This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Pundits don't normally pay a lot of attention to Utah. Its share of the national electorate is small and its body politic firmly Republican.
The rare blips go back a ways.
In 1933, Utah became the 35th and determining state to ratify the constitutional amendment that repealed Prohibition. In 1948, it was key to Harry Truman's narrowly won, and unexpected, re-election as president.
In the last few weeks, though, the commentariat took new interest in Utah after it turned out to be one of the few states not to vote for Donald Trump in its Republican caucuses March 22.
Which, for many independent analysis and party regulars, was a good thing.
Writing for The Week, commentator Damon Linker published a piece headlined, "The GOP needs more Mormons."
"Trump has finally met his match," Linker wrote, "The secret to bringing the demagogue to his knees? Mormons. ...
" ... The question is why so many members of the LDS Church are so immune to the Donald's demotic charms.
"There are at least six distinct reasons. ... Mormons aren't angry ... Mormons disapprove of Trump's garish lifestyle ... Mormons dislike vulgarity ... Mormons prize law-abidingness ... Mormons like immigration reform ... Mormons don't hate Muslims ... "
Related headlines from around the web included, "How Mitt Romney and the Mormons Saved the 'Never Trump' Movement," (The New Yorker); "Mormons against the Donald," (The Economist); "How Donald Trump Could End the Republican Lock on the Mormon Vote," (The Atlantic).
In that last piece, author Jack Jenkins wrote, "Trump may be right that Mormons don't like liars. But they also don't like people who bash immigrants, or those who discriminate on the basis of religion."
All that good punditry made up, at least for a cycle or two, for the latest mainstream media pasting previously delivered to Utah's most telegenic politician, Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
"Republicans Channel the Bundys With Federal-Land Bill," was the title of a blog post from Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of The New York Times.
Over at Esquire's political blog, Charles Pearce chimed in with a piece titled, "Let's Hear It for the Congressman Who Wants to Cede More Public Land to the Next Cliven Bundy."
Wrote Pearce: "Make no mistake. This is Chaffetz trying to steal the land that belongs to you and me on behalf of seditious armed freeloaders like Cliven Bundy, the career deadbeat who drew down on federal law enforcement and who now may be headed to the hoosegow for his trouble."
But that was tame compared to the flood of condemnation responding to last week's signing by Gov. Gary Herbert of a bill that will require abortions involving a fetus more than 20 weeks along to be done under anesthesia.
This despite the fact that the current view of medical science is that such organisms can't feel pain, and that any time you use anesthesia when it isn't medically necessary, you add a risk — in this case to the mother — that is unnecessary.
On the CNN website, Utah physician Leah Torres published a commentary titled, "The danger of Utah's abortion law." She accused Utah lawmakers of unconscionably — and poorly — practicing medicine.
Like others commenting on the same issue, Torres hammered on the fact that the bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Curt Bramble, is an accountant, dammit, not a doctor, that he has no idea what he's talking about and that his bill is clearly intended to punish women.
Herbert, Torres said, "may as well have signed a bill mandating doctors to use leaches."
Other national comments on the Utah abortion bill carried such disgusted or snarky headlines as, "Why Utah's Nonsensical New Abortion Bill Is So Bad For Women," (Huffington Post); "Here's why doctors are dumbfounded by Utah's new anti-abortion law" (Vox.com), "Utah's Pseudoscientific Anti-Abortion Law Could Actually Kill Women," (The Daily Beast); "New Utah Law Mandates Anesthesia in Certain Abortions, Defying Medical Ethics," (Slate); "New 'Pro-Life' Law Could Literally Kill Women Who Attempt To Obtain An Abortion," (Think Progress); "Let's Discuss Utah's Garbage New Abortion Law," (The Portland Mercury); "Utah abortion providers puzzled by how to obey law fixing an imaginary problem," (The Guardian).
For Utah politicians, who are often heard to say that they are all about good management and economic growth, that was a really bad round of publicity.
Our leaders have to remember, when they pull stupid stunts like this, that the whole world is watching.
George Pyle, a Tribune editorial writer, has just gotten away, again, with reading his Twitter feed all afternoon and pretending it was work.