I can imagine how the majority of the legislators we have elected reacted to the news article again putting Idaho at the bottom for K12 spending per student. I’ll bet most of them cheered and a lot of you Idahoans did too.
Maybe even Brad did too. We’ll never know, since he won’t speak up about this issue in an election year. He’ll comfortably win the primary and then easily win the general. He’ll be like Butch Otter, a three term Idaho Governor on his Wikipedia page with no real accomplishments of note.
Like Butch, he hasn’t chosen to make any tough stands. I guess he knows the political landscape of us wimpy Idaho voters. He sees us as sandy sagebrush and cheat grass.
Not me. I live up here on the Palouse.
Idaho is mountains and rivers. And desert and canyons. Why don’t we vote tougher? Maybe we just don’t care about the value of courage. Maybe we don’t care about the value of education and getting our kids to learn to think wisely for themselves.
Butch’s toughest stand was to yell across the parking lot to the Speaker of the House to kill the mandatory ultrasound bill. Women wanting an abortion would be required by law to have an ultrasound, probably a vaginal probe, before it could proceed. Idaho lawmakers were mandating a health care procedure. He stood up as he yelled over the tops of the parked cars, and the Speaker listened. Scott Bedke, now our lieutenant governor killed the bill.
Us Idahoans want courageous leaders, don’t we? Is that courage?
Butch did get braver. But it didn’t cost him anything. He endorsed Medicaid expansion in the last weeks of his last term. When citizens had gotten it onto the ballot, and it was looking like it might pass, he jumped on board. Thanks Butch.
So maybe bravery will come in the final weeks of Brad’s third term.
Our Christian Nationalist legislators are crowing about Idaho to their followers on social media. They are bragging that we have insured Medical Freedom and tax dollars for their Christian Nationalist schools. And they are proud that the liberal, woke public schools are cut to the bone. They are hoping their fellow oppressed rich white folks will move here to Idaho to vote for them. They already have.
So us reasonable Idaho folks, Democrat, Republican have a choice.
I am an Idaho Democrat.
But I have voted for Idaho Republicans.
Some of you Idaho Republicans even voted for me. That’s the only way I could get elected in this district.
We should be talking. We should not be afraid of the cultural warriors. For that is what they want, us to be afraid of their brandished sword of abortion, illegals, woke, liberal, you chose the hot button label.
The only way we are going to have a reasonable conversation is to start sharing our goals.
I thought Brad had a good one. Let’s make this state a place where our children can grow and thrive.
And he followed it up with increased funding for public schools. But it was wimpy.
We are in a hole. Idaho needs some vision.
Maybe your vision is that we need protection from transgender folks. Or we need to get rid of the illegals. Maybe we just need to deport the woke, liberal, socialist Antifas.
I raised my daughters in this state. I wanted them to thrive. I wanted them to be able to afford to buy a house. I wanted them to have good schools for their kids to go to. I wanted them to feel proud about Idaho.
Heck, these mountains, these rivers, the forests, these deserts make me proud. I love them.
We need to agree on what we value. We need to build a community.
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