Taggart’s attack on Stand Up for Idaho was narrowminded | Opinion
On Dec. 10, the Idaho Statesman published an opinion piece by Steve Taggart entitled “Idaho group hosted ‘journalist’ who flirts with Holocaust denial.” The piece was regarding Stand Up For Idaho’s Dec. 3 weekly town hall featuring investigative journalist Casey Whalen. I’d like to make a few comments on Taggart’s piece.
To begin with, by using the phrase “pitching him as,” Taggart seems to be disputing that Whalen is an investigative journalist. Is it appropriate for me, Taggart, or anyone else to dispute how Whalen identifies himself?
Taggart then goes on to show his disdain for Whalen by discussing Whalen’s “much, much darker side.” In doing so, Taggart missed the whole intent of the Dec. 3 town hall, which was to understand this past September’s “50 States, One Israel” conference, where the Israeli government paid the entire cost for 250 American state legislators (five from each state) to travel to Israel, and how Idaho’s delegation was chosen and if there are any potential concerns for Idaho.
The conference was aimed at strengthening ties between the 50 states and Israel by urging legislative support for pro-Israeli policies, including anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanction laws. Whalen had researched Idaho’s legislators’ involvement and wanted to share what he had found and his concerns on how current and proposed Idaho legislation is counter to the First Amendment.
Taggart said I reinforced Whalen’s message and called the trip to Israel “a bribe.” Actually, I asked, “How is it not a bribe?” I worked at the Idaho National Laboratory and there were always concerns about accepting any kind of gift from anyone in fear it would give a perception of impropriety. Do free trips to legislators, regardless of who pays for them, present an unethical situation? Maybe this is a question for Idaho’s Attorney General?
Taggart stated: “Toomer and Whalen both failed to say a word about other countries who have sponsored numerous other legislative trips. Instead, the sole focus was on Israel and, in Whalen’s case, Jews.” This is not true. I also mentioned I had learned that in 2011, several Idaho legislators went to Turkey, and apparently a current representative had recently traveled to China. I even commented on the number of ‘domestic’ trips legislators take. Again, if the trips are ‘free’, does it present an unethical situation? Should we be concerned about how any entity (country, company, special interest group, etc.) is influencing Idaho legislators?
Taggart was bothered that I had “noted that people like Tucker Carlson have questioned Israeli influence.” I also mentioned Candice Owens and the late Charlie Kirk. I also said there are questions we should ask ourselves: Why should Israel get special treatment over other nations, including the United States? How much influence does Israel have over our state legislators? I said we should be concerned about how much influence any foreign nation has on our state and nation. Substitute the name ‘Israel’ with the name of any other country (China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, etc.)
Taggart said, “Stand Up for Idaho needs to take to heart the recent words of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro when considering future guests: ‘You don’t invite the neo-Nazi who lives down the street over to have a nice chat with your kids, because those are views you don’t want in your home. That’s normal.’”
Shapiro’s comment could be rephrased to “You don’t invite the Democrat/Republican/Jew/Christian/etc. who lives down the street over to have a nice chat with your kids, because those are views you don’t want in your home.”
Actually, we don’t invite anybody “to have a nice chat with your kids.” We invite people to speak to adults. With so much deceit and deception in the world it is hard to know what is the truth. We believe we need to have healthy dialogue, even on really controversial topics, in order to bring things to light and expose agendas. It can get really uncomfortable at times, but we truly believe that if all sides have a chance to speak then things will be exposed and truth will become obvious. We invite Taggart, and anyone else that would like to, to come to our town hall and present to us whatever they like.
Stand Up For Idaho is not an echo chamber for any one line of thought, and we are not going to tell you what to believe. We will try to present you with varying views on a topic so you can make your own decisions. We encourage you to get your information from a variety of sources. Then, by setting your biases aside and evaluating with an open mind, consider all the information you have received and let your logical mind connect the dots, like detectives do in movies. If you truly do this, you may just come to the realization that things might not be as you originally believed.
Doug Toomer is the founder and president of Stand Up For Idaho. He is retired from the Idaho National Laboratory, is the Republican chairman for Legislative District 35, and has previously run for legislative office.