Up North

 It's pretty bleak around here. It's easy enough to point fingers at states like Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, insisting that they are Red States. The ghost of the Confederacy rearing its ugly head one hundred sixty years later. 

But it's not a simple geography lesson. That Mason Dixon Line doesn't tell the whole story. Not just that whole North-South conundrum. I submit to you that anomaly known as Idaho. A recent Gallup poll tells us that the Potato State is the third most Republican state in the union. Idaho is home to one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States. It took a Supreme Court decision to allow emergency room doctors to be allowed to perform abortions in the event that a mother would die unless the procedure was done. 

Insert polite but sarcastic applause for Supreme Court here. 

Politicians in Idaho who have merely toed the traditional moderate conservative line have been voted out in favor of new candidates pushing the boundaries of Far Right. Recently, a former state senator who was pushed out was able to narrowly defeat his more toxic replacement for a chance to represent his district. Jim Woodward believes that abortions should be made available to rape victims. His nickname? "Liberal Jim." 

In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center was tracking twenty-five different antigovernment groups in Idaho, including such fan favorites as The Proud Boys and Moms For Liberty. It used to be that the frothy-mouthed types in the Pacific Northwest were confined largely to armed encampments of militia/survivalist types who could be dismissed as "fringe." That distinction is no longer clear as the anti-vax, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-common sense folks have rallied together to become a political force. Way up north. 

Recent events have only emboldened these tiny minds. But what if your brain operates somewhere above the lizard level determined "safe" by the Idaho powers that be? Maybe a trip to the library would help. 

Just kidding. The state of Idaho recently passed the Children's School and Library Protection Act. According to this new law, school and library staff members who provide youths with materials deemed harmful to minors can be fined two hundred fifty dollars. This may seem far less draconian than the death penalty suggested by some Idaho lawmakers for doctors who provide abortions, but that law never passed. The library law did. Patrons of Idaho libraries may now request relocation of materials to adults-only areas, and libraries will have thirty days to fulfill the request. If they fail to comply, they will incur fines and may face “any other relief available by law,” which could include “injunctive relief sufficient to prevent the defendant school or public library from violating the requirements." If that last bit seems a little vague, that's probably on purpose. Because jailing librarians and limiting access to libraries to adults only sounds a little crazy. 

Doesn't it?