SATURDAY ROUNDUP: 4/13/24

Catching up on the week's news

Welcome to the first edition of the new weekly roundup feature at the Gem State Chronicle. I will link back to articles I wrote over the past week as well as other interesting posts and videos I have come across. If you only want to get this one weekly email, go to your account page and uncheck everything except “Weekly Updates”. I appreciate everyone who subscribes!

This week at the Chronicle…

It’s been quite a week. Last Saturday I wrote about how we need to maintain focus on what is within our power to change. You and I will get a lot more bang for our buck when it comes to engaging in state and local politics.

Things have always happened. It’s a feature of existence since the dawn of time. Yet for most of human history, only the most important things have been publicized. Now that we have access to every piece of information from throughout the world at our fingertips 24/7, we naturally try to fit it together into a coherent narrative.

On Tuesday I wrote about the balance between ideological purity and political pragmatism. With regards to the abortion debate, putting a national ban on the ballot will likely cause us to lose elections, at which point we will be in no position to enact any policy at all.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was perhaps the greatest conservative victory of our generation. For nearly half a century, the pro-life movement was united behind one goal: overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue to the states. Once that happened, the movement immediately fractured, because it had no plan for what to do after it achieved its goal.

On Wednesday, the Legislature finally adjourned sine die, so I wrote a short article about how our lawmakers tied up those last loose ends.

One of the most contentious issues of the last few weeks was the potential sale of the Idaho Transportation Department campus on State St. The Legislature finally passed two budget bills that denied the sale on the final day, and those were the final two bills left on the governor’s desk this morning. In the end, he allowed them to become law without his signature. Unlike at the federal level, which has a pocket veto, bills in Idaho automatically become law if not signed in five days.

On Thursday, I analyzed the Freedom Index, teasing out a few conclusions about the ideological makeup of the Legislature.

The Freedom Index is a valuable data point for voters to consider as they decide who should represent them for the next two years. While it doesn’t capture everything that goes into the job of serving in the House or Senate, it nevertheless reveals where the Gem State stands in relation to conservative principles. The Legislature’s median score of 44.4% sits right between Reps. Melissa Durrant at 44.8% and Megan Blanksma at 43.9%. 35 Republican lawmakers scored below this median, which is pretty sad, to be honest. Imagine what a Legislature with an average score of 80% could accomplish!

Finally, yesterday I wrote about an email that was issued by Boise School District superintendent Coby Dennis which said they would be looking for “options” regarding some new laws meant to protect children and uphold reality.

House Bills 421 and 538 deal with reality. As Travis Lohr of Kellogg High School said last year, “guys are guys, girls are girls, and there’s no in-between.” Sure, there are a small percentage of people born with genuine chromosomal disorders, but that’s not what this is about, and Coby Dennis knows it. This is about a social contagion that teaches young people that they can change their gender by changing their name, their mode of dress, or through irreversible drugs and surgeries.

If you are near Boise this afternoon, a group called Don’t Mess With Our Kids is hosting an event to discuss protecting children from this sort of thing at 1pm. Maybe I’ll see you there!

In other news…

As the secretary for the District 14 GOP, I publish a semi-regular newsletter on behalf of the committee. We had our last regular meeting on Thursday, hearing from Ada County Commissioner candidates and looking ahead to the reorganization next month. Our three legislators — Sen. Scott Grow and Reps. Ted Hill and Josh Tanner — also have newsletters out, which I linked in this one:

End of the Line

Yesterday evening, former congressman Dennis Kucinich joined TimcastIRL for a conversation. Twenty years ago, he was considered on the far left, but today many of his views put him in the middle of conservative discourse instead. Check it out for discussion on warrantless surveillance, the national security state, free speech, and abortion:

Auron MacIntyre had several good videos this week, but perhaps the most interesting was his discussion with Ben Braddock about the rise of Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador. You can read Braddock’s article here in which he looks at the history of El Salvador, America’s role in the gang crisis that made that nation the murder capital of the world, and how Bukele seems to have solved the problem by putting the gangs in prison.

Finally, for something completely different, I recently watched this short documentary on the making of Casablanca. Filmed in 1942 just as the United States entered World War II, the film captured an uncertain moment in history and remains one of our great cultural stories. I had the opportunity to visit the city of Casablanca many years ago, which gave me a new appreciation for the film.

Coming events…

Join me next Saturday evening in beautiful Cascade, Idaho for the Valley County Lincoln Day Dinner. I look forward to visiting and meeting a great group of Republicans.

On Saturday morning I’ll be speaking to the Snake River Republican Women’s Club in Payette. Join us for brunch at Erika’s Kitchen at 10am!

Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to get daily or weekly posts in your inbox. I plan to set up interviews with legislative candidates very soon, so stay tuned!