OPINION: Idaho is in trouble when extremists write laws

This editorial was published in The Idaho Statesman of Boise.

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As if we needed more evidence that the Idaho Legislature is being run by extremists, we now find out, thanks to an article by InvestigateWest reporter Daniel Walters, that Eric Parker has been the one behind a bill that would gut Idaho’s anti-domestic terrorism law.

Parker told Investigate-West that he’s the key architect of the bill.

You may remember Parker as the man who was photographed pointing a semiautomatic rifle at federal agents in a Nevada showdown in 2014 over Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees on federal land.

In the dispute with Bundy, federal agents stood down and retreated, failing to enforce the laws of the United States because of threats of violence from people like Parker and other Bundy followers.

One could reasonably call that domestic terrorism.

The USA Patriot Act defines domestic terrorism as a criminal act that is “dangerous to human life” and appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence government policy by intimidation or coercion or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.

Sound familiar?

Parker tried to defend the bill by telling InvestigateWest that the bill would protect left-wing protesters, as well. Parker clearly misses the point and thinks that designating someone a domestic terrorist is somehow based in ideology. It’s not. If a left-wing protester were aiming an AR-15 at a federal agent in an effort to get that federal agent to back down and not enforce the law, that would still be domestic terrorism, no matter how you slice it.

Domestic terrorism laws aren’t about “going after” the right.

But this is a universe in which some people believe that the Jan. 6 rioters were just on a “normal tourist visit,” that the people who have been arrested, tried and convicted are “political hostages” and that Donald Trump is being prosecuted to keep him out of the White House.

Senate Bill 1220 was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, and approved by the Senate nearly along party lines.

Even though Parker tries to distance himself from fascists and the white nationalists who are flocking to northern Idaho, this bill would actually provide them safe haven.

As we have written before, if passed, the bill would send a clear message to extremists and domestic terrorists: Welcome to Idaho.

Parker told InvestigateWest that he really wants to get rid of the domestic terrorism law altogether, but since that might be too much to ask, he at least wanted something that would effectively nullify the law, making it moot and meaningless.

At the very least, Idaho Republican legislators are being disingenuous about the bill.

Supporters cited parents being targeted by the federal government as domestic terrorists, as if we were talking about a mom complaining about a snow day, when in reality, we’re talking about the mom who showed up at a school board meeting in Virginia and said, “I will bring every gun loaded and ready” the following Monday if the school board didn’t drop its mask mandate.

That’s just “engaging in the political process”?

The bill would define terrorism as applying only to those affiliated with a foreign entity.

When U.S. senators and representatives, members of the military, the vice president and members of the Cabinet take the oath of office, they say, “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

It doesn’t say, “and domestic only when they’re affiliated with a foreign entity.”

As was pointed out during a hearing on the bill, passing Parker’s bill would leave folks like Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh and Idaho’s own Aryan Nations off the list of domestic terrorists. In fact, it was in response to the Aryan Nations that the original Idaho law was introduced and passed. It would exempt one of the most prolific terrorist organizations ever to attack U.S. citizens in order to achieve political aims — the Ku Klux Klan.

It’s bad enough that Idaho seems to be a magnet for far-right extremists trying to change Idaho; now we find out they’re writing the laws, too.

TNS