of Boise.

One of my fondest childhood memories was sitting on my mother’s lap reading “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L'Engle. The main characters embark on a journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, as they endeavor to save a father and the world. With surprising twists and turns, the novel journeys into the war between light and darkness, good and evil. The young characters mature into adolescents. My young mind was challenged with questions of spirituality and purpose. I felt affinity with the characters as they were thrown into conflicts of love, divinity, and goodness. That early experience cemented my love for this type of story.

Today I ponder my literary experiences with Beowulf, Persephone, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Hades. What do they have in common? Consider The Chronicles of Narnia, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The former list is all folklore and mythology; the latter list fantasy.

There are critical distinctions. Fantasy stories can usually be traced to an author or a named group of them. It is popular entertainment, a modern literary mode. Mythologies are stories that predate the fantasy genre. Myths are often allegorical, can be foundational to cultures and religions, and rarely have a single author. Most myths possess variations depending on the size of the culture or region from which they have originated. They are oral, collective, sacred, and timeless. This brings me to “Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth'' by Brian Attebery, a professor emeritus from the Department of English and Philosophy at Idaho State University.

Myth and fantasy have always been inseparably intertwined. Stories about Stories examines fantasy as a world in which different ways of understanding myth compete and new relationships with myth are worked out. The book offers a comprehensive history of the modern literary genre of fantasy as well as an argument about its nature and importance. The fantasy literature that has been written over the past century and a half shows the extent to which it was formed and molded by various myths and mythologies. Attebery does a deep exploration of this dynamic, detailing how fantasy, as a literary form, is a way of reconnecting to traditional myths and the worlds they form.

Attebery is the “most readable, the most knowledgeable, and the least quarrelsome of critics, said celebrated author Ursula K. Le Guin. “Stories about Stories adds new vistas of understanding to his unsurpassed survey of imaginative literature."

This scholarly work is largely structured chronologically, and juxtaposes fantasy and myth. Connections between the two are displayed in eight chapters that explore a number of junctures on the timeline between the late eighteenth century and today. Each point offers a particular social and scholarly relation to myths and illustrates the shifts in how myths are incorporated into fantasy stories. Chapters include analytical tools and theoretical background, personal reflections, and illustrative readings of a wide range of works, mixed differently in each chapter.

I recommend this book to Tolkienists, lovers of fantasy and myth, and anyone who appreciates good stories. Attebery's exploration of the rediscovery of myth through fantasy literature is useful and engaging. As Lloyd Alexander said, “Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”

Thoughts from the introduction to Stories About Stories resonate with the fight against the many recent incidents of book bannings across the United States. The author says that those who don't or can't read fantasy consider themselves superior to it. The tremendous popularity of particular fantasy texts only tends to make such people even more resentful. Attebery points out the book burners who consider fantasy to be suspect on religious grounds. Some believe it encourages witchcraft and devil worship. Others say that simply because it isn't true, the genre therefore denies Creation.

“The push to ban fantasy,” Attebery concludes, is the least problematic scenario. “Book burners at least take fantasy seriously.”
 

Next after Dobbs

readings

A guest opinion from Everett Wohlers of Boise.

In the late 1970’s, the Republican party turned to the abortion issue to bring into the party the anti-abortion segment of the population, comprised mainly of fundamentalist Christians and other social conservatives. The effort to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established a right to abortion within prescribed bounds, has been the Republicans’ North Star. That effort has been a central motivating and unifying theme of the party for the past 40+ years.

Now that the machinations of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have managed to fill the Supreme Court with a super-majority of far-right Federalist Society justices, the Court has finally delivered on the Republican fever dream of overturning Roe in the recently issued Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. The question is, “Is it enough for the Republicans?”

In the days since the Dobbs decision, there has been much discussion of what the Republicans would do next. Some Pollyannas believe they will be satisfied to let the decision take effect, allowing Republican states to re-impose the 17th Century in the Republican-controlled states by adopting laws that criminalize abortion, while leaving Democratic states as pro-choice havens. The more common view is that Republicans will try to keep the party’s right-wing base motivated by moving on to (a) preclude access to pharmaceutical abortifacients in Republican-controlled states that have made abortion criminal, (b) limit access to abortion in Democratically controlled states, and (c) limit or overturn other rights that the Supreme Court has found in prior decades and which the Republican base finds offensive, e.g. contraception, LGBTQ relationships and same-sex marriage.

To those ends, there have been suggestions by Republicans that they (a) pass laws in Republican-controlled states to criminalize the shipment by mail or courier of abortifacient drugs to women in those states from other states, notwithstanding the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, (b) criminalize the travel by women seeking abortions to states that permit abortion, as well as facilitation by third parties of such travel, and (c) bring legal actions to end rights that have been declared by the Supreme Court with the same rationale used by the Court in Roe, thereby giving the Court the opportunity to overturn those earlier decisions, and ending those rights. Others, including former Vice President Pence, have suggested making abortion unlawful under federal law, once the Republicans control the federal government.

While some or all of these approaches may come to pass, or at least be attempted, they are at this point just speculation. However, there are two things that the Republicans have made clear that they will do if/when they control both houses of Congress and the White House. Those are what make the 2022 and 2024 elections critical to the continued existence of the right of women to their bodily autonomy. Those two things planned by the Republicans for when they assume power are addressed in the following paragraphs.

I. Adopt a federal law prohibiting abortion absolutely

Republicans in both houses of Congress have made it quite clear that if they gain control of Congress and the White House, they would at the first opportunity pass a draconian federal law, making abortion a crime from the moment of conception, i.e. penetration of an egg cell by a sperm cell. That is, the law would make use of the morning after pill and, in some cases, the IUD a crime, in that the penetrated egg cell would immediately have full personhood with all rights under the 14th Amendment. Republican intent is clear because last year 164 Republican Representatives co-sponsored H.R. 1011, and 19 Republican Senators co-sponsored S. 99, both of which do exactly that.

Notably, Representatives Fulcher and Simpson of Idaho are among the co-sponsors of H.R. 1011, and Senators Crapo and Risch are among those for S. 99. While those bills had no chance of adoption in the current House and Senate, it is the roadmap for if/when Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency. Because the bills are written so broadly, i.e. they provide that “the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being. . . ,” with “human being” defined as existing from “the moment of fertilization” of the egg cell by a sperm cell. That is, they enshrine a fertilized egg with full Fourteenth Amendment rights, thereby precluding exceptions to permit abortion in the cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the mother.

The effect of these bills would be to make use of the “morning after” pill impermissible because it prevents implantation of the blastocyst (which results from early division of the fertilized egg) in the uterus. It may also make use of the intra-uterine device (IUD) difficult, if not impossible, because in some cases, it does not prevent fertilization as it is intended to do, but it does prevent implantation of the blastocyst in the uterus. One other, probably unintended, effect of the bills would be to make the use of in vitro fertilization impossible because it necessarily entails fertilization of many more egg cells than are implanted. That is, the bills would not permit the excess fertilized eggs or blastocysts to be disposed of, and there is often no alternative to disposal.

II. Adopt a federal law creating a national registry of pregnancies

It is clear on the record that a significant number of Republicans in Congress seek to create a federal registry for all abortions. H.R. 581 was introduced in the House early last year with 64 Republican co-sponsors. Its Senate counterpart, S. 3500, was introduced early this year with 18 Republican co-sponsors. Representative Fulcher was the only member of the Idaho delegation among the co-sponsors of these bills. The bills require each state to “submit to the abortion surveillance system of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (CDC) data on every abortion performed in the state in the reporting year. Failure of a state to comply would result in all Medicaid payments to the state for family planning services to be cut off. While the required data do not include the names of the women who receive abortions, the data are so detailed that it would take a minimal amount of sleuthing for anyone to identify any such woman. That is, the data include the woman’s age, race, ethnicity, marital status, county of residence, and number of prior pregnancies and whether each resulted in a live birth, abortion or miscarriage. The data further include the gestational age of the fetus at the time of abortion, the abortion method and whether the fetus survived the abortion.

While the creation of such an abortion database is intrusive and intimidating on its own, there is good reason to believe that the Republicans who sponsor these bills have more on their minds. To examine that prospect, it is necessary to look at some relationships of the Trump-era Republican party. First, the connection of the party to the American Conservative Union (ACU) and its Conservative Political Action Conferences (CPAC) is quite clear from the level of participation of core party members in CPAC meetings, and from the close links between the ACU’s chairman, Matt Schlapp, and the Trump administration. Schlapp is a well-known close insider in the Trump White House, while his wife was its Director of Strategic Communications.

Second, there is a very clear affinity of the ACU and the Republicans who participate in CPAC meetings for the increasingly authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Poland, both of which have dramatically tightened restrictions on abortion in the years since they were taken over by authoritarian-leaning presidents. Hungary’s new 2012 constitution outlaws abortion from the moment of conception. In 2020, Poland outlawed abortion with exceptions only when necessary to save the life of the mother or in the case of pregnancy caused by rape. But more importantly, the ACU and other highly visible voices for the Trump Republican party, e.g. Tucker Carlson, have openly embraced the authoritarian model of Hungary and Poland as one that should be followed by the United States.

That is apparent from the rhetoric of people such as Carlson and Schlapp, as well as from the location of the recent May CPAC meeting in Budapest, where President Viktor Orban was the keynote speaker. That relationship was just further affirmed by the announcement that Orban will be the opening speaker at the annual CPAC meeting in Dallas in early August. While the Hungarian relationship is the more visible, the relationship with Poland is also apparent. For example, Jerzy Kwaśniewski, the head of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, Poland’s most powerful conservative NGO, participated in and spoke to the May CPAC meeting in Budapest. Further, American Andy Ngo and Canadian Stephan Molyneaux, both of whom have close links to the American alt right and the Trump inner circle, participated in a major event in Warsaw sponsored by the Polish government in the fall of 2021.

So why is the attraction of the Republican party to the authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Poland relevant to the Republicans’ desire to create an abortion registry in the CDC? It is because Poland’s Ministry of Health just adopted an ordinance that creates a registry in the Medical Information System that tracks all pregnancies in the country from the moment they are first identified through their end in birth, abortion or miscarriage. The information collected is comprehensive, including the identity of each subject and the expected delivery date. The Ministry is quick to note that the purpose of the registry is to enhance availability of health services to women, and that the information is kept totally within the medical system, i.e. not available to law enforcement or any other entity. However, there is currently a bill in the Polish parliament that would make all data in the registry available to a new Institute of Family and Demographics, the State Prosecutor and parties to family litigation. The bill has passed first reading and is awaiting further action. In sum, the database with all of the personal information on every woman who becomes pregnant is being created. If the bill currently in the parliament is passed, that information can be used to determine if an abortion or miscarriage has occurred, and it can be made available to the Prosecutor or a party to a civil suit against the woman.

For over two decades, my employment entailed development of the legal frameworks for government registries, the business design of such registries and the technical specifications for the application software for the registries. Therefore, I can say with confidence that it would be very easy to modify the abortion registry that is proposed by Congressional Republicans to make it into exactly the kind of registry of pregnancies that is being developed by the Polish government. It would be a simple matter to use job scheduling software to generate a notice to the US Attorney in the appropriate jurisdiction in each instance of a reported miscarriage or when a live birth has not occurred by or shortly after the projected delivery date. That is, every woman who becomes pregnant and does not deliver a living baby could be automatically referred to law enforcement for investigation and, if the US Attorney’s office suspects an abortion, charged with a crime. The same would be true of anyone suspected of assisting the woman with an abortion or a miscarriage characterized by the US Attorney as an abortion.

Given the admiration of the Republican party for the models they see in Hungary and Poland, and given their desire to make abortion impossible to obtain in the United States, Republicans would almost certainly seek to enact a law to track the pregnancies of all American women in a national registry such as Poland’s. If Republicans take control of the legislative and executive branches of government in the 2024 election or later, that can be expected to happen. American women would no longer have any sovereignty over their own bodies – the government would control them absolutely.

The Handmaid’s Tale was fiction. If the Republicans take control of Congress and the Presidency in 2025, this won’t be fiction.
 

“No worse than the flu”

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Not long after the United States recently reported its millionth death - one out of every 330 people - from the Covid-19 pandemic, Idaho is about to pass another milestone too: By the time you read this, likely 5,000 deaths of people in Idaho.

That and 470,457 - coming up on a half-million - cases, in a state with just over 1.8 million people.

And remember those numbers are probably very much on the low side. Many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of cases never were reported. Some deaths were probably reported as happening from other causes.

The most regular reader comments I received when I wrote columns about the pandemic in the first half of 2020 was that it was no big deal. No worse than the flu, people said. All this masking and social distancing and shutting down of public places was just overwrought.

Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation was one of the prominent complainers: “before a single death was logged in Idaho, [Governor Brad] Little bowed to the opinion of fear-mongering newspaper editorialists, the likes of Rachel Maddow, and the health ‘experts’ who want to protect us to death. Little signed a confusing order this week that forces all Idahoans to stay at home. You can leave, but first you need to decipher about 22 pages of state and federal documents to conclude whether your job or activity is deemed essential or non-essential.”

The order was actually simple and straightforward, similar to what people around most of the country were managing, and it didn’t last very long - probably not as long as it should have. Hospitals were filling up (and that would get much worse later), and people were dying.

The numbers of people sickened by the pandemic, many of them hit by more dangerous strains than those active now, is astounding. When I think of Owyhee County (to cite one example) I think of a few small communities surrounded by wide open spaces, but so far 2,357 cases have been reported (in a county with grer than 12,000 people), and 53 people have died. That’s not a small problem.

We’re not done yet, but we’ve passed a good inflection point and this seems a reasonable time to take stock. 5,000 deaths of Idahoans is far more people than died at Pearl Harbor or 9/11 - almost as many as the two of them put together - and that would have seemed like a very big deal indeed if so many people weren’t wrapped up in cultural and political agendas dug in against doing anything useful to combat it.

The Idaho Capital Sun recently ran a good summing up of the impacts, and included this from Dr. Jim Souza of St. Luke’s Health System: “We have lost more than 1,100 life years … Can you imagine? For the people who say, ‘We all die some time,’ yes, we do. But these people didn’t need to die now, and they didn’t need to die like this. … Can you imagine all of the life and experiences contained within those 1,000-plus years? We shouldn’t trivialize that. These people deserve better.”

Was this pandemic a big deal? It sure was.

We can hope that most of this is now in the rear view mirror.

Conditions have changed, a lot, from two years ago. The newer variants of the virus still transmit effectively but generally seem much less dangerous than earlier iterations. We have vaccines now, and most of us have taken them, and in some cases used other useful steps to combat the illness. For some people masking still makes sense, but for many of us that’s probably not ordinarily needed. We can meet in public again much the way we used to without undue risk to ourselves or other people.

Great.

But - much as I hope it won’t happen - conditions can change again. And if they do, are we willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands more Idahoans … simply because no one can tell me I can’t do whatever I want …

And spread whatever diseases I please?

Broadening their appeal

malloy

Are you a Republican who is fed up with the right-wing direction of the GOP? Are you tired of the party’s ties with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Donald Trump?

If so, then Rep. Lauren Necochea of Boise – who chairs the Idaho Democratic Party--cordially invites you to join her party, which has a center lane for those who want to increase the state’s commitment to education while seeking property tax relief.

Don’t be too quick to proclaim 2022 as “the year” for Democrats. Until further notice, Idaho is a red state that is filled with people who think that a turn to the right – if not the far right – is the way to go for the Gem State. There are folks in rural communities, and some places to the north, who would rather vote for Putin than a Democrat.

In the first decade of this century, Democrats briefly held a congressional seat and they traditionally put up a good fight in the race for state superintendent of public instruction. Aside from that, Republicans have owned the big races.

Necochea, a native Idahoan who was elected to the party’s chairmanship in March, doesn’t need a political history lesson. And as the assistant minority leader of the House of Representatives, she’s well versed on the issues – along with the struggles that Democratic legislators face working in the minority.

Her approach is to build, opposed to living in the past. And she welcomes disgruntled Republicans to her camp.

“We’re already seeing that,” she told me. “We’re seeing Idaho Republicans who don’t recognize their party anymore and they share with common-sense Democrats on solutions they want to advance. As the Republican Party becomes more extreme, we feel we have a moral imperative to work even harder to change the trajectory of the state.”

Necochea offers no argument to claims that this year’s legislative session, marked by political postering and intense fighting between the executive and legislative branches, was the worst in the state’s history.

“Something is off when you see legislators talking about jailing librarians, jailing health-care providers, taking away people’s voting rights, outlawing ballot drop boxes, and making it a felony to help your elderly neighbor with their ballots. I’ve never seen a more blatant extreme Legislature.”

And Necochea is just in her second term.

The Idaho Senate over the years has been the stopping point for some of the hardline initiatives. But as they say in baseball, wait until next year. After this year’s primary election, the Senate is likely to be tilting more to the right.

Only Democrats can stop the craziness, she says. “Democrats need to be elected to stop some of the worst extreme bills. Republican extremism is only growing, but Idaho voters are not that extreme overall.”

On the congressional level, Democrats are running their typical slate of smart and well-spoken candidates – with almost zero name recognition. It’s hard for them to defeat well-funded Republicans who have been around for decades.

“It is a challenge when you have these lifetime politicians who have been around forever and have name recognition because they have been around forever,” Necochea said. “That means we will have to out-work them, knock on more doors and raise more funds to deliver our message.”
Abortion rights is not an issue that works in the Republican Party’s favor – at least in Idaho. But there has been strong negative reaction, and some protests, to the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Up to now, the Supreme Court has protected rights granted under Roe v. Wade. Now it’s legislators who will be able to interfere with personal decisions, and potentially banning certain types of birth control,” she said. “People are waking up to what’s at stake and that Democrats are the only party standing up to protect women’s rights.”

Whether there’s enough people “waking up” to sway the outcome of an election is another question. Idaho has a long way to go before shades of purple seep into this deep-red state.

But Democrats are, to their credit, making a noble effort in this year’s campaign.

ctmalloy@outlook. Chuck Malloy is a long-time Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com