A steady erosion of Democratic office-holders at all levels of government in the Beehive State since the 1970s continues to this day, resulting in virtual single-party governance in the executive and legislative branches and a congressional delegation in which the sole Democrat, maverick Rep. Jim Matheson, often votes with the Republican majority in the U.S. House. Another result of this enduring GOP hegemony (in Utah, at least), has been the nearly universal perception of an ideological and theological link between Republicanism and Mormonism.
Nor is this surprising. In the eyes of many Utah Republicans - and GOP strategists - Democrats are pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-smut, pro-feminism, pro-sex, anti-war, anti-family, anti-law enforcement, anti-God, anti-Mormon, and, of course, tax-and-spend, bleeding-heart socialists. In their view, Democrats are, and always will be, the radicals who took over the social landscape in the 1960s and '70s and nearly ruined the promised land of America. This is the mantra that gave rise to the oft-repeated fallacy that one cannot be a Mormon in good standing and a Democrat.
To their credit, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have attempted to dispel that partisan notion in their election-year message to the LDS faithful encouraging them to attend tonight's precinct party caucus meetings, where delegates to the party conventions are selected. Added to their message was this sentence: "Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of all major political parties."
In other words, you can be a Mormon Democrat and hold up your head in Republican Utah.
Because church officials declined to elaborate, we won't speculate on what prompted their nonpartisan stamp of approval. For our part, we often have said that single-party governance is, by its very nature, poor governance, be it Republican or Democratic. Just as we believe that neither party has a corner on truth, be it theological or secular.
That's how we choose to read the, uh, tea leaves.
