We must protect democracy at home before it is too late

First remove the beam from your own eye … (Matthew 7:5)
For almost two decades we have spent about $300 million a day trying to make Afghanistan into a stabile democracy. Meanwhile Idaho legislators have not only conspired to take away our constitutional rights, but have even rationalized doing so by attacking the very idea of democracy.

State Sen. Grow, a consistent enemy of initiative rights, blatantly rejects the idea of democratic governance, saying the word democracy is not in the Idaho constitution. This was his rationale when pushing through the first attempt to neuter our constitutional ballot initiative rights. Some things shouldn't need saying.

If our (mis)leaders don't think Idahoans deserve democracy, I'd like to know what thousands of American patriots died for in the Middle East for the last 20 years.

Luckily, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that the ruling class attacks on our ballot initiative rights are unconstitutional and an affront to "the democratic ideals that form the bedrock of our [Idaho's] constitutional republic." Of course, our "small government" "states rights" political elite will likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, as they did when they used COVID-19 to shut down the last two ballot initiatives.

These RINOs need to get a clue about what "small government" actually means.

The corporate clowns in Boise are playing an unsustainable game. They are funneling our young people into debt traps and neoliberal woke washing at universities by cutting employment-oriented education programs. Instead of getting good paying jobs right out of high school, they prefer our students to go to colleges and get into debt after pressuring them for their entire teen years to go to college. It is child grooming, but for student debt.

Luckily, we still have (for now) accessible ballot initiative rights. As you read this, constitutionalists are working urgently with ReclaimIdaho.org to salvage what's left of our collapsing public education system with their proposed Quality Education Act.

It is long overdue for us to protect democracy at home before it is too late. If we want to save the world and bring democracy to far off lands, let's start by saving our communities first and defending democracy where we live.

Let's make Idaho great again together. 

DANIEL RADFORD

Sandpoint