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Utah has a chance to do something great.

Utah has a chance to do something great.

Last updated on: March 21, 2016 at 10:43 am by Dan Peterson

Utah has a chance to do something great. 2016-03-21T10:43:06-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The slogan “Just Say No” was prominently associated with First Lady Nancy Reagan. It’s appropriate, given her recent passing, to remember that slogan and to apply it to the new circumstances in which we currently find ourselves. (Wikimedia CC)

I ran across this little item on page 68 of the April 2016 issue of the superb conservative magazine of religion and public affairs First Things:

“A friend’s son bought a Trump ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap. The tag on the inside reads: ‘100% Cotton. Made in China.”

That is a very nice illustration — though it’s far from the only one — of the sheer phoniness of Mr. Trump.

He rails against outsourcing and proclaims himself an advocate of making things in America, but, like Trump baseball hats, Trump-label ties are made in China. And Trump-label shirts are manufactured in Bangladesh.

He really seems to think that American voters are stupid.

Are we?

If you want to learn more about Donald Trump — and there’s vastly more to dislike about him than merely his brazen phoniness — here’s an excellent source of easily accessible material:

https://www.trumpquestions.com/default.aspx

Please share it with those you know. And, for that matter, with people you don’t. Everybody who has been warned has a moral duty to warn his or her neighbor. Remember: Friends don’t let friends vote for Donald Trump.

I don’t always agree with Erick Erickson, but, over the past years, he has become a highly influential voice on the political Right, and I agree completely with him on this point:

“I Have Signed No Oath of Loyalty to Donald Trump or the GOP”

Fortunately, Latter-day Saints have proven relatively resistant to Caesarotrumpism, as this article in a national publication explains:

“Mormon voters really don’t like Trump — here’s why”

And here’s an actual Mormon voice on the matter, in a Mormon publication:

“Trump: The Anti-Republican”

Of course, the most prominent Mormon voice against the Trumpist threat has been that of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee:

Mitt Romney campaigned for John Kasich in Ohio, and Governor Kasich defeated Donald Trump there. Governor Romney has announced that, as a resident of Utah, he will be voting for Ted Cruz. He’s not endorsing Ted Cruz; he’s following the strategy that he explicitly announced in his admirable jeremiad against Trumpism at the University of Utah two or three weeks ago, supporting whomever has the best chance of defeating Trumpism in any given state in order to get us to a brokered convention where there might still be a chance of saving the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, Professor Robert George, of Princeton University, who is one of the finest Christian conservative minds in the United States — and who, by the way, although a Catholic, is a firm and vocal friend of Utah and the Mormons and a courageous ally on marriage and other social issues — has openly endorsed Ted Cruz:

https://www.tedcruz.org/news/dr-robert-george-endorses-ted-cruz-president/

I’m now in a position to announce (to the tiny audience of those who care even slightly) what I intend to do during the Utah caucuses tomorrow evening:

I think that Ohio governor John Kasich would make a reasonably good president. I have real reservations about him — including his seemingly pointless continuation in this race, which only benefits the onward march of Trumpism — but he has a broad range of experience as both a congressman and an executive and he’s a decent if somewhat quirky conservative. If, by some chance, he were to become the Republican nominee, I would support him without hesitation. (The alternative, recall, is Clinton Inc.)

I do not, however, think that he has a plausible way to gain the nomination before the Republican national convention. Therefore, I cannot support him tomorrow night, because the most urgent task before principled Republican conservatives is to deny Trumpism sufficient delegates for its Leader to be nominated on the first ballot.

The best way of stopping the Trumpist tsunami now seems to be to support Ted Cruz.

There is a slight theoretical chance that he could secure enough delegates to win the nomination before the party gathers in Cleveland. But I regard that as a very long shot — and the window of opportunity for it may close as early as tomorrow.

It comes down to this: The urgent imperative is to slow Donald Trump’s accumulation of delegates down sufficiently that we have a brokered convention.

I suppose, for what it’s worth, that I’m now endorsing Senator Cruz for the presidency. At least for the moment, pending the the first ballot at the convention.

In any event, I intend to vote for Ted Cruz at tomorrow night’s Utah Republican caucuses.

We Latter-day Saints are a significant community in Arizona, but, although I can hope for a good outcome in that state, our proportional numbers are not high enough that our vote will determine the election results there tomorrow night. And, sadly, Mr. Trump appears poised to win in Arizona.

In Utah, though, things are different. And I would be very, very proud of my adopted home state and my co-religionists were Utah to hand Donald Trump his most severe defeat of the campaign.

This is a distinct possibility. May we rise to the occasion.

Utah’s vote rarely matters much in the nominating process. But we’re being closely watched right now in this very tight race.

Ideally, Ted Cruz would receive more than 50% of the vote, which would give him all of Utah’s delegates. The presence of Governor Kasich may prevent that — another material assist to Trumpism — but it’s a worthy goal, and it’s not impossible.

Utah and the Mormons will cover themselves with lasting honor if the Trumpist juggernaut falters here, even if only momentarily. We can make history.

In the horrifically terrible pseudo-historical 2007 anti-Mormon film September Dawn, the fictional Bishop Jacob Samuelson — played by Jon Voigt, who has now compounded the sin of appearing in that wretched piece of trash by endorsing Donald Trump — launches the (sadly historical) Mountain Meadows Massacre with the command “Mormons, do your duty!”

That line has been very much on my mind over the past few days.

This is a chance for those of us in Utah, and even those of us in Arizona, to stand firm for principle against the toxic rise of a very bad man who has risen to prominence, and who now aspires to seize the White House, by means of fraud, demagoguery, misogyny, deceit, coarseness, vulgarity, shameless personal insults, boastful amorality, and shameful appeals to religious and ethnic bigotry. He has advocated war crimes. He has debased American political conversation, making it more ugly and hateful than I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime. He has shown no interest in substantive policy issues, and has demonstrated no commitment whatever to the cause of constitutional conservatism, to limited government, or to the principle of federalism. He will say and do anything to gain power. He must not gain it. We have a moral obligation to resist.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adheres to a policy of strict neutrality on partisan political issues.

I don’t. I have no obligation to do so.

But I regard this as more than a mere political issue. In my judgment, it’s a moral one, as well.

Mormons, do your duty!

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