It’s possible, I suppose, Burgess Owens is sincere that his feelings are hurt.
It’s conceivable that he really believes that the newspaper I work for is racist and published a cartoon with the intent to attack him personally.
And maybe, just maybe, he actually believes the nonpartisan Utah Debate Commission — established for the explicit purpose of removing political gamesmanship from the debate process — is for whatever reason out to get him.
Perhaps he really believes that.
But it’s also an awfully convenient excuse for Owens to avoid Wednesday night’s debate, coming from a guy who has been afraid to be asked to explain his political views and account for his performance after two years in Congress.
Because if my boss and debate moderator, Salt Lake Tribune executive editor Lauren Gustus, really were racist, then she would be racist against his challenger, Darlene McDonald, who is also Black.
So maybe the commission and the moderator are prejudiced against him as a Republican.
Maybe. Except just a few months ago Owens also refused to take part in a single debate with Republican Jake Hunsaker, his GOP challenger in the primary — including opting not to take part in a debate organized by Utah’s majority party.
But it goes beyond avoiding debates. Owens rarely, if ever, is willing to be interviewed by Utah news outlets — not just The Tribune, but also local TV and radio stations. Instead, the congressman favors the friendly softballs lobbed by right-wing outlets and podcasts.
On Wednesday afternoon, right up until a few hours before it was supposed to begin, he dodged questions about whether he would participate in the debate.
This is a man whose entire persona is built around the image of a former NFL tough guy. He wrote an unreadable book about how the left was turning strong men into “whiners, weenies and wimps.”
How is it this supposed tough guy has become one of the whiners, weenies and wimps he so despised?
Owens wants scrutiny for other politicians, just not himself.
During the last presidential election, Owens loudly and repeatedly questioned why Biden was not more accessible to reporters, even going so far as signing a letter demanding Biden take a cognition test to prove he wasn’t suffering from dementia.
And the thing is, on this front, Owens wasn’t wrong: Politicians who hold a public trust should be accountable to the constituents they represent.
At Wednesday’s debate, United Utah Party January Walker suggested Owens might be trying to avoid his own cognitive struggles.
“I think most people here agree that Representative Owens has displayed cowardice,” she said. “But it’s more than that. For two years, he has been in controlled environments. If you take him out of those scenarios, he does not have the ability to speak coherently. He openly admitted to having CTE or suspected CTE.”
Ten years ago, Owens signed a court document claiming to have suffered memory loss and impulse control issues due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a brain condition resulting from repeated head trauma during his time playing football.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Robert Gehrke.
I think the reasons for Owens’ refusal are more basic. First, Owens is fundamentally afraid of being revealed as a charlatan.
On those rare occasions he is forced to explain his political beliefs, he withers under the pressure, falling back on disparaging anyone who doesn’t share his worldview as communists, Marxists, socialists, groomer pedophiles and, yes, racists.
Second, he has utter contempt for the people who elected him and for the democratic process.
He is, after all, among the radical fringe elements that refused — despite having no legitimate evidence of fraud — to certify the results of the 2020 election. The votes of the public do not matter, at least not as much as his own party-keeping power.
Owens simply does not believe he should have to answer to voters. He wants to avoid explaining why he has done almost nothing in his time in the House. And he doesn’t want to answer why voters should give him another term, other than he has an R behind his name.
Really, why should he? The Utah Legislature, in its most recent round of gerrymandering, turned Utah’s 4th Congressional District from a perennial toss-up into a district with a Republican advantage of more than 30 points — making it the most locked-down GOP stronghold in the state and one of the most Republican-leaning in the entire country. Owens doesn’t care what his constituents think, because he doesn’t need to care what they think.
Hunsaker articulated the issue clearly while he was trying to goad Owens onto the primary debate stage.
“This is just another sign that my opponent views the entire electoral process as a threat to his game of toxic celebrity politics rather than an essential piece of American democracy,” Hunsaker said at the time. “He is acting as a coward because he knows there is safe political shelter in standing for nothing.”
Owens, in fairness, has offered two dates for a potential forum with McDonald — on dates after ballots are already mailed to voters.
I sincerely doubt those debates will ever happen. Excuses, as Owens has proved, are so much easier than accountability. Moreover, he has already shown his disdain for democracy and that he fundamentally fails to understand his role and responsibility.
This is not his seat. It does not belong to him. It is Utahns’ seat. He is, by title, a representative, meaning his job is to represent his constituents. If he is to be worthy of that honor, Owens needs to stop running and cowering from questions, no matter how uncomfortable it is or how much contempt he has for his constituents.
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