I love the good people of this state. They are warm, generous and deeply care about their neighbors. But, bless their hearts, many of them have become somewhat confused after years of living under one party rule and believing that the Republicans are the only true and living political party on the face of the earth with which the Lord is well pleased.
It's been said that the first step in correcting error is to shout it from the rooftops. In this spirit, I'd like to start a semi-regular feature in Utah Amicus called Wake Up Utah! to highlight examples of good people from this state having a disconnect between what they believe politically and what reality is. This is not intended to be mean spirited, but will hopefully be informative.
So, without further ado, here are the first two examples:
1. A KSL poll after the President's speech last week found 45% of Utahns felt we shuold leave troops in Iraq "for as long as it takes to get the job done". (47% had the opinion they should come home within 12 months or sooner.) To the 45% who want an open-ended committment, I would remind them that Utah ranks dead last in the percentage of our sons and daughters we send to serve our country in the military. They are, in fact, saying, "Keep the troops there forever - just not my child". As an active Latter-day Saint, I can state the politically incorrect truth here: many Latter-day Saint families have the attitude that when their sons go on missions they've served their time, so somebody else's kid can do military service. I have news for those with this attitude. Our children can do both. My son did.
2. An acquaintance was recently unemployed. The thing that made this funny was that while he collected unemployment for a few weeks, he was driving around with the following bumper sticker on his car: Vote Democratic: It Beats Working.
Do you have examples of your own? Please E-mail them to me at steveolsenforcongress@gmail.com, and I will feature them in future postings.
3 comments:
You know... I'll start sending them to you. I see them all the time.
Usually I just get angry. Thanks to you I'll probably just start to laugh.
Last week while walking in downtown SLC, I saw a homeless a person, while crossing the street I heard a young child say to her to her mother, "...mom your right, they shouldn't be so lazy, they should get a job"..what are we teaching our children?
Dear Steve,
I respect you and I wish you well. But, as a Republican, it has been my experience that the "disconnect" you reference manifests itself within both parties, not just among those loyal to my own. Thus, I believe, we both have our work cut out for us.
It is not enough for us to be good little partisans, urging voters to come over to our particular side of the isle. We must also work from within our respective parties to "cleanse the inner vessel" and make them worthy of the allegiance sought. We do this, I believe, by standing up for noble and correct principles which may not necessarily be popular among some of our fellow party members, but which still need to be advocated.
I actually look forward to seeing more Democrat Latter-day Saints engaged in that kind of activity. Because, the truth is that there is a very good reason why Mormons left the Democratic Party in droves and united with our old enemies -- the Republicans. It is because the Democratic Party increasingly became dominated by elements hostile to traditional values -- it became the new enemy.
And, this cannot simply be written off as some kind of a Utah thing. Nationally, the single greatest indicator of political affiliation is whether or not you attend weekly religious services. If you do, you are more likely to be a Republican. If you do not, you are more likely to be a Democrat.
It is easy to say that Mormons are some how disconnected from reality. But, the fact is that the Democratic Party has disconnected itself from all other denominations of traditionally religious people. The data is clear, and it is widely known by political strategists everywhere.
I say this, not to make cheap political points, but rather to urge you to reclaim the soul of your party. Just as you see it as being unhealthy for Utah to have one party rule. I see it as being unhealthy for only one party to truly stand up for traditional family values.
Nothing would make me happier than to see two healthy parties, both fighting for traditional values. Thus, I sincerely want you to succeed in your efforts to wake up Utah. I just hope that while you are at it that you also wake up your own party.
Sincerely,
A.W.
Post a Comment