This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I was utterly stunned by Gov. Gary Herbert's op-ed in last Sunday's Tribune (March 13). His assertions — that the Utah political process "brings people together," "appeals to our best nature" and "respects different ideas and points of view" and, therefore, should be seen as example to the rest of the nation of the "right way to do things" — show either a willful ignorance or breathtaking naivete.
If the politics in this state are, indeed, all that civil — and that is very debatable — then it's partly because we lack some of the key factors that create heated disagreement in more competitive political environments. First of all, we don't have the strong opposition of a second party. As we all know, Utah is, by all intents, a one-party state. Of the 104 state senators and representatives, only 17 are Democrats, the rest Republicans. Because of this huge disparity, the only thing the relatively powerless minority can do to get any of their legislation passed is to be agreeable and cooperative with the dominant majority. But let's be candid. This apparent cooperative lawmaking is, as we all know, a joke. It's really more a matter of the Republican majority agreeing with the Democratic minority when and if it suits their purposes; otherwise they simply overwhelm or ignore them. This is not leadership which "brings people together," but instead leaves many of us out.
Furthermore, Herbert's assertion of political inclusiveness completely ignores the fact that, largely through Republican gerrymandering, we moderates and liberals who live in the greater Salt Lake area have practically no voice among our state representatives, and none whatsoever on the national level. For example, in a recent Dan Jones poll, 37 percent of Utah voters said we do not want the state to take over federal lands; and, yet, every Utah congressman and a majority of the state legislators are outspokenly in favor of doing so. Nor do most of us want our hard-earned tax dollars spent on litigating this land grab, or on some pie-in-the-sky coal port in Oakland, Calif.; and, yet, our legislators just approved millions of dollars to back these questionable proposals. How can the governor, with all sincerity, see this as fair and inclusive government? Blithely ignoring the political preferences of 37 percent of the people is not "respecting different ideas and points of view." As Paul Rolly points out in his Tribune column March 14, "legislative districts have been drawn to basically neuter areas populated by liberals and Democrats."
So, no, Gov. Herbert, what you describe as cooperative, inclusive government is mainly the lack of two strong parties. If we have less political divisiveness and acrimony in this state, it's not because there isn't serious disagreement, even simmering outrage, among Utah voters, but because your party has essentially eliminated the clamor of the opposition.
Yes, democracy in America is often loud and combative, caused by opposing voices demanding to be heard. But, while I strongly dislike the nastiness and squabbling of the present presidential campaign, I prefer this rough-and-tumble to the ostensible calm of Utah's quasi-democracy. Far from being an example the rest of the nation should emulate, Utah's one-party hegemony should be loudly condemned as blatantly undemocratic.
Keller Higbee is a semi-retired educator who lives in Salt Lake City.