By peg mcentee

| Tribune Columnist

In one of the most important election years in American history, the political climate has devolved from bipartisan statesmanship to the politics of contempt.

You could see it during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night — House Speaker John Boehner looking bored atop the podium, his stone-faced colleagues in the House sitting still as others rose to applaud.

Photos

• 

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

Rep. Jason Chaffetz tweeted that he was "looking forward to attending President Obama’s final State of the Union speech tonight." Sen. Orrin Hatch blamed the president for the sluggish economy, the stalemate in Congress and massive national debt. Even Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson called the speech, basically, the same old, same old.

It’s not just in Washington, either. Here in Utah, the Legislature’s GOP supermajority can and does easily crush intelligent and well-intentioned proposals from the Democratic side.

It’s getting to be nearly impossible to watch Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich debate; the hostility grows deeper every time they take to their lecterns.

Remember August, when we nearly witnessed a federal government shutdown during a fight between Obama and House Republicans over the national debt.

All this signifies that mutual respect and cooperation is no longer the standard for solving the problems this state and nation face. Unemployment remains painfully high, the housing market is a disaster and wages, for those who have them, are stagnant.

Oh, and millionaires pay taxes at about half the rate you and I do. But saying that evidently amounts to class warfare, one of Washington’s more hateful watchwords.

So how do you restore faith in a nation this big, this important to the world, when the simple act of getting our political leaders on all levels to sit down and talk seems impossible?

At least part of the answer lies in the November elections. Given Utah’s low voting numbers, we need to get more people interested, registered and in the ballot booth.

Here and nationally, voters must recognize the power disparity in Congress and the Utah Legislature, choose candidates who pledge to work with the other side and boot those who won’t.

We also need to recognize our power, too. Remember the GRAMA debacle and the ridiculous closures of profitable liquor stores last year? Hundreds, if not thousands, of us demanded that public records must remain public and legal liquor easily available, and lawmakers and commissioners rightly caved.

The bottom line is this: if we the people don’t recognize the shameful political atmosphere, it will only persist, much like the smog that too often envelopes the Salt Lake Valley.

Everything this nation stands for is at stake. If we don’t demand the end of a toxic status quo, we can only blame ourselves for the politics of contempt.

Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her at pegmentee@sltrib.com, facebook.com/pegmcentee and Twitter.