As our candidates campaign, they are hearing a new line by Utah County Republicans:  Our candidates are switching parties so they can win.  

It is hard to keep from laughing over that.  It is an uphill battle to win as a Democrat in Utah County.  We're working hard to change that.  But to suggest that in a county where registered Republicans far outnumber registered Democrats and no Democrat has won an election since 1994 a Republican would switch parties to become a Democrat in order to win is absurd.

What they are really trying to say is that those candidates who were Republicans are insincere in their switch to Democrat or Independent.  Yet, party switching is a long tradition in American politics and some of the most popular individuals in American political history have done it.  Abraham Lincoln was a Whig before he joined the Republican Party.  In the past few years, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched from Democrat to Republican and now Independent.  Ronald Reagan was a self-described liberal Democrat before he became a Republican.

Party switching is particularly common when someone moves from one state to the other.  As we know, the political culture in states differs.  Utah is far more conservative than, say, Massachusetts.  So a Republican in Massachusetts, like Mitt Romney, was more liberal than most Democrats in Utah.  While governor of Massachusetts (before running for president), Romney was pro-choice on abortion and pro gay rights.  Other Republicans similarly are more liberal than Utahns - Republican or Democrat.  I'm amused when I see bumper stickers here that say Republicans are Pro-Life.  Prominent Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rudy Guiliani, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine are all pro-choice on abortion.  And Republican Schwarzenegger recently refused to defend Proposition 8 in federal court and urged a federal judge in California to resume same-sex marriages in the state.

At the same time, Democrats in many states, including Utah, are more conservative than northeast Republicans.  Congressman Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan, is one of the leaders of the pro-life movement.  Jim Matheson is a well known conservative Democrat, as are many Democrats who identify themselves as Blue Dogs.  These include conservative Democrats from states where people are generally more conservative about social and economic issues.

So when someone moves from one state to another, the meaning of Democrat or Republican changes.  Party switching occurs as an individual attempts to adjust to the new political climate.  Many Utah County Democrats have told me they would likely be a Republican in many other states.  But because of the extremism of the Republican Party here, they favor the mainstream Utah County Democrats.

Another reason for party switching, however, is change in the philosophy of the parties.  Events in the Republican Party in recent years have caused many local Republicans to rethink their loyalty to a party they have real philosophical differences with.  These issues vary but they indicate a dissatisfaction with the Republican Party that leads people to wonder if they can feel at home in a party that has become extreme.

For example, the Republican Party in Utah, particularly Utah County, has become dominated by two groups.  One is the libertarians  These people believe that government should do almost nothing in public life.  Their views are exemplified in Chris Herrod's legislation to weaken child safety seat belt laws or his opposition to banning smoking in cars when children are in the car and breathing the second hand smoke.  They are indicated in Brad Daw's view that the government should not be involved in an area like recreation.  So much for public parks, after school sports programs, or city recreation programs.  

Another group are the social extremists.  They see the institutions of government as imposing moral decline on society.  They withdraw to home schooling or private schools so they can teach their children their values without exposure to other views.  They favor vouchers in order to support with taxpayer money a separate private school system based on their extreme views.   They rail against the homosexual agenda and view anti-discrimination ordinances as signs of moral decline.  (That is a position the LDS Church explicitly rejected when the Church voiced support for the recent Salt Lake City anti-discrimination ordinance and Elder Jeffrey Holland urged other Utah cities to adopt the same kind of ordinances!)

The irony is that while these same social extremists are touting family values, their own legislative leaders (such as Kevin Garn and Sheldon Killpack) are sitting in hot tubs with minors (and then paying off those minors to keep silent) or driving while intoxicated.  

A mainstream Republican looking at the extremist shift of the local Republican party, as well as the corruption and arrogance of that same party, has to wonder whether the Republican Party has left him or her.  Not surprisingly, they begin to look elsewhere.  Many may still vote for a Republican for president, but they begin to question whether they can identify with a local party that has been hijacked by extremists and has become unresponsive to the public's demands for shoring up public education (which neither the Republican libertarians or social extremists support), funding higher educational institutions, creating jobs and helping Utahns cope with a recession, offering public transit options, and preserving neighborhoods (the libertarians don't want government to play a role in this).  

As they looked elsewhere, they saw the Utah County Democratic Party.  The Utah County Democratic Party is socially conservative, but not extreme.  The views of the party on social issues are very much in line with those of the LDS Church.  The party's views on public education are in line with those of most Utahns.  The state government needs to do more to boost public education.  Poll after poll shows that Utahns are willing to pay more in taxes if that money can go to public education.  The Utah County Democratic Party believes the state government must do much more to adequately fund public education.    The party also sees a reasonable government role in areas such as recreation, transportation, job creation, etc.  The government should not, and cannot, do everything.  But it can and must do some things like consumer protection, worker safety, help fund public transit, higher and public education, etc.  

Some of our candidates looked at the two local parties and realized they were more at home in the Utah County Democratic Party than they were in the Utah or Utah County Republican Party.  They were mainstream Republicans (at least they thought they were) until the Republican Party adopted issue positions on education, transportation, the economy, and a host of other issues that reflected the views of the two dominant groups in the Republican Party - the libertarians and the social extremists.  These former Republicans became embarrassed over their association with a party that had become filled with extremists.  These candidates did not so much leave the Republican Party as the Republican Party left them.

They didn't switch parties because it would be easier to win in Utah County as a Democrat.  Rather, they switched because they felt the Utah County Democratic Party more closely represented their views on issues that were important to them.  They switched because they felt it was the right thing to do, not because it was the politically expedient thing to do.

So, when local Republicans charge that our candidates are party switchers, they're right.  They did switch, and for good reason.  And they are in good company with past political figures who concluded that, when the party they belonged to no longer reflected who they were, then they had the courage to stand for their principles.  That's what our candidates, and many other recent converts to the Utah County Democratic Party, have done.