This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
The results of the presidential poll published in the Oct. 30 edition of The Tribune are bewildering to me. Three things stood out to me:
1 • Utah elected representatives think pornography is a "public health crisis," yet 68 percent of Utahns in this poll said that Donald Trump's sexually aggressive video remarks "had no effect" on their vote. How can we claim to be advocating for virtue in one situation, but disregard it overwhelmingly in another?
2 • The poll shows that Utah residents acknowledge that Trump is the champion of upper-income Americans and Hillary Clinton is the champion of lower-income Americans. Even though we see first hand the result of poverty in our homeless population, Utahns still think that the champion of the wealthy would make a better president.
3 • The most important poll question of all was about access to the nuclear codes. Given that the use of nuclear weapons could reduce the world to a cinder, this issue alone should dwarf all other issues by comparison. Utah trusts Hillary Clinton with the nuclear codes far more than Trump, yet Trump still leads.
Either this is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance or Utah's political views are more frightening than I had ever imagined.
Aaron Cloward
Kearns