Protecting the Constitution and the Police

Julianne Young and the Idaho Freedom Foundation Are Enabling an America Hater and Police Hater

Parrish Miller has been listed on the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s website as one of its three “Idaho Freedom Index Analysts” who evaluate and score hundreds of Idaho legislative bills every year. During the 2020 Idaho regular legislative session, Miller scored more than 90 bills, including over half of the bills rated by the Idaho Freedom Foundation that originated in the Idaho House.

During the 2020 Idaho special legislative session in August, Miller scored all of the bills in the Idaho House. In short, Miller is a major player at the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

In April 2020 the editorial board of the Post Register called out the Idaho Freedom Foundation for some of Miller’s posts on Facebook. The Post Register said, “By plain appearance, this is an argument purporting to justify the premeditated murder of police officers for doing their jobs.”

Idaho Freedom Foundation President Wayne Hoffman responded by defending Miller, saying, “The Post Register has not been honest in its portrayal of Parrish’s ‘controversial’ post, in which he used neither the word ‘murder’ or ‘police.’”

Unfortunately the editorial board of the Post Register had not seen the following statements buried deep in Parrish Miller’s blog www.parrishmiller.com in which Parrish Miller achieved the almost impossible explicitness that Hoffman was demanding.

Miller stated, “If anyone—including an employee of a criminal gang which calls itself a government—attempts to initiate force against an innocent individual, it is perfectly justifiable for that individual . . . to use defensive force (up to and including lethal force).”

Miller also stated, “I am not ‘proud to be an American’ . . . One day there may well be a good reason to celebrate an ‘Independence Day,’ but it won't be July 4th. It will be whatever day mankind is finally freed from the curse of the U.S. government. I eagerly await the news of its eradication.”

Perhaps Miller’s Facebook posts were barely vague enough to be remotely defensible to those willing to completely ignore the context surrounding Miller’s Facebook posts, but will Hoffman double down on defending Miller’s claims that it is morally justifiable to use “lethal force” against a government “employee” to “resist arrest”? It’s almost impossible to use words that more clearly advocate for violence against police.

Miller has worked on the campaigns of several politicians allied with the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Campaign finance disclosure reports show that political candidates have paid Miller and his company Design by Parrish more than $25,000, including more than $5,000 from Lt. Governor Janet McGeachin’s campaign and almost $1,000 from my opponent, Representative Julianne Young.

Additionally, as first reported in The Lewiston Tribune, McGeachin has paid Miller more than $18,000 in Idaho taxpayer funds for computer services and professional services provided to the Lt. Governor’s office.

I call on the Idaho Freedom Foundation, Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, and my opponent, Julianne Young, to denounce the killing of police and to condemn America hater Parrish Miller. I am appalled that the Idaho Freedom Foundation, McGeachin, and Young and have allowed an America hater and police hater to work for them. By paying Miller and his company, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, McGeachin, and Young are supporting and enabling a vicious America hater whose writings incite violence against police.

If elected, I will sponsor legislation similar to Georgia House Bill 838 that will make it illegal to seek to harass and intimidate police officers and other first responders. That way, Ammon Bundy or other Idaho Freedom Foundation supporters can be sent to jail if they seek to harass or intimidate the police.

Soon after I called out Miller for inflammatory comments in his blog posts, Miller deleted those posts and claimed that he was simply expressing his love of country while “opposing” its government. Miller was not merely opposing the U.S. government but calling for its complete eradication.

It is an insidious lie that you can love your country while calling for the eradication of its government. The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase “and to the Republic for which it stands.” Anyone who calls for the eradication of the U.S. government is calling for the eradication of the Republic. I stood with Julianne Young at a Bingham County Farm Bureau meeting in 2020 and recited the Pledge of Allegiance with her, yet she did not think it important to disavow her campaign worker’s hatred of America.

Moreover, it is impossible to eradicate the U.S. government without also eradicating the Constitution. I swore an oath when I entered the U.S. Army to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and I will actively defend the Constitution against Miller and any of his enablers, including Julianne Young, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, and Janice McGeachin.

So that Parrish Miller cannot twist the facts or hide his comments, below are screenshots from his deleted blogs: