Election season used to feel like Christmas to me, filled with excitement, suspense, hope, and surprise. A buzz was in the air, a certain electricity generated by anticipation and appreciation for the privileges of freedom.
My earliest political memory was hearing my Republican parents discuss Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower as they watched our black and white television. I was seven.
A Nixon fan, I watched his historic debate with Kennedy, profoundly grieved the deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy, lost childhood friends in the Vietnam War. I watched the Watergate hearings and Nixon’s resignation. I cheered for my heroes Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and wept over King’s death.
Politics matter to me. They are a public manifestation of private morality. Our choice of leaders reveals our cherished personal beliefs. “Politician” has never been a dirty word to me.
I have made phone calls and knocked on hundreds of doors for Scott Matheson, Jr., Scott Howell, Jim Matheson, Carol Spackman Moss, Patrice Arendt, Marie Poulsen, Evan McMullin, GayLynn Bennion, and Ben McAdams. Victories were exhilarating, and defeats were worth it just to be with people who passionately cared about democracy.
But there’s no buzz anymore, thanks to our Republican Legislature’s insatiable lust for power. After the Legislature’s blatant gerrymandering, a win for a Democrat in any of the four Congressional districts is statistically impossible.
Have you noticed how few campaign signs there are this year? In District 4, I have not seen a single sign for either candidate.
In 20 of the 75 Utah House races, Republicans are running unopposed.
As a Democrat, I feel terrible about finally caving in and asking, “Why bother?” It goes against everything I believe in.
I am weary and discouraged. The fight for freedom should be invigorating, but it’s not fun anymore.
Ann Florence, Murray