By Idaho Representative Steve Berch
The majority party locally and nationally often uses the slogan: “Faith Family Freedom.” Those are great values. They aren’t partisan values – they are American values. People of all political stripes attend the church of their choice, raise a family and die for their country.
But there is one critical value missing from that slogan: Community.
This omission reveals a growing concern as control of the Idaho Legislature shifts toward exalting “individual freedom” at the expense of protecting the interests of others in the community – especially those who are most vulnerable and least represented. The failure to acknowledge the importance of community as a societal value results in poor governance:
- Setting budgets that limit or eliminate vital services which benefit smaller portions of the population is not being frugal, it’s callous.
- Threatening to throw doctors in jail to protect the unborn is not compassion, it’s cruel.
- Writing laws that enable people to do what they want, whenever and wherever they want, regardless of the consequences it has on others is not individual freedom, it’s anarchy.
It’s a matter of perspective. If one spends their political life in a narrow ideological echo chamber, it becomes difficult or even impossible to appreciate and respect people from other walks of life and with other points of view.
This is why I knock on doors (over 38,000 so far). It informs me. I see the way state government affects the lives of other people in ways that it doesn’t affect me personally. It provides a broader perspective when deciding how to vote on a bill by identifying the:
- assumptions being made that may not be true or accurate
- unintended consequences for scenarios not being considered
- things we value and take for granted that might go away.
Community is not a value for those in the legislature who want to turn Idaho into an “us-versus-them” society. Maybe that’s why it’s missing from the slogan.
I want to live in a society where we respect those who are different than us and where we are civil toward those who may hold different beliefs and opinions. I want to live in an “us-and-them” society. That’s the Idaho Way.
Or at least it used to be.