Several of our Utah County GOP legislators claim to be supporters of a totally unregulated free market with only the barest minimal government. This stand is usually labeled libertarianism. Much of the intellectual base of this ideology comes from the writings of Ayn Rand, whom the Provo Daily Herald editors recently praised, saying that they are useful for "understanding the underlying political tectonics of 2009."
Actually, Ayn Rand's ideas are as dangerous as those on which Communism is based, but Rand's ideology of no-holds-barred capitalism and minimal government has attracted many American followers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Since the recession of 2007, however, Greenspan has admitted that the market was much less able do the right thing than Rand had predicted, and his confidence in the Mother of Libertarianism has been badly shaken. But many others still remain true and parrot the "less government, more market" slogans as though they were a panacea for our time.
Ayn Rand's popularity in church-going America and Mormon Utah is odd. Like her philosophical rival Karl Marx, Rand hated and ridiculed religion. She taught a fiercely anti-Christian philosophy of "Rational Egoism" and wrote a book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness.
Don't let Republican legislators gut ethics reform
Written by Richard Davis
Monday, 30 November 2009
Utah's Republican legislators have finally seen the light, at least that's what they want us to believe. Now they're talking about how important ethics reform is. They're even working on legislation to create an ethics commission. They say they really do support ethics reform. They just don't like the ethics initiative. So they're writing their own legislation that will fix the state's ethics problems.
Excuse me for not being convinced. These are the same people who have blocked ethics reform legislation repeatedly. The proposals they're now considering have been in bills they rejected year after year after year. The legislature never voted on them because the Republican leadership never let them come to a vote.
Now they want us to believe they're converted to the idea of ethics reform. Don't buy it. They don't mean it. And they're going to do their best to block serious ethics reform measures.
The fact is they're trying to pass a bill that will keep serious ethics reform at bay. They have no intention of enacting ethics reform that will limit their behavior. Instead, they want to pass a bill that they can gut once the heat is off.
Since this week is Thanksgiving, most Americans will be gathered together with family to share the holiday together. It is a time to give thanks to God for the blessings we enjoy as a nation, as a people, and as individuals. Here are some of the things I'm thankful for:
1. Family The core of a society is the strength of the family. But perhaps more importantly, the well being of the individual is determined to a large extent by the love and compassion offered by family. My family has been my strength and I appreciate their willingness to tolerate my weaknesses and extend to me the love that all of us need to feel throughout our lives.
2. Freedom What a blessing it is to live in a country where we have the freedom to worship, express our opinions, protest government policies we disapprove of, and live and work largely as we wish. Since I study politics for a living, I am well aware of other systems around the world where such freedoms are not available. Moreover, in our nation we have not always been willing to uphold such freedoms. Thankfully, we live in a time and in a place where such freedoms are cherished.
Recently, something happened that reminded me of my parents.
My father, a Salt Lake businessman who was a devout Mormon, was a Democrat. My mother, also a devout Mormon and daughter of a bishop, was also a Democrat. They were people of integrity. I remember my father voting in favor of pro-tenant legislation that would remove rights he had as a landlord, simply because he believed it was the right thing to do. I remember my mother fussing over the fact that taxpayers were partially funding the oxygen she used when her cancer took her breath away. She did not think this was fiscally responsible when she had the means to pay for it herself.
My parents and their many Utah friends were proud of their Democratic affiliation. I remember visiting my parents on Election Day where, on repeated occasions, I observed them faithfully staffing the voting booths and enjoying association with other faithful Democrats. I also enjoyed observing healthy sparring between my parents and their Republican friends. In those days, no stigma attached to being a Democrat, even in Utah. Growing up in our family, we had animated discussions about politics, ethics and morality. We were taught that we should take our rights as citizens seriously. We were taught to vote our conscience.
I was reminded of this aspect of my life by a recent event in which I was deprived of my right to vote. My state representative was chosen behind closed Republican doors, absent the healthy discussion, pro and con that took place in my childhood home and that should take place in a democracy, as part of the electoral process. I realized that this could only happen because here in Utah County, for all practical purposes, we have been reduced to only one functioning party.
The good old boy network is alive and thriving in Utah politics. We're talking about the cozy web of entrenched Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and others who have become comfortable with being in power, are loyal to each other, and may have engaged in unethical and possibly illegal acts to protect each other.
Case in point: The recent rehiring of Robert Brems as president of the Utah College of Applied Technology. It was just two years ago that Brems was forced to resign from that same position under a cloud. A state auditor's investigation revealed that Brems had knowingly presided over an illegal use of state funds and the falsification of employee time cards to build a parade float for the Utah County Republican Party at the Mountainland Applied Technical College, a UCAT campus. Who asked the school administration to use public resources to build the float in the first place? Republican Sen. Curt Bramble.
Of course, that is unethical. A state-funded school shouldn't be bearing the cost in labor and materials for a political party's float. A state senator shouldn't even ask for such a thing to be done, particularly when that legislator was the Senate majority leader with power over that school's funding.
Someone had to take the heat, however, at least temporarily. The Utah State Board of Regents, which had oversight over the UCAT president, conducted an investigation and Brems was forced to resign. Bramble, who instigated the float request, emerged unscathed. Nor did the Senate Ethics Committee even investigate the matter. Who was co-chair of the Senate Ethics Committee? Curt Bramble.
Recently a female student in one of my classes came into my office and stared at me intently as she asked a profound question: "Can one person really make a difference?"
That is a question many people wonder about. Can I really make a difference?
I thought about her question and pondered people who had made a difference. We often point to famous individuals like Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill as examples of one person changing the course of history.
But I thought of others who made a difference, people who really aren't far away or in the past. I thought of Debbie Swenson, who nearly beat Representative Mike Morley and surely has him worried about what she will do in 2010. Mike Morley has a lot to worry about. Debbie can beat him and provide her district with an honest and capable legislator.
And Claralyn Hill, who suffered the full force of Curt Bramble's efforts to prevent her from taking out one of Bramble's close associates in the legislature, Chris Herrod. (Herrod's solution to the health care crisis is to raise insurance premiums so people won't visit the doctor so much!) Claralyn scared Herrod. As a first time candidate in a heavily Republican district bucking the force of the Senate majority leader, Claralyn got 41 percent of the vote in a district. Everyone knows now Republicans are not invulnerable, even in strong Republican districts.
Several of our Utah County GOP legislators claim to be supporters of a totally unregulated free market with only the barest minimal government. This stand is usually labeled libertarianism. Much of the intellectual base of this ideology comes from the writings of Ayn Rand, whom the Provo Daily Herald editors recently praised, saying that they are useful for "understanding the underlying political tectonics of 2009."
Utah's Republican legislators have finally seen the light, at least that's what they want us to believe. Now they're talking about how important ethics reform is. They're even working on legislation to create an ethics commission. They say they really do support ethics reform. They just don't like the ethics initiative. So they're writing their own legislation that will fix the state's ethics problems.
Recently, something happened that reminded me of my parents.
