Cinco de Mayo

A festive roundup of the news

It’s been another busy week. The session is done but life goes on. Here’s a short roundup of what I’ve been doing, reading, and watching lately.

This week we unveiled the 2023 Freedom Index at Idaho Freedom Foundation. Our team produced a beautiful printed magazine edition of the Freedom, Spending, and Education Indexes, showing how every lawmaker in Idaho voted this year. If you’re a donor to IFF, you should have already received your printed copy, but we are making the digital version available to everybody. Just click this link, put in your name and email, and it will arrive in your inbox within seconds.

It really is a beautiful production and I am blessed to be part of such a talented team. Thank you also to Daniel Murphy for the lovely cover image.

I tuned in to the first episode of Freedom Bros last night. Conservative stalwarts Greg Pruett and Dustin Hurst have joined forces for a new video podcast dedicated to Idaho politics as we begin the 2024 campaign season. Last night they had on a special guest, former state senator Christy Zito, who announced that she would be running for her old seat in 2024 against the awful Geoff Schroeder.

Greg and Dustin also brought on Trent Clark for a very civil debate over the merits of the cell phone filter bill that failed in the Senate last session. You will recall that I testified against that bill in committee, while Trent testified in favor. All right-thinking people agree that children should not be exposed to harmful material; the debate is over how best to accomplish that, and it was a good discussion last night. Watch the whole episode below, and don’t forget to subscribe:

If you’re in the Eagle area this weekend I invite you to stop by City Hall for the Friends of the Eagle Public Library Book Sale. I love these events, and use them to fill my bookshelves with great books for pennies. At last fall’s event I picked up several biographies and historical works. Stop by if you have a chance, perhaps you’ll bump into me!

Finally, today is of course Cinco de Mayo. It’s an odd holiday, in that it commemorates an event in Mexico but it is more popular in America. Most people don’t know the story of the holiday, as it has become a general celebration of Hispanic culture. The story is interesting, however, celebrating a famous Mexican victory over France in 1862.

What was France doing in Mexico, anyway? Mexico gained independence from Spain in the 1820s but had run into hard times by the 1850s. They were in severe debt to several European nations, while Napoleon III of France was interested in expanding his influence in the Americas. He used the debt issue as a casus belli and invaded Mexico.

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French

The United States had discouraged European meddling in the New World with the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, but by 1862 we were too busy killing each other in the Civil War to take much notice. France had a larger and more advanced army than Mexico, but the Mexicans won a surprising victory at Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Unfortunately for Mexico, that victory was only a minor setback for Napoleon III. He appointed a new general who quickly captured Mexico City and installed a Hapsburg Austrian archduke as Emperor Maximilian.

Emperor Maximilian of Mexico

The Mexicans did not give up, however, continuing a guerrilla war against their foreign emperor. By 1867, with the US Civil War over and our attention turning to our southern neighbor, Napoleon III decided to cut his losses. His withdrawal left Maximilian with no support and he was captured and executed.

It’s interesting to me how much the fortunes of the Bonaparte family impacted the history of the New World. It was the first Napoleon’s need for cash that led him to sell the Louisiana Purchase to Thomas Jefferson, enabling our westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. Napoleon III’s desire for a colonial empire to rival Britain’s led to to a holiday where Americans celebrate Hispanic culture and food.

As you enjoy your taco bowls and margaritas, spare a thought for the valiant defenders of Puebla and the strange courses woven by history.