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Smith chooses a free Idaho

The Post Register says the Idaho Freedom Foundation board of directors, of which I’m a member, has a decision to make whether to fire IFF staff and leadership. Some decisions are hard; others are not. This one is not. The staff and leadership at IFF are doing great work to free Idaho, and I back them 100%.

Whether to believe the liberal news media and especially the Post Register, is also a choice that is becoming easier and easier as the days go by. I’m beginning to experience first-hand why President Trump calls some press fake news. I get it. Honest readers of the Post Register get it too. The Post Register is often filled with inaccuracies designed to facilitate an anti-conservative narrative. This is especially true of this newspaper’s editorial of April 24 in which it got details wrong regarding the protest held in Meridian and IFF’s involvement. There was one IFF-backed protest, and it wasn’t at the local jail but at City Hall where, for less than 10 minutes to accommodate the rally, one road was blocked, not several.

There were three pictures of the arrest posted on Facebook. One was taken down because it depicted images of the officer not associated with the arrest. That post was up for less than an hour.

The people who protested at the officer’s home did so without the advice or consent of IFF whose position is that protests should be confined to public spaces, not the homes of public servants. The editorial board implies the protesters were “white supremacists” and “militia types.” Yet, there’s zero evidence to support such claims. More fake news hype.

Accuracy seems not to matter to the Post Register as it twists information and leaves out critical details to attack a good organization fighting tirelessly to free Idaho and get people back to work. Think about it. Besides IFF, who else is leading the fight to free Idaho? There are not many, except conservative Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin whom the press vilifies for her courage.

Simply put, IFF is one of very few organizations seizing on this moment to remind Americans they were born with certain unalienable rights — among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are so important to our nation’s founders they incorporated them into our declaration of independence and are protected in the U.S. Constitution. Such rights do not disappear in a crisis — especially when the government unnecessarily prolongs the crisis. The governor’s order for people to stay home and to shutter businesses does not surpass the people’s right to be free.

The editorial board says if the IFF board does not fire IFF’s staff, then I am “choosing to be responsible for its recent actions: endangering children, the elderly, health care workers and police officers.” Leave it to the Post Register to require from others something it will not do itself: Will the Post Register hold itself responsible for supporting overreaching government COVID-19 policies that deny people the opportunity to work, pay their mortgages, feed their families, keep their businesses open, and seek treatment for physical and mental health needs, and the resulting increase in suicides, family abuse and depression? Will the Post Register own up to its role in the medical community’s latest worry that prolonged home confinement is destroying people’s immune systems?

Rather than attacking the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the editorial board should own its mistakes of allowing elected officials to assume absolute power without a drop of accountability. So, how about firing the Post Register editorialists who cheer as freedom is eroded, lives damaged and the economy destroyed?