When it comes to petty tyranny, Idaho’s governor is all in.
My opponent, Gov. Brad Little, decided that former President Carter did not deserve to have the flag lowered for 30 days as a show of respect.
That’s petty.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we have to venerate our political leaders as though they are demigods. But I do think it unites our country to honor the memories of those who came before us.
Of course, Mr. Little was also defying a presidential executive order by making the decision to fly flags at full staff. The idea wasn’t his own. Only after Mr. Little traveled to Mar a Lago—short-brimmed, white cowboy hat in hand—to kiss the ring of our new president, did he decide to fly the flag high for the first-ever felon to be elevated to our nation’s top post.
That’s tyranny.
I assure you that if I am governor when Mr. Trump dies, I would not fly flags at full-staff. (I hope I am not defying some new executive order by imagining the world without our new president). Obviously, I wouldn’t fly the flag half-staff because I had thought of the president as highly as he thinks of himself. I would do it out of common decency. I would do it out of respect for our customs. I would do it to honor the solemnity of the occasion.
Mr. Little marked Mr. Trump’s presidential start with a soft, wealthy man’s act of defiance. It’s an act of privilege and selfishness. An uncourageous defiance of the law by a man who knew he would not suffer any ill consequences. Don’t even get me started on the blanket pardon of over a thousand insurrectionists responsible for the deaths of police officers and the desecration of our nation’s capital.
Unfortunately, the petty games of the privileged men and women (let’s face it … still mostly men) in charge of our country matter to the rest of us.
The wealthy elite make rules that help themselves. They make rules that punish their enemies. When those laws help the rest of us, it is only by accident and never by design.
As we move forward, we need to be very clear: the Republican Party leaders have discarded anything but the pretense of being “the party of law and order.” Understand, that flag flown full-staff on January 20 (and given the patina of legality with a new presidential order demanding full-staff flags for the day) was a symbol of what is to come for the rest of us: a great struggle for Justice.
With so many of our elected leaders—such as Mr. Little—bending the knee to lawlessness, those of us who seek justice will need to be brave, and true, and strong.