Don't Tread On Our Medical Freedom

Let's stop using recycled pandemic outrage to drive legislation that violates our rights.

Imagine getting so frustrated with mask rules in a California grocery store that you pack up and flee to Idaho — where almost no one enforced those mandates, to begin with. You rejected President Trump's Operation Warp Speed vaccine rollout and ignored most of Idaho's already minimal COVID restrictions, and now, years later, you’re still mad. So what do you do? You gather your political outrage and demand that Idaho — your new home — pass laws to settle scores with your California problems.

That’s what Senate Bill 1023 is: a performative backlash not to Idaho policy but to leftover grievances from the Left Coast. And it’s being used to attack Republican legislators and rational policy decisions made four years ago during a global crisis.

Now imagine these same political transplants are so consumed with anger that they want to abandon constitutionally protected property rights, erase local control, override business autonomy, and force private companies to serve people regardless of the owner’s personal beliefs.

Sound familiar? That’s because it echoes the very legal battle over the Colorado baker who refused to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Conservatives rallied around the idea that no business owner should be compelled by the government to do something that violates their values. That was about protecting freedom and respecting boundaries.

Senate Bill 1023 does the exact opposite. It mandates businesses serve and employ people in ways that may conflict with their safety standards, risk assessments, or values. It dismantles local control. It punishes businesses for exercising discretion. It violates property rights. It undermines the free market. And frankly, it looks a lot like socialism.

It’s Not About Freedom. It’s About Control.

S1023 prohibits private businesses from requiring medical interventions—like vaccines or other safety measures—as a condition of employment or service. That means a cancer treatment center can’t require its employees to be vaccinated, even if vulnerable patients are at risk. This means that a private school can't set its own safety policies. It even bars entertainment venues and ticket sellers from setting entry requirements.

This bill doesn't empower Idahoans with the freedom to make personal decisions. It tells them what they can’t do. It is the state dictating how businesses must operate, regardless of their risk assessments or customer needs. Free markets be damned.

Let’s be clear: Senate Bill 1023 is not conservative. It’s anti-science, anti-business, anti-local control, and coercive.

Chesterton’s Fence and the COVID Overreaction

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
- G. K. Chesterton (1929 - The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic)

Before you tear down a fence, you ought to ask why it was put up. That’s Chesterton’s Fence, a principle lost on the authors of this bill. During the COVID-19 pandemic, policies were put in place to reduce transmission, hospitalization, and death. Were all of them perfect? Absolutely not. Some were downright silly. Remember wearing a mask at a restaurant, only to take it off once your food arrived, as if the virus politely waited until appetizers?

But we must separate the intent from the flaws. The goal was public health. And just because some policies were flawed doesn’t mean we now eliminate every tool available to deal with future threats. People often overlook that COVID-19 was a global pandemic that killed over 7 million people worldwide. Describing this as some leftist conspiracy against American conservatives may be a gross oversimplification to justify one’s inherent desire not to be told what to do.

People do have the right to make their own medical decisions. That’s true medical freedom. But mandating those decisions from either side—for or against medical intervention—is government overreach. True conservatism respects informed consent, individual liberty, and personal responsibility. This bill ignores all three.

Is it wise to support medical policy decided by people whose only scientific training comes from echo chambers on Truth Social and Telegram? Idaho’s public health decisions should be guided by science and reason—not ideology and performative rage.

The organized California political refugees keep shouting about how they are the only ones who can save Idaho from Idahoans. They should reflect on the freedoms that led them to Idaho in the first place and stop trying to tear down the conservative policies Idahoans had successfully established long before they ever dreamed of moving here.

The California Chemtrail Caucus Arrives in Boise

What we’re seeing now is a wave of far-right, conspiracy-driven transplants who left California because of pandemic restrictions. They look up in the sky and see chemtrails everywhere, seeing every slight and inconvenience as a leftist plot to tread on their rights. Ironically, many of them ignored Idaho’s limited restrictions during COVID (remember IFF’s “Disobey Idaho” fear porn campaign?). Now, they’re demanding we pass legislation to fix a problem they most likely never complied with in the first place. It’s projected outrage engineered by grifters and amplified by political operatives.

They call themselves conservatives. But their tactics are eerily aligned with the far-left ideologies they claim to oppose. Like the Marxists, they decry; they aim to centralize control, silence dissent, and punish those who don’t conform to their worldview. They’re not conserving anything. They’re trying to remake Idaho in the image of their outrage-fueled algorithms.

Framing bills like S1023 as "medical freedom" is gaslighting, pure and simple. It’s a dishonest attempt to shore up a willfully ignorant political base that would rather punish hospitals than protect patients. It’s theater. It’s grievance politics. And it’s hurting Idaho.

Governor Brad Little was right to veto this bill. Every legislator who stood against it deserves our thanks. Because they weren’t just standing up to nonsense—they were standing up for Idaho. For local businesses. For hospitals. For common sense.

May Matters: The Election That Decides Everything in Idaho

So, how did a circus act like S1023 make it this far? Simple. Most Idahoans sat out the May primary elections, where the far-right political machine invests all their resources. They count on voter suppression.

Idaho has a closed Republican primary. If you’re not registered as a Republican, you don’t get a say in who ends up representing you. And the election has already been decided by the time November rolls around.

As one smart Idaho Republican educator reminded me, May Matters.

Many Idahoans were raised with a live-and-let-live philosophy and believed that being unaffiliated allowed them to vote for their conservative values while protecting their independence. That all changed when the Idaho GOP closed its primary in 2011. Now, voters who care about limited government, lower taxes, local control, and rational leadership but remain unaffiliated no longer have a say in the most crucial election in Idaho.

Independent Idahoans are rational and not easily influenced by lies, and the nastiness of primary campaigns is designed to keep them from affiliating and going to the primary polls. Perhaps it's time for Idahoans to take stock of their personal values and decide if the Republican party they grew up with is worth saving.

With less than a third of registered Republicans bothering to vote in primary elections, one must wonder what keeps them home. Is it the divisive misinformation spread by the far right? Is it a lack of knowledge of who is running? Or is it a simple oversight, not realizing that there is even an election every other May that impacts their lives?

Whatever the issue, Idaho voters must do more than complain—they must show up. If they don’t, the businesses they own, the schools their children attend, and the workplaces they rely on will be reshaped by mandates and policies that clash with their values. Those who hunger for control rarely hesitate to use it—and by the time you realize what you’ve lost, it’s already too late to fight back at the ballot box come November.

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About the Author
Gregory Graf is the creator of Political Potatoes and a lifelong conservative Republican. His articles often criticize the hypocrisy committed by far-right grifters who’ve taken control of the GOP. Graf is the CEO of Snake River Strategies, a strategic communications and political consulting firm based in Eagle, Idaho. You can follow Graf’s work on X, Threads, or Facebook.

Disclaimer
The following is intended to convey an opinion on newsworthy events of public concern regarding public figures and/or public officials in exercising their official duties. No implications or inferences—beyond those explicitly stated in the preceding— are intended to be conveyed or endorsed by the Author. Wherever available, hyperlinks have been provided to allow readers to directly access any underlying assertions of fact upon which this opinion is based.

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