This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When I first read the headline "CEO to workers: If Obama wins, I'll lay you off" (Tribune, Oct. 12), I though of unjust coercion, or what Joseph Smith called "unrighteous dominion."
Then I thought of the Thomas Jefferson quotation that rings the dome of his memorial in Washington, D.C.: "For I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Whether it's a Democratic labor boss, a Republican businessman, a Mormon do-gooder spreading scary lies about designing gays, or Rep. Jim Matheson and Mayor Mia Love trying to scare voters with half-truths — it is wrong to trick or force people to vote one way.
Democracy works best, and in the long run, at all, when people are given all the information and asked to make an uncoerced, informed judgment.
Tom Campbell
Salt Lake City