Idaho newspapers don’t run every column Jim Jones writes, but you can bet that if he writes about the Idaho Freedom Foundation, they will publish it — because they hate the IFF as much as Jones does.
Jones’ columns are full of the same lies that we’ve come to expect from him. Jones has started a new political action committee and is raising money for the express purpose of attacking my organization and its allies. He’s writing about the IFF almost weekly now, so our rebuttal is important.
A quick note: I don’t expect your local newspaper to carry this response, just as I have noticed that newspapers leave out that small detail I mentioned about Jones raising money to combat us. But here is my response to his statements:
Claim: The IFF “has worked hard to sabotage Idaho’s public schools.” False. Idaho’s government-run schools are doing a fantastic job sabotaging themselves by giving control to the labor unions and exposing students to leftist ideology. It’s also no secret that Idaho student test scores have remained flat and mediocre since long before IFF even existed. All we have done is point out the problem and recommend solutions, including universal school choice, which Jones has opposed.
Claim: The IFF tried to “prevent folks of modest means from getting medical care.” False again. The IFF opposed the expansion of the state Medicaid program that was originally intended for poor and disabled people. The expanded Medicaid includes able-bodied, childless adults regardless of income status. Their presence on the system not only takes the focus away from the program’s original intent, but also comes at a much higher cost than originally projected. What’s more, Medicaid itself represents a socialist regime that comes at the expense of families, churches, and nonprofit organizations that care more about a person’s health and wellbeing than a healthcare bureaucracy.
Claim: The IFF “stoke(s) up conflict over any number of non-existent issues just to score political points.” Double false. As I have said many times before, please go to our website and read the research that our team has worked on. It details the infiltration of critical social justice in our colleges, universities, and K-12 public schools. See example after example of the use of critical race theory and the hypersexualization of children in our own state. Despite having said this over and over, the media have done a disservice to their readers and viewers by ignoring the evidence in furtherance of the left’s agenda.
I’d much rather work on tax and monetary policies. I’d rather focus our energies on restoring constitutional principles and promoting liberty. But the indoctrination of our children is the single biggest problem facing America today, and it’s occurring in Idaho communities as it is in the public schools of more radically progressive places like Portland or Seattle.
Finally, Jones attacks several of my friends in his latest missive: Raul Labrador, Priscilla Giddings, Dorothy Moon, Branden Durst, Janice McGeachin, Barbara Ehardt, Ron Nate, Bryan Smith, and Doyle Beck. Each of these men and women are people of principle and integrity. No one requires them to engage in the public sphere. They do so at great personal cost, attracting enemies and subjecting themselves to relentless vitriol and lies from leftists like Jones. They do so because we’re all invested in saving America from socialism.
Those are the real reasons Jones and his petty leftist allies hate us, and why you and I keep being subjected to his diatribes.
