The Rachel Report Issue #23

Dear Liberty Lovers,

Happy June! It is difficult to believe that we are halfway through the year already! May brought both challenges and blessings! At the conclusion of my spring classes and the most recent portion of my dissertation work, my sister and I grabbed our passports and escaped to the beach for a few weeks for some much-needed respite.

One of the highlights of our trip was being able to fellowship with other believers at a Calvary Chapel in another country. I love hearing the gospel in other languages, worshiping with brothers and sisters in the Lord from a different culture, and connecting with the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit. How amazing is God that He transcends language, societal, and cultural barriers? We serve a very, very good God.  

While I was away, a “memory” popped up on my iPhone that reminded me on May 17^th that it had already been a year since my election race was decided. It was sweet flipping through photos and memories from March through May last year but it also brought about an alarming realization for me that made my heart race.

We are t-minus six months away from the next legislative session and the beginning of our next primary election campaign season.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, the 2022, 2024, and 2026 primary elections are the most critical in Idaho history. We gained a little bit of ground in the 2022 election, but the honest and perhaps brutal truth is: We didn’t gain enough to save our state.

The past year, we have seen some INCREDIBLE steps in the right direction (pun intended). The IDGOP is transforming under the bold leadership of our very own Chairwoman Dorothy Moon, the Senate is stronger than it has been in, I would argue, decades, and churches are getting involved in civics!

That is really exciting and encouraging! I think often I become so focused on the work to be done that I fail to look back and remember the work accomplished. I have been guilty of this since I was a child.

While traveling I had a moment of freak out where I thought, “We’re not ready! We have so much to do to prepare people for this upcoming election! We’re going to lose!” Then God reminded me that so many hearts have been prepared, worked on, and cultivated in the past year. God has done some mighty things in our little state and He is still working.   

I thought I’d share that in case anyone is feeling the way I was… I wanted to remind us that Idaho has awakened. I wrote that in the Rachel Report, I sent out the week following losing my primary election. I stated that “Idaho, we have awakened. And we are filled with terrible resolve to fight for what’s right.”

Republicans are awakening. Christians are awakening. Idaho is awakening.

County Central Committees are mobilizing, churches are hosting events, people are asking tough questions, mums and dads are showing up to school board meetings, and citizens are testifying in legislative committees… Very little if any of that was happening in March of last year.

Keep pressing forward. Now is the time to fight. Fight strategic. Fight hard. Fight now.

Positive change is taking place, but… we are still in danger of losing our state. We can’t let up even for a second or we’ll lose ground.

Last year when I was really tired, God reminded me of a memory from about five years ago on a hiking trip. My hiking group and I were high up in the mountains and got caught at the bottom of a gulch in a fairly big rainstorm. If you are familiar with gulches, you know that is not where you want to be when heavy rain hits. That’s a good way to drown or get buried in a landslide.

My group and I immediately started to hike straight up the side to the clearing on top but halfway through, the heavy rain turned the dirt into deep, slippery mud. For a while, I would climb a few steps on all fours, pause to catch my breath in the knee-deep mud, then keep going. But during that pause, I would slip a foot or two backward. Seeing this, one of my friends looked over his shoulder and yelled, “Don’t pause, keep pressing!”

Every time I paused, I was losing ground.

Eventually, we reached the top and were safe from the rushing water and landslides.

As I think about this work we are all doing to save our state, we can’t let up, we can’t pause…because when we do, we lose ground. 

Keep pressing in this last stretch before the Primaries. We have lots of work to do and we all have different jobs God has asked us to do.

Some of us are called to run for office, some of us are called to speak, some of us are called to host events, some of us are called to take it to the streets, advise, and educate, and some of us are called to donate, host, and knock doors. None of those tasks are greater than the other or require greater or less faithfulness and obedience. 

Be faithful in the task God has given you and be obedient to the call He has put on your life. We are all called to be involved in civics because we’re all commanded to be involved in righteousness and morality.

This election is coming at us a thousand miles per hour and we need to be prepared, our churches need to be prepared, and our communities need to be prepared. 

This is a critical election.

Too often, I hear people defend many of the individuals in office who are currently pushing through policy and legislation that is not aligned with the Constitution or the Republican Party platform.

Too often I hear people say things like, “Well, they’re not that bad. There are worse ones in there;” or “Well, they’re not doing anything really, but better that, than them doing something bad;” or “We need to be focusing on the really bad ones, not the moderate ones.”

Idaho, gone are the days when Republicans who are “not that bad” or “not necessarily doing anything bad” is acceptable.

If they’re not actively doing anything to protect liberty, advance justice, safeguard conservative values, or support Americanism, get them out.

If they are not actively fighting against liberal ideology, increased government, medical tyranny, and increased spending…Get. Them. Out.

We are losing our country and state. 

Moderate isn’t good enough.

We the People deserve better than that. The founding fathers stood for more than that.

People sometimes try to make the argument with me that the founders would be classified as political moderates in today’s political landscape…

Wrong.

They were radical. Their ideas were revolutionary. Their beliefs were worth their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. They fought a revolution over the stuff that’s going on now… it was just packaged differently.

The founders were fire-breathers. They were disrupters. That’s what we need in political office again.

At such a time as this in American and Idaho history…We need fire-breathing conservatives in office.

We need conservatives who fiercely adhere to the Constitution and Party platform in office.

We need men and women with integrity, courage, and moral conviction in office.

We need conservatives who are not concerned about their careers, do not view politics as a morally grey area; will put it all on the line for liberty and justice, and who are brave.  

We need men and women who are brave enough to stand up to powerful people and corporations who try to bully them into voting a certain way.

We need men and women who are brave enough to stand up for truth, righteousness, and morality even if it costs them their careers.

We need brave men and women in office who refuse to play the political game.

And we need brave men and women to stand behind those in office and remind them of their oaths, encourage them when their stances cost them, hold them accountable when they mess up, and celebrate them when they act in boldness.

Politics isn’t a game despite what some politicians may say. It is real people, with real lives, struggles, and rights. Politics matters because policy matters and policy matters because people matter. Liberal ideology is distorting politics, perverting policy, and most gravely, destroying people.

We must hold the line.   

Idaho, we cannot settle for anything less than conservatives who will fight like our state and nation depend on it… because they do.

There are too many people calling themselves conservative Republicans and not acting accordingly across our nation.

As Americans, we cannot settle for anything less than proud conservatives because we cannot settle for anything less than a strong America.

Last week, I submitted a short paper to an entity in DC that asked me,

“Explain why you are a conservative in 1,000 words.”

“1,000 words to explain why I am a conservative?” I thought to myself, “I really only need six: Because I am a proud American.”

Conservative values and ideas advance, support, protect, and expand life, liberty, and justice. The United States was founded upon the idea that humans are endowed with rights that governments are established to protect, and when those liberties are protected, people will create a prosperous society. 

Conservatism aims at preserving the values of individual liberty, rule of law, limited government, a free market economy, fiscal responsibility, and sovereignty that made this country the most benevolent, prosperous, and free nation in the world. 

Because the United States is synonymous with these values, it is a natural conclusion that I am a conservative because I am a proud American. In the twenty first century, liberal ideology has largely become synonymous with socialism and is a worldview that is counter-intuitive to Americanism.  

I dearly love this country. I love the Constitution. And I love the values the United States has always represented.

Because I believe in the principles our founding fathers held fast, I am a conservative.

Because I am a Christian, I am a conservative.

Because I am a member of a family, have a job, believe in justice, and love liberty, I am a conservative.

Because children matter- born and unborn- I am a conservative.

Because truth matters, I am a conservative.

Because national security matters, I am a conservative.

Because people matter, I am a conservative.

Because I am an American, I happily stand for this beloved country of ours.

Because comfort is not so dear to me as to come at the cost of America, I have dedicated my life to promoting the conservative values I hold dear to safeguard this country I cherish. 

To this end, I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor.

Be brave.

Growing up, my dad has always been a “preparedness guy.” He was the sort of dad that taught us how to get out of a house if it was ever on fire, how to protect ourselves on the street; when to strike first and when to walk away, how to survive in the mountains, what to do when a bear approaches in the wilderness, and how to shoot a gun for sport and self-defense.

For as long as I can remember, he has said, “Panic breeds panic, bravery breeds bravery.”

In times of crisis, it’s easy to see people panicking and (as we saw in 2020-2023) surrender freedom as a result. Panic is contagious. Fear is contagious. Apathy is contagious.

But in times of crisis, nothing breeds bravery like a single person stepping forward and doing the right thing. That single person sparks a reaction that motivates people to be brave. 

Your bravery is contagious.

Your bravery will inspire others to be brave.

Your bravery can restore our Republic.

A fearful nation is a defeated nation.   

But as long as brave men and women fight, there is hope.

Be brave and know that as you step out in courage, you are not alone, and your nation thanks you…for we are the land of the free and the home of the brave.