Saturday, April 03, 2010

Standard-Examiner Guest Editorial: Washington's Advice Should Guide Us

Letting the voters decide... what a novel concept for "we the sheeple" here in Glenbeckistan
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. [Emphasis added].

George Washington
Washington's Farewell Address
1796

This morning we'll highlight a fine Guest Commentary in today's Standard-Examiner, within which frequent SE contributor Rick Jones cleverly incorporates words from Washington's farewell address to argue against the "spirit of party," and in favor of the Fair Boundaries and Utahns for Ethical Government citizen inititive petitions, as desirable reform measures, which would "lessen the ["frightfully despotic"] power of political parties and "factional" partisanship" in our Utah legislature:
Washington's advice should guide us
For a startlingly recent example of the "continual mischiefs of the spirit of party" which are so painfully evident in our Utah legislature, Weber County Forum readers need only look back to March 4 of this year, when House Representative Gage Froerer candidly informed us that that the beleagured citizens of Powderville could probably get their voting rights back... simply by coughing up a cool twenty-five grand to a "lobbyist" with "influence" amongst the members of the real estate development-partisan State Senate Leadership Faction.

Time's running short folks. These petitions need to be submitted to the Lt. Governor's office by April 15. Once again, here are the online citizen petition links:
Fair Boundaries
Utahns for Ethical Government
And for those readers who are still reluctant to sign the petitions, due to the raft armada of confusing misinformation which has been disseminated by the evil (or naively misguided) opponents of real ethics reform in Utah, please consider this:

If these two petitions DO receive the requisite 95,000 ballot-qualifying signatures, these initiatives WILL NOT automatically become law. Rather, they will be merely placed on November General Election ballots, which means that ALL UTAH VOTERS will then be able to decide whether these initiatives are worthy of our vote.

Letting the voters decide... what a novel concept for "we the sheeple" here in Glenbeckistan.

Just sign the petitions, folks. If you later change your minds, you can simply vote against the ballot initiatives in November.

11 comments:

DOCTOR OPPOSITE said...

Nobody Cares, Rudi. The Sheeple are even now annointing themselves in oil this weekend, and anticipating the WISE WORDS OF THE GREAT MORMON PROPHET WHOSE NAME Is TOM!

(Good name for a prophet, wethinks)

Hopefully. President Monson will mention Mike Waddooops, and that hapless neoCOn, Stuart Red.

And who want to throw tomatoes at this hopeless meoCON dillweed Howard Stevenson, who portrays himself by day as a sorta "tea party guy.", and then "behinds scenes" recruits one of the worst neoCON assholes in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY...

To run as Weber County's REPUBLICAN DISTRIcT 18 SENATOR!

Time for a change said...

As long as the Mormon culture dominates the Utah legislature, there will be no meaningful ethics reform. They are taught and believe that they are immune from doing any evil.

ozboy said...

I don't think Mormons per se are ethically challenged. I know a lot of Mormons who are very ethical, fair, honest and hard working. Our own Neil Hansen is a good example.

I do believe however that there are a lot of so called political leaders of the Mormon faith who are corrupt to their cores and use the religion to further their own selfish interests. Almost all of the majority party in the Utah legislature are prime examples.

I think this great disconnect is attributable to the belief in the religion that leaders are called by God and therefore infallible and should not be questioned. This works within the religion, but where it goes horribly wrong, as it does in Utah, is when the Church members are not able or willing to distinguish between church leaders and political leaders.

Jennifer Neil said...

OZ:

In the church, the ecclesiastical leaders are called of God. Regardless of religion, political leaders are chosen by the voters. Indeed, not even close to the same authority - but having the power corrupts the psyche in the human mind.

Look at our friend Matty - I have a friend who lives where he is on the High Council for the Church ... she has a hard time believing he is the same man who occupies the mayor's office downtown.

You are correct when you say it goes horribly wrong .. I wish more voters in Utah would realize their elected officials are fallible and susceptible to the pitfalls of too much power. I wish they would take a better look at the actions of these men and vote accordingly, not base their votes on party and religion alone.

TLJ

Fed up with Mormon politics said...

"The Church" is somehow complicit in this mess too. They continue to place guys like Godfrey into high positions of trust within the organization without paying attention to how they truly conduct themselves in their daily lives.

Do you really think Godfrey would have done as well as he supposedly did in the last election without the church position, recognition and blind trust that comes with it?

Bob Becker said...

The voters put Hizzonah back in office two years ago. The fault lies squarely at the voters' feet. No way around that.

Politicians from coast to coast emphasize their religiosity [real or pretended] when they think it will help them at the polls. Letting folks know what a good Catholic you are rarely hurts in elections in Boston or Cajun Country. Running for office in northern Louisiana or up country Georgia, lots of folks will want to know if you're a foot-washin' Baptist, and will vote for you if they think you are.

Myself, I generally move away from candidates who campaign on their faith [like the candidate recently whose campaign brochure showed himself and his family decked out in white from tip to toe]. But if voters choose to vote for someone on that basis, well, the responsibility for that is their own, not the candidate's.

Or so it seems to me.

get er' done said...

When Lincoln said you can fool some of the time but you can't fool all the people all the time. In Utah all you have to do is fool 50% plus one and you are in. This is just what Goonfrey does and if he can't do that then he messes with the system like he did two years ago.
And yes the people are better to give a 2 year old a gun then it is to give them a ballot.

Jennifer said...

Dear Fed UP:

I wondered the same thing myself
TLJ

disgusted said...

Comment bumped to front page

Dan S. said...

Comment moved to new article

OneWhoKnows said...

Comment moved to new article

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