In politics, you’re either on message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… Party Poopers.
Last week the cable news outrage machine momentarily turned its ire away from Democrats and put two Utah Republicans in the crosshairs.
Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson called out Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Senator Mitt Romney, presumably because it was a slow news day.
Carlson went after the governor for his position on transgender issues including vetoing the transgender athlete bill last month – only to have his veto overridden. He also took a shot at him for sharing his preferred pronouns during a video town hall with students, though Carlson opted not to show that the student had specified her pronouns in her question to the governor.
I’ve wondered how this isn’t a strategy that ultimately erodes whatever credibility the audience gives a pundit like Tucker Carlson. Whether you like Governor Cox or not, whether you agree with him or not on the transgender athlete veto and whether you needed clarification on his pronouns or roll your eyes at it… you likely understand far more about Utah politics than a Fox News host on the east coast does. And since he has to pontificate about things across the country, shouldn’t his audience slowly catch on that he may be making some broad generalizations and – at least some of the time – be talking about something he hasn’t taken the time to fully understand?
But I digress.
His overall theme is based on how does “deep-red” Utah elect moderate Republicans? Those who live here know that the prevailing brand of conservatism in Utah is the kind that is more interested in getting things done than just taking shots at the opposition. What most Utah Republicans consider to be a conservative is what most of the country calls a moderate or even a RINO.
And part of the confusion may stem from a misunderstanding of what constitutes a “real” Republican in Utah. If you think it’s the state party and the delegates, you are inclined to think Utah is an ultra-right-wing state. But pragmatic conservatism is much more the Utah brand. Conservative, yes. Fiscally for sure and socially much more so than many states – even red states. But it’s a conservative approach that generally has little interest in lobbing grenades at the opposition.
In Utah the RINOs are those on the extreme right.
The Salt Lake Tribune wrote a story about the incident including Tucker Carlson’s interview with the chair of the Utah Republican Party, Carson Jorgenson, quoting him as saying:
“I’ve spent the last several weeks at county conventions, and there’s a lot of people that are really upset with what’s happening. I don’t know if I’d call it buyers remorse, but we have to be careful with this kind of woke ideology.”
That certainly plays into the Tucker Carlson theme that Cox and Romney are out of step – and his assertion will no doubt influence some if not many – that’s the power of the megaphone he holds.
The party chairman is not wrong; I’m sure delegates are the group most upset by the case Tucker Carlson has laid out. But they aren’t the political mainstream in Utah – not even among Republicans. If Cox and Romney are out of step generally, they are out of step with a minority of Utah Republican voters.
And buyer’s remorse is a bit odd, too. If he’s referring to Mitt Romney – the delegates didn’t support him in 2018; they voted for Mike Kennedy only to have Romney win going away in the primary when all Utah Republicans had a say.
And if he’s referring to Cox, he also won at convention so maybe they have a point. Cox did go on to win the primary by a single point in 2020.
The Trib also quote Jared Cahoon, the vice-chair of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, who said…
“We have a governor who gets elected with 36% of all voting Republicans in the state. That is not a representative democracy. Almost two-thirds of our membership did not have a say in that outcome.”
That, of course, glances over the fact that more Republicans voted in that race than ever before – so they did have a voice in the decision and it is the convention process where a high percentage of Utah Republicans are shut out.
From the communication standpoint… having Tucker Carlson beating you about the head and shoulders is not ideal but it’s also not fatal. That said, even mainstream Republicans should would do well to protect their right flank by not letting their message drift from empathetic and kind to being “woke” in today’s political climate.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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