Last week a family and their chaplain could not reach the bedside of their dying father.
Why? Politicians.
Extremists gathered in front of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Boise to wave signs, block traffic, and swap conspiracy theories. The catalyst was a malnourished infant. The baby had been taken into state custody as an extraordinary effort to save the baby’s life.
Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, alongside far right activist Ammon Bundy, was one of the politicians who saw the baby as a chance to raise her profile. That’s just what she did.
In truth, I think we’ve gotten used to outrageous behavior for the sake of political gamesmanship. It gets easy to tune out that kind of behavior. It gets easy to respond to outrage with a shrug and to tell ourselves that it isn’t serious.
McGeachin helped whip up a crowd outside of St. Luke’s to the point that hospital security stopped everyone from coming and everyone from going out—for well over an hour. In the meantime, a distraught family was left outside with an agitated mob while their family member was robbed of seeing the people he loved for one last time.
I think of this family. I think of the craven treatment of a baby’s misfortune.
What it means is that we need to be outraged by what is outrageous again. No, I am not talking about losing all sense of decency and attacking people. Rep. Priscilla Giddings (running to replace McGeachin) republished a link that shared the addresses of law enforcement officers with the angry mob that McGeachin and Bundy were prodding. That’s despicable. I am definitely not talking about simply raging.
I mean that we need to work to make sure every Idahoan knows that Janice McGeachin was the highest ranking elected state official to speak at a white nationalist rally. We need to make sure every Idahoan knows that McGeachin is absolutely unapologetic for speaking at a place that cheered racists and anti-semites. She didn’t care that at the same time she spoke, the racist who organized the event led the crowd in a round of applause for Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
That is outrageous and outrage is the right response.
It’s chilling to me that McGeachin was ever elevated to the role of lieutenant governor. I have called on her to resign. I want her to resign because she has betrayed our trust and her words and actions endanger us all.
It’s troubling to me that more of Idaho’s leaders haven’t called on McGeachin to resign. Do you recall last August when Gov. Brad Little traveled out of state so McGeachin used his absence to try to mobilize the Idaho National Guard? At the time, Gov. Little called the move “an affront to the Idaho Constitution.” House Speaker Scott Bedke (also running to replace McGeachin) called it “an abuse of her political office.”
Neither of them called for her resignation, despite having just decried outrageous, illegal behavior from the person who is a heartbeat away from being governor.
It is without hyperbole that I urge us all to understand that these positions come with immense power. We must trust the people we elect because we are trusting them to make life and death decisions.
There is no telling what McGeachin will do between now and the end of her term. I encourage every Idahoan to call on her to resign. Write her a letter. Write a letter to the editor. Wave signs–in places where you aren’t disrupting the lives of innocent people.
I am promising every Idahoan that I will treat the office of lieutenant governor with the solemnity and respect the position requires. Let her outrageous behavior be the catalyst it takes for you to vote for me.
I promise to lead with honor, humility, compassion, and a deep respect for the law.