Op-Ed: This is Called Accountability

Mickelsen is dishonest and must be held accountable.

It’s not a new thing that politicians lie to the people. Politics and dishonesty go together like ham and eggs. At the national level, we have become accustomed to lies from Joe Biden about the economy, the border, and national security.

But Biden does not own the market on dishonesty. Unfortunately, this is a problem in Idaho politics as well, and it is not a new phenomenon.

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An observer of Idaho government might wonder why a state with so many Republicans who self-report that they’re conservative has allowed labor union bosses to control our schools. Or how our state still has an income tax much higher than when leftist Democrats implemented it in the 1930s. Or how we are one of few states that taxes groceries. Or how government welfare has become the state’s biggest program. And on and on and on.

The reason is that politicians pretend to be conservative. They pretend to be Republican. They vote conservative on one or two issues and then vote with and as Democrats on basically everything else.

This is why the elected members of the Republican central committees in Idaho have begun to ask detailed questions of legislators about their voting records. This is done to understand or hold legislators accountable for their own written pledges to uphold the conservative values stated in the Republican Party Platform.

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True to form, Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen has resorted to dishonesty about the central committee’s inquiry into her leftist votes. Mickelsen is gaslighting voters, pretending that there’s nothing to see, no reason to inquire as to her performance.

She claims that although she did sign a pledge to support the GOP’s conservative platform that the platform was changed after she did so. But the changes to the platform were relatively minor, merely bolstering the conservative positions already in the document. There are no new policies in the platform. And even if Mickelsen has disagreements with the platform’s contents, she is always welcome to note her disagreements with those “new changes.” Was she censored for the so-called change? NO

The question this process attempts to answer is “is this candidate for office a conservative Republican or a Republican in Name Only?” If Mickelsen is unable to adhere to Republican principles, the party will not stand in her way if she chooses to run again for office. It is possible she would be more comfortable in the Democrat Party. Or maybe she has no particular political ideology and she’d rather run as an independent. Those options are open to her.

But she shouldn’t tell people she’s a conservative Republican, vote with and like the leftist Democrats, and then run around telling everyone how conservative she is, and get away with it. This is called accountability. The integrity of the Republican Party, in pursuit of conservative policies, is what this exercise is all about.

If that is too much for her, I’m sure the party of Joe Biden would welcome her with open arms.

This Op-Ed was submitted by Doyle Beck. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.