Extremists in Idaho
A few days ago, a new organization appeared in social media, creating posts that were quickly shared in various conservative groups. Calling themselves Idahoans Against Extremism, this group claims to be “a coalition of small business owners, faith leaders, farmers and ranchers, and members of the military and law enforcement dedicated to combating political extremism in Idaho.” Their Facebook page launched on April 12th of this year, and their website, defendandprotectidaho.com, was registered on April 6th.
While their mission statement says they oppose extremism in general, they are clearly targeting one particular political figure: Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin.
If you have been a longtime reader, you will recall me talking about the lieutenant governor’s video message to the America First Political Action Conference on February 25th. Her opponents seized on that appearance as confirmation of her extremism, as the organizers of AFPAC have several views that are much further right than generic Republicans are comfortable with. It is one thing to disagree with those views, but quite another to attempt to cancel a fellow conservative Republican because she dared speak to the young people of AFPAC.
That initial flurry of outrage apparently failed to slow down McGeachin’s campaign, as she has gained ground on Governor Little according to the latest polls. Cue this new website and Facebook page. The PAC has purchased ads on Facebook, promoting their posts to local voters.
The founder of the Defend and Protect Idaho PAC, which runs the Facebook page, is former Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney. The first post on Idahoans Against Extremism was an editorial in the Idaho Statesman by Mr. Raney himself in which he denounced protests aimed at restoring baby Cyrus to his family after the child was seized by medical personnel and state bureaucrats. He used the opinion page of the left-wing Statesman to not only denounce gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy, who encouraged the protests, but Lt. Governor McGeachin as well:
True conservatives value freedom and respect the rule of law. Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who promoted Bundy’s actions and encouraged his calls for violence, is equally responsible and equally dangerous.
Former Sheriff Gary Raney, Idaho Statesman, 3/19/22
Who is Gary Raney, and why did he start this PAC?
Raney is no stranger to controversy himself. In 2013, he publicly denounced efforts by the Idaho State Legislature and his fellow county sheriffs to protect the rights of Idaho citizens to keep and bear arms in the face of the Obama Administration’s attempt to infringe upon the 2nd Amendment. Raney claimed that the supremacy clause of the US Constitution meant that he was required to enforce federal law, no matter how unconstitutional. This ran contrary to centuries of common law, going back to medieval England, that your local sheriff is one of the last lines of defense in protecting your natural rights. It is no surprise that Raney is out here calling McGeachin extreme, as he seems to consider anyone who advocates standing up to federal overreach as beyond the pale.
In fact, Raney seems to view any disagreement with government as extremism. When Governor Little locked down the state of Idaho in 2020, shuttering businesses and forbidding people from going to church, Raney was supporting him every step of the way. He claimed that citizens had no constitutional right to defy mask mandates and agreed with Democrat Diane Lachiando that anti-lockdown protestors were not heroes. When Lt. Governor McGeachin said in May 2020 that it was time to end the lockdown and get back to work, Raney said “We need to do all we can to keep Gov. Little safe and healthy. Can you imagine?”
Raney’s Twitter feed is full of establishment talking points. He often retweets the left-wing Idaho Statesman, he supported Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s decision not to join Texas’ lawsuit after the 2020 election, and he called the January 6th protestors terrorists. When Representative Priscilla Giddings announced her campaign for lieutenant governor, Raney said “Can we get any lower?” He also follows Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Senator Mitt Romney, who have been very vocal in their opposition to President Trump and his supporters for the past two years.
Raney is an outspoken supporter of The Idaho 97, one of the many left-wing groups here in Idaho that masquerade as common sense and nonpartisan. This group supports mandatory vaccination and masks, said that Dr. Ryan Cole is dangerous, demanded an investigation into Ada County Commissioner Ryan Davidson, and called for the expulsion of Representative Priscilla Giddings from the legislature. They also oppose the school choice movement. This is what Gary Raney thinks Idaho should be.
Mr. Raney’s admonition that McGeachin is too extreme for Idaho makes sense once you understand how far left he actually is. He might see himself as a centrist or a moderate Republican but he clearly seems to dislike and distrust the common people of Idaho. In 2015, when Greg Pruett and the Second Amendment Alliance first introduced a bill to bring constitutional carry to Idaho, then-Sheriff Raney opposed it. Idaho finally achieved constitutional carry in 2020, when Senator Christy Zito pushed through H516. The bloodbath that so many statist sheriffs predicted has not come to pass.
Former Sheriff Raney is not the only law enforcement veteran to attack the lieutenant governor. Defend and Protect Idaho released a video last week featuring former Boise Deputy Police Chief Ron Winegar denouncing Lt. Governor McGeachin for associating with the “white nationalists” at AFPAC as well as the Idaho Three Percenters, a local militia group that generated controversy when some of their members joined Ammon Bundy’s occupation of the federal building in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016. Mr. Winegar claimed that the people that McGeachin interacts with are akin to a militia group that he engaged in 1997. This is clearly specious reasoning, but this group is obviously making an emotional appeal, not a logical one.
Winegar made news in 2020 when, as Acting Police Chief in Boise, he banned the display of the blue line flag, saying it had become a “divisive symbol” for some people.
Do you get it yet? The Republican establishment wants to avoid anything that is divisive and attacks anyone to their right as extreme. Raney, Winegar, and anyone else involved with Defend and Protect Idaho are using the imagery of law enforcement to convince voters to protect the establishment at all costs. Conservatives trust law enforcement, and this group is leaning on that trust to scare you away from supporting candidates that threaten the existing power structure.
I understand why establishment figures, who support Governor Little, would be spreading this nonsense. What boggles my mind is when I see supporters of Ed Humphreys spreading it as well. The entire point of the Humphreys campaign has been to attack the establishment, to demand reform and change, to call out the moneyed interests that hold the puppet strings. Attacking McGeachin using establishment talking points is self-defeating. If Humphreys supporters continue using material from Idahoans Against Extremism, then it plays right into the hands of critics who accuse Humphreys of working with the governor to split the conservative vote.
I do not believe this charge, but it becomes harder to fight when supporters of both Little and Humphreys alike are using the same material to attack McGeachin. Understand that establishment voices like Raney consider Mr. Humphreys to be just as extreme and dangerous as the lieutenant governor, which means they are using his supporters to attack a fellow conservative.
This PAC first came to my attention when it was shared on Facebook by a Humphreys supporter, but Humphreys himself said that he was unaware of its existence. I believe him. I just think that supporters of one campaign or another have to be careful about using the rhetorical weapons they come across, because they might be double-edged swords.
This line of attack is an old one. In 1964, the GOP establishment of the day, led by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, accused Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona of being too extreme for America. The great Phyllis Schlafly wrote a book about that campaign called A Choice Not An Echo, calling for conservatives to reject the establishment. Goldwater himself famously embraced the label:
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964 Republican National Convention
Unfortunately, Goldwater lost the presidential election to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide. Does that mean that the establishment was right? There was at least one man who was not afraid to support Senator Goldwater in 1964. In fact, this man gave a stirring speech during that campaign, endorsing Goldwater and calling for the American people to make a choice between freedom and communism, between liberty and surrender. When that man ran for the presidency in his own right, the establishment called him extreme too.
Today, even the most left-wing Republicans pay homage to President Ronald Reagan.
Extremist is what they call you when they cannot debate your ideas. Extremist is a term of purely emotional rhetoric, designed to scare uninformed voters away from issues that actually matter and from candidates who will actually do something about them. Consider that the social and political views that were considered normal twenty years ago make you an extremist today.
The progressive left is sailing our ship of state into a massive iceberg, full speed ahead. Conservatives like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ed Humphreys, and Janice McGeachin have been urging us to turn the ship around to avoid disaster, while figures such as Gary Raney and his PAC are telling us that our real problem is extremism.
The only solutions to the problems we face in Idaho and in America are extreme solutions. If you’re not an extremist, then what are you even doing?
Well said Brian, and to add to it and paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King "the question is not whether to become an extremist, but rather what kind of extremist to become."