A Political Enigma in Utah

Why did Utah choose both Mike Lee and Spencer Cox?

There are a lot of questions about politics in America that are hard to answer. To me, one of the more striking current mysteries is how the people of Utah could elect someone like Senator Mike Lee, who routinely issues conservative policy statements with some clarity, while also electing someone like Spencer Cox (He/Him) as governor.

Choosing Spencer Cox

The last time we saw Spencer Cox's name appear in a post here at AoSHQ, it was in J.J. Sefton's Morning Report of 4/29. Cox had been beaten out at the Utah State Republican Convention by Trump-aligned Phil Lyman. By a very significant margin.

But there was a catch.

Cox, however, gathered enough signatures to make it onto the primary ballot, according to Utah Republican Party bylaws and Utah state law. Specifically, Utah’s gubernatorial candidates must receive at least 28,000 certified signatures in order to qualify for the primary ballot or surpass the 60% threshold at the state convention. Cox received 28,006 certified signatures, according to the Utah state government website.

People at the convention were not happy with Cox. They were noisy about it. Some people thought the noise level was too high.

But Cox later won the primary election.

Cox does some things that are conservative, but he also promotes a lot of progressive policies. He famously said that he labeled himself as "he/him" in hopes that it would make one young person with an unusual gender identity feel more comfortable.

He gets enthusiastic about a lot of idealistic, sort of utopian big government and public/private projects that seem to lack input from the "little people".

Cox has a big program going to train people to "Disagree Better". Since this program seems to have gone multi-state, I tried to find a written summary of the steps to "disagreeing better", but the website seemed to want to send you through a sample training program instead.

If you are unfamiliar with Spencer Cox, here he is. This video makes my skin crawl, though I have seen other videos of him speaking to which I did not have such a negative reaction:

An example of a successful outcome of the "disagreeing better" program in Utah that I read about online was a rural white conservative man helping a liberal black city woman with some government-involved project she wanted to complete. Don't remember the details. But I didn't see where the rural white conservative guy got anything that he had wanted. I thought that this was probably typical of the results of "disagreeing better".

Bennett's Phylactery is not impressed with Cox. Response in the thread: "The results of his actions / policies are objectively evil but at least he's nice about it".

Incisive Analysis from within The Horde

On Thursday, frequent commenter bonhomme wrote this on one of the threads here:

"Utah Gov. Cox (“R” who put his pronouns in his bio) says he wants his party to win but won’t be voting for Trump."

Over the past few years, I have been sending information from time to time to people (mostly in the West) involved in the struggle to keep the left from overwhelming our educational system. I thought that the people of Utah already knew what bonhomme wrote above, but I was impressed by what he wrote next and I sent it to a woman who has been through the fire. She posted it, crediting "a blog commenter", on her social media.

Bonhomme has received well over 200 "likes", and no nasty faces, on the assessment below:

Utah's a weird place. It was a sparsely populated state for a long time. In the last 30 years or so, a significant number of leftists escaping leftist holes have moved there. Additionally, a lot of the old guard Mormons there desperately want to be accepted by the rest of the world. ProgMos are quickly taking over.

Cox is a squishy ProgMo who has made his past of being bullied a big part of his identity and his policies. He reflexively identifies with people who sell themselves as victims, which makes him easily rolled by Marxian ideology which uses this pathology to gain leverage over the normal majority.

There was a lot of enthusiastic agreement with bonhomme in the comments, and a couple of comments from people who had somewhat differing opinions. A sampling:

Well that's spot on.

I never knew his past. Yet he always struck me as some one who got picked on as a kid! Now he is drunk on power and wants everyone to agree with he/him!

That describes him perfectly and you see ProgMos everywhere!

Wow! Masterfully described!

I agree with the explanation of Cox, but have a slightly different take on the ProgMo. My observation is that Utah is full of some really nice people who are dangerously naive. They are trusting to a fault. When they hear a candidate explain a proposal/issue/program using terms like "loving", "kind" or "compassionate" they're all for it. Never mind even a cursory review that would show it to be something completely the opposite.

Sadly, I feel this is inaccurate. I think his decision-making is far darker and more sinister than this comment would lead one to believe. He’s not just a sad, picked on story. He comes from a family of deep pockets. Let that sink in for a minute.

Bonhomme has elicited quite a bit of interesting thought there, plus some concerns about what conservatives should do next about the governor's race and dealing with the governor and state legislature for the next few years.

Utah also chose Senator Mike Lee

Here's a recent Twitter thread by Mike Lee that I thought was very cogent and worthy of analysis, particularly in contrast to most of the other political dialog going on recently:

I’m glad that particular catastrophe hasn’t materialized.

I’m more concerned about the catastrophe being set up by climate alarmists—which will impoverish millions and harm the standard of living dramatically worldwide, including and especially in the U.S.#Catastrophizing
🧵1/ https://t.co/Z64Fs4XFnW

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 9, 2024

Check out the questions about China down-thread.

I'm an outsider, but it seems to me that Utah made a good choice in Mike Lee.

He serves as a stark contrast to Spencer Cox.

Are there any similar contrasts in state-wide elected officials your state?

California Update - A Bad, Bad Immigrant

Too close to us for comfort:

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The man facing a federal three-count indictment for allegedly running an illegal lab in Reedley has filed several motions in court.

One is asking that he be addressed by his American name in his upcoming criminal trial.

This is a gutsy guy. Storing and manipulating multiple deadly biohazards in a warehouse is just the beginning of his crimes.

I think he should be addressed by BOTH his Chinese name and his American alias, so it will be easier to track crimes he committed in other parts of the USA and in Canada.

Weekend Musing

10 concepts (from Ancient Rome) that explain the modern world:

1. The Tacitus Razor: “If you want to know who controls you, see who you’re not allowed to criticize.” This is how comedians accidently reveal a society's hierarchy—they call everyone naked, and soon discover who the… pic.twitter.com/ApBItEsL41

— Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) July 11, 2024

Music

Why don't you do right?

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, July 6, Who failed to position Kamala Harris for success? George Floyd!

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:01 AM

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