The most feared words ever spoken by man have been the words: “I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help you.”
Ronald Reagan
Citizens of Idaho should know that a fundamental change in our state government is about to happen in July. A new codification of Idaho Statutes will take effect in which a “State of Emergency” clause has been added to all legislation that was passed in the 2024 legislative session. This is unprecedented.
This was not done as a general blanket pronouncement, but rather, each and every piece of legislation that was passed contained an emergency clause. A new custom of declaring an emergency in every bill appears to be the preferred language of legislative enactment.
Historically, a “State of Emergency” is declared when a disaster is imminent, is unfolding, or has occurred. A pre-emptive declaration of an emergency, on the other hand, when no disaster event has been identified, begs credulity. Such a practice does not represent prudent foresight, but rather an entrapment to the hypothetical dangers which might dwell in the imagination of any agency bureaucrat.
While a critical analysis with sources is offered in a different report found elsewhere, what has changed can be summarized thusly:
Instead of responding to a crisis as it happens and develops – which is the normal response to disasters (whether natural or man-made) – Idaho’s administrative state wants to preempt any potential catastrophe by normalizing the minutiae of bureaucratic regulation. In other words, what is normal human behavior has now been pathologized or criminalized in a bid to “prevent” catastrophes. Every ordinary decision by the citizen must now be supervised and approved by an appointed bureaucratic overlord.
The engineers behind this change of our form of government were the personnel at the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (OEM) who have used the post-Covid era as an opportunity to solidify power. All state agencies at all levels of government must now coordinate with the OEM. It is worth noting that the OEM is a part of the military arm of Idaho’s executive branch and represents the Governor’s office as “Commander in Chief.” In other words, all state agencies have been brought under the military venue in a permanent state of martial law rule.
The Idaho Legislature has turned Governor “Brad” Little into our “Brad chicken Little” who is telling us that normal life in Idaho is a continuous unfolding disaster which must now receive the constant oversight of his military preparedness team for “normal” life to occur.
- If you hunt for antlers, that’s a potential disaster.
- If you build a house, that’s a potential disaster.
- If you have a baby, that’s a potential disaster.
- If you grow a field of wheat, that’s a potential disaster.
- If you mow the lawn, that’s a potential disaster.
- If someone checks your pelvis, that’s a potential disaster.
What was until now a part of the citizen’s right of self-determination, it has suddenly become a matter of public crisis.
There were over 300 pieces of legislation passed in the 2024 session affecting all areas of life. They all have been declared emergencies requiring a disaster response from Idaho’s administrative state. Most of them go into effect July 1, 2024.
What will unfold is not entirely clear. While this is new for Idaho, evidently other states, such as Oregon and California, have used this kind of legislative language for some time. Idaho is “catching up.”
That provides us small comfort because in the eyes of most Idahoans, these states are considered bureaucratic madhouses from which their respective citizens are fleeing. And now we know why. With this new language for legislation, Idaho will become “California-lite.” If this new “declaration of emergency” is not rescinded, it is reasonable to expect that Idaho bureaucrats will become very aggressive against its citizens.
National economic ruin and social unrest may become the pretext for certain forces within Idaho’s administrative state to exercise dictatorial power. The Idaho Legislature just gave them a blank check.
Idaho’s tiny band of “patriot” legislators has been silent on this new development. Their silence suggests that they are either utterly incompetent individuals or else they are complicit in this act of sedition against the Constitution. The Constitution guarantees to every state “a republican form of government.” The Idaho Constitution, in turn, gave that republican form of government to its citizens. A republic is a form of government that is founded upon the consent of the governed, the opposite of martial law rule.
The Legislature’s abdication of power to an administrative apparatchik as a response to an unnamed “emergency” constitutes dereliction of duty. The Governor must immediately respond to this new situation by calling an emergency (sic) legislative session to rescind these emergency clauses. Unfortunately, it was the Office of the Governor which declared the emergency in the first place. So, the hope is slim.
But it is an election year and public scrutiny can still create a positive response from our elected officials.
— James Stivers, 5/15/24
*”Brad Chicken Little” is a satirical adaptation of the name of Idaho’s Governor, Brad Little. “Chicken Little” is a reference to the nursery tale about an alarmist who cried “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”
For a critical analysis with sources, go here: Profiling Martial Law Rule in Idaho