The Utah County Republican Party is attacking three of its own legislative candidates (yes, you read that correctly – the party assaulting its own candidates) for the terrible crime of gathering signatures so all Republican voters in their districts can decide their political fate, not just a handful of delegates.
I’m so old I actually remember when the Republican Party, even in Utah County, was a big tent. Moderate and mainstream Republicans were welcome. The party didn’t administer purity tests or convene star chambers. The county produced some mainstream legislative stars like Karl Snow and Chuck Peterson.
Today, the Utah County Party has become so insular, so narrow-minded, so dominated by a small clique of fringe people, that it plans to campaign against Michael Brenny, Rick Moore, and Xani Haynie — all terrific people and good Republicans who followed the law to get on the primary election ballot, but didn’t find favor with the relatively few delegates in the caucus/convention system.
I encourage Utah County Republicans in House Districts 6, 67, and 57 to vote Brenny, Moore, and Haynie, respectively. Let the party know you want your vote counted, that you want all Republicans to have a say, not just the elites in the party machine.
John McCain’s worst mistake. I’ve always rather liked Sen. John McCain. He has been a reasonable conservative, but a little iconoclastic, long before the Trump/Cruz/Sanders anti-establishment crusades.
The only thing I can’t forgive McCain for is unleashing Sarah Palin on the world.
Her idiotic battle against Paul Ryan is just the latest in her desperate attempts to stay relevant, to keep her name on Fox News, to feed the right wing extremists some red meat.
Paul Ryan just happens to be the best Republican, the most sensible leader, in the country. Period. He is actually trying to break through the noisy political circus with a responsible conservative agenda that would move the country forward.
But Palin is saying Ryan’s “political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people” for not immediately endorsing Donald Trump.
Palin has more than worn out her welcome. She has nothing interesting or insightful to say. It’s painful to listen to her. She needs to go back to Alaska for an extended moose hunt.
Why politicians shouldn’t say stupid things. The new mayor of London is Muslim. If Donald Trump is elected president and he follows through on his vow, the leader of one of the world’s greatest, most vibrant, progressive and modern cities won’t be able to visit the United States. Sure, Trump will back off. But do we really want a president who makes such reckless off-the-cuff comments without even thinking about the consequences?
Quote of the day. Donald Trump on tax reform, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “I’ll tell you what the real concept is . . . lower taxes for business, lower taxes for the middle class, lower taxes for everybody and then we’re going to start negotiating. . . . In my plan they’re (tax rates for the wealthy) going down, but by the time it’s negotiated, they’ll go up. . . . The rich is probably going to end up paying more. And business might have to pay a little bit more. But we’re giving a massive business tax cut.” In other words, he has no clue what his tax reform plan is.
