Op-Ed: Mayor Greenlights Radicalism in Boise

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean has an established and verifiable record of greenlighting radicalism in Idaho’s capital city. Since assuming office in early 2020, Boise’s mayor has promoted expensive and unpopular policy and failed to denounce the radical and unhinged behavior of her staff and councilmembers. Boise is kind, responsive, and good stewards of the people’s respect and these latest actions by our mayor and her politicos are dangerous for the future of Boise.

When mayor McLean campaigned, she conducted over 30 listening tours across Boise to hear from residents about local issues. Consistently among the top concerns were rising property taxes and growth in the Treasure Valley. Since assuming her office, mayor McLean has not only failed to address these key issues, but she has introduced and supported radical, unpopular, and expensive policies that fail to address residents’ key concerns.

These failures began with the “Equitable City for Everyone” policy proposal that called for city-sponsored abortions and sex education, elimination of bail programs, expensive layers of ‘social justice’ bureaucracy, and recommendations deeply unpopular with Boise residents. Since releasing these unpopular proposals, Mayor McLean has distanced herself from these plans in hopes to convince Boiseans that this is not her true agenda. Unfortunately for the mayor, other Boise radicals have not been so silent.

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Earlier this year, Councilwoman Lisa Sanchez illustrated her unapologetically crude and radical beliefs for our city. On June 16, Councilwoman Sanchez rightfully condemned the man who discharged a weapon at a protest at the Capitol. However, her condemnation came nothing short of a racially-motivated response promulgating hate and division from City Hall. Mayor McLean never denounced this inappropriate and vile approach of Sanchez. Just a few weeks later, Sanchez refused to stand for the American flag during a city council meeting. Once again, mayor McLean remained silent.

This radicalism has escalated so far that councilwoman Elaine Clegg, who is widely supported in the community, faced an angry mob outside her house for failing to support stripping Boise Police of their annual operating budget. Mayor McLean had no response for her friend.

Despite the message of unity and inclusion, the Mayor’s staff is encouraging, and in some instances, calling for this unrest, overthrow, and riot against government officials by using their personal social media to rally mobs into our streets. This is not how Boise leads. The failure of mayor McLean to vigorously denounce these actions and take steps to heal our community makes her complicit to the radical and dangerous shift in Boise’s leadership.

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Boise has always been a quiet peaceful community. Under this mayor’s leadership, protests and civic unrest, driven by the radical rhetoric and policies of our leaders, will continue to occur. The mayor has chosen to ignore those peaceably carrying an American flag for those who threatened city prosecutors with violence. Racially aimed responses are seen as acceptable. Spending that will never lower property taxes continues in this administration.

This is not the Boise we know and love. This is not the Boise where we raised our families. This is a Boise that has an eerie similarity to Portland and Seattle. We must save our city before it succumbs to the dystopian west coast outcome, and our action begins by recalling Mayor McLean and her radical counterpart Lisa Sanchez.