The Idaho Legislature has abandoned community as a value | Opinion

The slogan of the Idaho Republican Party is: “Faith, Family, Freedom.” Those are not partisan values. They are great American values. Democrats and independent voters also go to church, raise families and die for their country.

However, the Idaho Legislature has turned this slogan into: “their faith, their family, their freedom.” Here are just a few examples:

Their faith: H162 would have forced every public school student to have every word of the King James version of the Christian Bible be read to them over the span of 10 years. Not every family is Christian and not every Christian reads from the same holy book.

Their family: HCR18 created “Traditional Family Values Month” in Idaho. This bill declares that “children growing up in healthy, married, two-parent families are more likely to lead happy, healthy and successful lives.” This is an insult to every Idaho family that doesn’t look like a fictional family portrayed in TV sitcoms from the 1950s.

Their freedom: S1210 is the so-called Medical Freedom Act. This gives a person with a deadly contagious disease the freedom to infect anyone, anytime, anywhere without any responsibility for the consequences of their actions. That isn’t freedom, that’s anarchy.

But even if majority party leaders respected the faith, family and freedom of others, they left out the most important value that makes for a caring society.

Community is the abandoned value in today’s Idaho Legislature — respecting our neighbors. It is the value that provides the balance between individual rights with the rights of others who come from different backgrounds or have different viewpoints.

Instead, the Legislature continues to tell you what you can’t do, can’t be, can’t see and can’t read. They exert control over books, flags, schools, parades, personal health care decisions, etc. — and then empower the attorney general to intimidate people with the threat of prosecution.

Idaho used to be a “live-and-let-live” state. But the handful of leaders now in control of the Idaho Republican Party and in the Legislature have turned that into: “Live the way we want you to live or we’ll write laws to stop you, silence you and punish you.”

A path forward

Good ideas and good people can come from many directions. I enjoy working with most of my Republican colleagues in the Legislature. We don’t always agree, but we gain appreciation for different perspectives by listening to each other instead of talking at each other. Unfortunately, outside forces spend millions of dollars to influence and divide communities by demonizing the letter “R” and the letter “D.”

No wonder so many people are unhappy with the two major parties. But there’s a path forward:

Vote for the person, not a letter.

You can’t assume what that letter stands for in Idaho anymore. Majority party leaders, many of whom have just recently moved to Idaho, pressure their candidates to sign a loyalty oath to an extreme 20-page party platform. That platform includes taking away your right to vote for your U.S. senators, removing medical insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions, and prosecuting women for murder if they terminate a pregnancy due to rape or incest (the penalty being execution by firing squad).

Know whom you’re voting for. Call the candidates on your ballot. If they don’t make it easy to contact them, or if they don’t reply or give you a straight answer, consider that before casting your vote.

Good government that respects everyone in your community — including you — starts with electing good people.

Regardless of the letter next to their name.