Capmpaign Signs and Civil Government

(Note: UtahPolicy.com has invited Mike Winder and Kevin Fayles, two candidates for mayor of West Valley City to share their campaign experiences this year. To read earlier posts and biographies of the two candidates, see the Campaign Journal page.)

Kevin Fayles

To sign or not to sign- that is the question. Along with how big, what color, where to put them, and what to do when your wife asks, "How long are these things going to be in our living room?"

When you're not running for political office, you think campaign signs are distracting clutter and can't wait until they're taken down. When you ARE running for office you still feel this way-but only about everybody else's signs. Your own signs, of course, are works of art that anyone should be proud to have adorning their fence, yard, or mantelpiece.

Mike Winder

In 1690, an uncelebrated Oxford scholar named John Locke published his "Second Treatise Concerning Civil Government". It was so controversial for its day he left it unsigned; only claiming authorship in his will. But in that bold document of the Enlightenment, Locke puts forth the natural rights of "Life, Liberty and Property"-a phrase Jefferson would later enlarge with "the pursuit of happiness."