Best to get off to a sober start here.

It is a lawmaker’s job to form positions on certain matters and advocate on behalf of constituents, doing what it takes, for relevant reforms and responses at the legislative level.

Much of modern-day lawmaking is a game of publicity. Once beholden to the press for fast and reliable access to the general public, today’s representatives — from local selectman to the U.S. president – often tweet and post their way in and out of the issues du jour.

This contemporary reality is messy and noisy. “Mainstream media” be damned, the approach goes, better to take matters into one’s own hands and “flood the zone,” as reflexive and unproduced as those communications might be. Mistakes are common, from the quick flub to the thoughtless repetition of something that does not stand up to the barest scrutiny.

Now and again, a poor choice draws wide rebuke. Disagreement over policy is par for the course; indeed, we’d be nowhere without it. Disagreement on principle is another matter.

This brings us to the decision by Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, to use photos of a named student-athlete in a Facebook post decrying Maine’s policy allowing transgender students to compete in school sports.

The circulation of the photos, in which the student-athlete who drew the representative’s ire was circled in yellow, drew the criticism of both House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, who called for them to be removed (Libby was quick to say she had no intention of taking them down), and House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, who said he was “disappointed that the policies of the radical left have put children in the center of an extremely heated political debate.”

Rep. Libby should be capable of making her argument without exploiting a kid for the benefit of thousands of culture-war cheerleaders.

To single out a minor for clicks in this way is reprehensible; an elected representative should know that. And to double down on such a decision once its callousness has been revealed to you? That’s more reprehensible again.