Why Can’t McCain Really Be This Cool?
McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare FistsThe “War For The White House” promo they have before all of the election 2008 stories over at ONN is outstanding.
Disjointed Thoughts About My First Neighborhood Caucus
I had never been to a precinct caucus meeting before tonight. The meetings for Democrats and Republicans in district 16 were held at Northridge High School in Layton. The Democrats had about 20 people in our meeting while the Republicans probably had 8 to 10 times that number and had to use the school’s auditorium.
The Democratic caucus went well. I especially appreciated meeting Carole Peterson, candidate for the legislature. Her background as former chief clerk (30+ years) of the Utah House of Representatives makes her an excellent candidate in this race. She’s seen the political misdeeds of the Republicans who’ve run the capital for the past few decades. She knows for certain what needs to change and how to make those changes. I emptied my wallet and donated what I could to her as soon as the meeting was over. We need representatives who will be responsive to their constituent citizens and who aren’t part of a graft producing machine. Ms. Peterson spoke about her respect for the importance of the office she’s running for and her long career of careful non-partisan service as chief clerk of the House testifies of her sincerity. Anyone who can help her campaign out or donate really should. Beating Kevin Garn won’t be easy…but its not impossible either. If anyone can do it in our area of Davis County I’m betting it is Ms. Peterson.
There wasn’t a lot to vote on in the caucus. Democrats don’t have multiple candidates for any office up for election this year in our precinct so we had a good time meeting each other and called it a night. As our meeting adjourned the Republicans had just ended their large group meeting and had broken up into smaller groups. They were going up the stairs while we were going down. I saw several people from my ward, including my Bishop, following the herd upstairs.
There were times leading up to tonight when I had considered joining that herd only because it sometimes seems so hopeless for Democrats in Davis County. As I watched the dozens of Republican men and women who filed past the handful of Democrats we had I knew for certain that there was no way I’ll be switching to Republican. There is no logical reason for there to be such a political imbalance in our community. A significant portion of the Republicans I saw have exactly the same policy priorities our Democrats have but they’ve accepted the foolish cultural dogma that only Republicans represent their values. Utah’s political environment would be far more dynamic, ethical, and trustworthy if there was real partisan competition in our state. I’m glad I participated tonight if only to do my small part in helping that happen. Utah deserves better than we’ve currently chosen for ourselves. I’m hoping and acting on the belief that our situation is reversible.
Battered Elephant Syndrome
Last night was a wake-up call for economically conservative Republicans. They are but a small minority of their own party and their party has little reason to respect them.
Nearly 90% of Utah’s Republican voters voted for Mitt Romney. While many likely cast a ballot for Romney because he is LDS those who supported Romney because they thought he was the only real small government conservative option now know that they are the least important segment of their party behind the economic moderates/liberals who are foreign policy hawks (neoconservatives) and the religious right.
I abandoned the Republican party because I saw this happening quite a while ago. It will be interesting to see what happens to Republicans after they get smashed in the general election (and there is little doubt that they will be utterly smashed). The knowledge everyone should take away from this primary election is that economic conservatism is less popular with voters than it ever has been since Ronald Reagan. As much as I hate the Republican party this development is really disheartening. There doesn’t seem to be a sizeable small-government constituency any more. That is really bad.
UPDATE 2/06/08 10:44: It looks like participants at this Sutherland Institute gathering came to roughly the same conclusion about Republicanism in Utah as I have about Republicanism nationally. Small government conservatism just doesn’t seem to be a governing principle for most Republicans.
H/T Senate Site
UPDATE 2/06/08 2:48 PM: Mick Stockinger makes a good argument for the case that it is all about identity politics…not the issues. I still think Republicans who stick with their party hoping for small government conservatism are deluded but Mick’s point that voters don’t care about the issues in elections makes a ton of sense.
First in Davis County To Vote For Obama!
Early voting started today and according to the poll workers I was the first Democrat to vote at the Court House. I’m just going to assume I’m the first in the whole county. Go Obama 2008!
If you think about it my vote was probably the first one cast in Davis County that actually matters. Romney will run away with Utah’s Republican primary so there isn’t really a contest on that side. Yay me!
The Most Accurate Election Analysis EVER!
Of course ONN has the only useful discussion of this years electioneering in both primaries. Thank you ONN!
Gerrymandering-UPDATED
This column should be saved by anyone interested in Utah politics. Some of Rolly’s numbers are off (especially the argument that 43% of utahns are likely Democratic voters) but the record of Republican gerrymandering in our state shouldn’t be forgotten. What our Republicans did is a slap in the face to democracy. They really should be ashamed. (I know…it isn’t biologically possible for Utah’s legislature to ever admit they might be wrong about something…but they still should be ashamed.)
UPDATE 12/31/2007 9:15AM: Rep. Craig Frank and Stan Lockhart are pretending to prove Rolly wrong. They attempt to mess with numbers to show that the silly district boundaries Republicans stuck us with in 2001 aren’t benefitting their party. Their argument is that because Republicans run unopposed in so many districts we can’t argue that there are enough Democratic voters in Utah who are being hurt by the corruption they perpetrated on our state after the last census.
Mitt Romney: An Excellent Politician
Today Mitt Romney took advantage of the foolishness of those in the media who have been trying to make his religion a negative issue he needs to deal with. Truth be told there is nothing Romney could say in a speech that would mollify those who won’t vote for a Mormon. Instead of even trying to defend himself from attacks on his faith he crafted a well written attack on the tiny minority of Americans who are aggresively anti-religious. He didn’t bother to defend Mormonism and he got a huge amount of publicity for a speech that nearly every Republican primary voter can identify with. The press and Romney’s opponents may continue to try to use his religion against him but that doesn’t change the fact that Romney made very good use of this issue today in his “JFK style” speech.
I’ve never argued that Romney isn’t a very shrewd politician…in fact…I won’t vote for him because I think he’s too shrewd by half.
