The last time Idaho dragged me away from other subjects, it was making the news for all things Nazi. Now I’m back, thanks to the Idaho Attorney General’s opinion that this sign is too political for display in schools.

What, you might ask, is wrong with the “Everyone Is Welcome Here” sign?

Is it because several hands are not entirely white? Is it because one of the hands is attached to a gay kid? I’m having a hard time determining which one. Maybe one of the hands is attached to a kid who already understands the Laffer Curve is bullshit. Yeah, that could be it. Kids understand the basics pretty well before they get fed self-serving rationales.

Nope, the party line from Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador  is that the signs are “part of an ideological/social movement” that have since “been used by the Democratic party as a political statement.”

Imagine “Everyone Is Welcome Here” being too political a statement for your particular ideology. Labrador points out that Idaho Democrats have sold such signs, but that only started after some Minnesotans debuted the original “All Are Welcome Here” version in response to racist graffiti.

I’m pretty sure no Democrat is going to mind if the Republicans started selling “Everyone Is Welcome Here” signs, too. Maybe right-wingers object to the signs being sold for little to no profit. They do really hate when anybody puts anything above profit.

Visit the GOP’s merch shop and you’ll notice several items emblazoned with “Proud To Be An American.” Sure, The GOP and Lee Greenwood  hijacked and semi-ruined the phrase during the Reagan era, but would we file a complaint over “Proud To Be Americans” banner over a school’s door, perhaps around July 4? I think not.

What I do think is that we’d feel more pride to be American if we lived in a country where right-wingers never dreamed of going to court over a sign at school that says “Everyone Is Welcome Here.”

The offending phrase does bring to mind another, older phrase, familiar over the years in many job descriptions among other places. It goes, “… does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or age.”

That harkens back to the Civil Right Act of 1964. Which was right around the time of America’s great political party polarity reversal: when the GOP courted and welcomed in all the racists who bolted when a Southern Democrat strong-armed federal civil rights legislation into law. Is life full of funny coincidences, or what?

Still, I know many of you may remain perplexed, vexed, flabbergasted, and/or dumbfounded at opposition to such a sign. “I just don’t understand how people could object to this!” I hear you saying. I feel you, but let me sharpen Occam’s Razor and suggest one reason why Republicans cannot abide a “Everyone Is Welcome Here” sign in their schools.

It’s because everyone is not welcome there.

See how the fog of confusion lifts once you stop trying to assign scruples where they don’t exist and start focusing on actions instead?

Try to do that more often. On that note, I finally saw Indigo Girls a couple of weeks ago, and they know just how to wrap up this post.