The Rachel Report
Monday, August 8th, 2022
Issue #13
THIS MONTHS LIBERTY GEM:
Because I am SO excited for the Warbird Roundup, I want to give a little history on one of my favorite historical military figures, General Jimmy Doolittle.
General Doolittle is typically known for the infamous Tokyo Raid (also known as the Doolittle Raid), but he has also made extremely important contributions to modern aviation, helped pioneer the US Air Force in 1947, was an expert military strategist, and aeronautical engineer. Doolittle flew the first transcontinental flight across the United States made in less than 24 hours in 1922, flew several record-breaking speed flights in the 1930s, and helped pioneer instrument flying; which he himself characterized as his greatest achievement in life.
General Doolittle’s military service stretched from World War I through the height of the Cold War in the late 1950s. Throughout his time serving in the United States Army (1917-1918), United States Air Corps (1918-1941), United States Army Air Force (1941-1947), and the freshly formed United States Air Force (1947-1959), General Doolittle was awarded an Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Silver Star, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Medal of Honor; amongst several others.
Out of all his years of service, Doolittle’s most harrowing mission was in 1942. A mere month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Lt. Col. was selected by General Henry “Hap” Arnold to lead Special Aviation Project No. 1, which would be the first United States attack on Japanese soil.
Doolittle and his Raiders spent four months preparing to complete an impossible mission. Intelligence suggested that Japanese waters and the mainland were heavily fortified and on top of that, the Squadron’s bombers wouldn’t be able to carry enough fuel to get them out of enemy territory. Alas, Doolittle and his men made the choice to carry out their mission.
In mid-April, sixteen Army B-25 bombers were loaded on the USS Hornet, each equipped with doubled fuel capacity and high explosive and incendiary bombs marked for Tokyo, Yokosuka, Kobe, Yokohama, and Nagoya. After successfully hitting mostly industrial targets, the 16 bombers, lacking the fuel necessary for returning to the aircraft carrier, flew towards Russia and China, hoping to land on friendly soil.
Fifteen of the B-25’s landed or crashed in occupied China where they were helped by locals in getting to territory controlled by the Chinese Nationalists. Three crew members were killed in the crashes and eight were captured by Japanese soldiers of which three would eventually be executed. In the months that followed, the Chinese paid dearly for aiding the American pilots with estimates reaching as high as 250,000 Chinese that were brutally killed for “aiding Americans.” The remaining bomber landed in Vladivostok Soviet Union where the crew was interned.
The Doolittle Raid was celebrated throughout the United States as a massive success. Though the bombing didn’t cripple Japanese industrial production as the Americans had hoped, the attack was a massive psychological blow to Japan.
THIS MONTHS EVENTS
Monday, August 8th I will be hosting another Republican Youth event! As the new Youth Chair for Canyon County, I will be hosting two or three events per month throughout the summer. Join us for volleyball and popsicles at 6pm at Liberty Park in Nampa! Tell your friends!
August 10th-13th is the Owyhee County Rodeo and I will be there the evening of the 11th! Gates open for the pre-rodeo at 6! This rodeo is FILLED with Jesus-loving, family-friendly, and pro-America patriots! Make sure you plan to stay after the rodeo for live music and swing dancing!!
Saturday, August 13th, Hold the Line is coming to Idaho! This is an event you will NOT want to miss. Speakers include THE David Harris Jr., Sean Feucht, and our very own Idaho Representative, Priscilla Giddings! Register to get your tickets THIS WEEK to secure a spot at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hold-the-line-intensive-idaho-tickets-358952375217 use code: JULY10 for $10 off!
August 16th-20th is the Caldwell Night Rodeo! Friends this rodeo is one of the BEST in the West! Gates open each night at 5:30, the junior rodeo begins each day at 6:30, and the PRCA rodeo begins at 7:45! I will be there the evening of the 17th! Catch me on the “Rowdy” side (East bleachers)!
Monday, August 22nd, join us for another youth event at the Western Idaho Fair for the Chris Janson concert at 6:30pm at Expo Idaho, 5610 N. Glenwood St. Boise.
Friday, August 27th-August 28th is the Warbird Roundup! Gates open at 8:30am both days and flying is from 9am-2pm. This is Idaho’s largest 2-day gathering of historic war planes. Come to see some incredible flying, historic planes, food, drinks, vendors, kid’s activities, and to honor our veterans and active duty service members, meet some amazing pilots, and hear from our VERY special guest speaker- Jonna Doolittle Hoppes. YES. THAT Doolittle! She is USAF General Jimmy Doolittle’s granddaughter who will speak about her grandfather in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid! I will be working the event as part of the Warhawk Museum team and would love to see you there!Tuesday, August 30th is ELECTION DAY!!! Please do not forget to vote! We will be voting on bonds and levies for schools. This is a very significant vote as it will effect whether or not we increase spending and raise taxes! If you have any questions, please email or call me. I’d love to chat with you about it!
THIS MONTHS LIBERTY
GEM Continued:
Many said the Tokyo Raid was a “suicide mission,” but years afterwards, General Doolittle explained it as a “calculated risk.” He explained in the months that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, hitting back at Japan was necessary and imperative, even if it meant it would be his “final mission.”
I don’t know about you, but I love studying this generation of Americans. I think it’s easy to look at the world around us in this day and age and think that evil has never before had such a foothold. To a degree, I’d have to disagree with that. Until this point in 1942, the world had never before seen such evil either. Fascism, communism, the Holocaust, brutality, famine, disease, economic downturn…death at unprecedented levels. Evil at unprecedented levels.
I think one of the big differences is that this generation, also referred to as the Greatest Generation, possessed a deep sense of duty, honor, responsibility, patriotism, and unity.
We have lost that on a wide scale in this country.
If you were to ask most of these brave men and women what compelled such great acts of heroism, more often than not they wouldn’t recognize it as such. They’d simply respond that they were just doing their job or doing what needed to be done. But the reality is, without their acts of duty, we would not enjoy the freedoms we have today.
On the 45th anniversary of the Tokyo Raid, General Doolittle described the character of all Americans, not just himself and his Raiders, during the Second World War as “duty-bound and honor-driven” to protect “the free world” from all who dare threaten it.
Whether holding the line on the homefront, safeguarding non-war torn countries from falling to fascism or communism across the globe, or waging war on the battlefront…
This generation, the Greatest Generation, faced fear…and conquered it.
Dear Liberty-Lovers,
My apologies for this letter being a week late! I’m thankful for all the kind messages many of you have sent to check in! I love hearing from you all whether over email, text, or phone! I received a wonderful “just checking in” call from someone in district 10 that I door knocked in early May this past weekend and it made my day! I love staying connected with all of you and look forward to seeing each of you again over the months and years to come!
After being asked several times this week, I want to provide a quick update for you about what my team and I are up to these days.
We have big things in the works between drafting bills that will hopefully be presented this session in the legislature, working in the community to involve our youth, and meeting with legislators, school board members, and water and agriculture experts to help keep Idaho self-sustaining and red. We’re still working with an election integrity group and recently have met with a few church groups who are interested in educating their congregations more on civic engagement- which is SO exciting!
These next two years, our mission is very clear: educate and engage. Our goal is to educate Idahoans on their civic duty and engage We the People in our government so that we don’t see such low voter turnout in the 2024 primaries and to prevent Idaho from turning blue.
Besides all that, I am loving spending some time this summer going to the rodeo, playing volleyball, paddle boarding, spending time with family, drinking way too much lavender lemonade, and snuggling my nieces and nephews.
Okay! On to the big stuff!
July was a BIG month for the Republican Party! The IDGOP Convention was a HUGE success and exciting things are happening in the Idaho Republican Party. Elections were held, resolutions were debated and passed, and the conservative values of our platform were significantly safeguarded and strengthened in many ways.
But this was not easily accomplished.
Ugly politics were played, particularly in the Chairman race which included a great deal of candidate-smearing, and there was also a significant amount of heated debate in committees and on the floor. But I am excited to say that conservatives won almost every seat on the State Central Committee Board and many liberty resolutions were passed!
To give you a little break-down:
The Convention was held from July 14th-16th in Twin Falls, Idaho. Executive board members and delegates totaling roughly 700 people from every County all throughout Idaho, comprised the voting body. As outlined in my June email, the executive board of the State Central Committee (SCC) includes the executive board of each County and each member holds automatic voting rights at the IDGOP Convention. Delegates are elected by legislative District and County Party members!
The executive board and delegates are responsible to discuss the Party platform, any rule changes, and adopt or reject new resolutions. Members are assigned to committees, of which there are four: Resolutions Committee, Platform Committee, Rules Committee, and Credentials Committee. From Committee, all approved proposals then go before the general session, where all delegates vote.
In Resolutions Committee, there were 31 proposals concerning elections, voter affiliation, abortion, the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, foreign aid in Ukraine, former Republican Chairman Tom Luna’s lawsuit against the Ada County Central Committee, crossover voting, congressional term limits, and so on.
In the Platform Committee, delegates debated changes to the Party platform and proposed alterations to wording on certain issues including updating language used concerning abortion, altering the makeup of the legislative redistricting commission, clarifying and promoting school choice, and further restricting access in the primary election. The Party platform also now includes a new section called “Children,” which states that “a child’s biological gender is an essential characteristic of a child’s identity and purpose and the Party opposes any person, policy, or entity which attempts to confuse minors of their biological gender.”
The Rules Committee dealt with issues relating to the Party’s own rule structure concerning procedure at the SCC and County Central Committees; and finally, the Credentials Committee heard challenges to delegations from Central Committees around the state. Our people actually had to put up quite the fight to keep the Canyon County delegation from being thrown out of the Convention for the supposed “illegitimacy” of our delegation. Thankfully they were able to get that dismissed however, and Canyon County stayed in the fight!
Many resolutions and platform changes were adopted in general session and a total of fourteen resolutions were passed over the weekend, which were all big wins for the Republican Party and Idaho. Resolutions were passed that affirmed Idaho as a Second Amendment Sanctuary State, strengthened the Party’s stance on abortion, tightened voter and candidate affiliation rules, expanded our stance on school choice, and reinforcing voter ID resolutions.
These resolutions and platform changes are significant because legislators should work to codify these into laws during the next legislative session.
On the final day of Convention, elections were held and conservatives won four of five seats! And that includes our new Chairwomen…DOROTHY MOON! *cue stadium cheering*
It would be difficult to overstate how significant it is that we were able to get Representative Moon in as Chairwoman. After such incredible wins, I am full of hope and optimism for the Idaho Republican Party.
Recently we have seen division within the Republican Party at unprecedented levels. Truly this election was the ugliest in Idaho history. To say that the Republican Party is fracturing in Idaho is an understatement, but I truly believe we are looking at new opportunities for our Party to unify under the leadership of Dorothy Moon with the support of a strong and conservative board.
To be frank, I was nervous about the Convention…I thought, “if we lose the Party election, that’s it- we’re done for.” But after expressing this out loud, a dear friend reminded me about a little something called hope. She and I were at the Warhawk Museum looking at the D-Day display when she said, “look at the men in these photos. They knew they were going to die on that beach. But they still went because they had hope. Hope that their sacrifice would win the War. Hope that they would maybe survive. Hope, darling, is powerful. Never stop hoping. You keep standing up with the expectation of victory… That’s hope personified.”
It’s easy for me to look at the situation around me and think “this is it!” But after talking with my friend, I had hope for our state before the Convention and I tell you what… I have even more now. Not because one person is going to “save our Party.” But because we were the majority. Freedom lovers were the majority. Hope was the majority.
Hope of a unified and conservative Republican Party in Idaho. Hope of strong and principled legislators representing us at the Capitol. Hope of this state remaining RED.
Never lose hope. Hope gives us a will to fight.
In today’s world, we are waging a war on fear. The Greatest Generation…men like Jimmy Doolittle and his Raiders… stared fear in the face and didn’t blink first. They did what was necessary based on the hope of victory.
We fight for what’s right in hope of victory!
And we are seeing so many victories in Idaho right now my friends. I have so much hope for the Republican Party and so much hope for Idaho.
Keep standing for truth, justice, and liberty in your communities, districts, and counties.
It’s making a difference!
.
The Republican Party spoke at the Convention and it sounded like the “sweet bells of liberty.”
Let’s Keep Keepin’ Idaho, Idahome!
For Idaho,
Rachel Hazelip
“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” ~President Harry S. Truman
Soldiers at that day had hope, they had faith by trusting that there hope will produce results that are hoping for, their faith was led by work of action, their action was an ultimate sacrifice, they sacrificed their souls and lives for the sake of their country and their beloved people.
Abortion: “Your grandkids are gifts from God for keeping your kids.”(Pastor Robert Mores).
Victory: “Sucess is not final; failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” (Winston Churchill).