I was incredibly proud of my friends and neighbors in Utah during the recent presidential election. We made national headlines for opposing Donald Trump’s antics and ethics even when so many other Republican states embraced him with open arms.
These headlines weren’t about policy or politics. We Utahns were getting attention not because we were Democrats or independents or Republicans. All the attention was because of what we stood for. Decency. Humility. Integrity. Compassion.
We know that bragging about sexual assault is not OK. We know that sexual assault isn’t OK even if you don’t brag about it.
We know that singling out Muslims — even if you claim it’s about terrorism — isn’t the way we do things in this country. The first settlers in our great state were singled out for their beliefs (in the name of national security), and it doesn’t feel nice. It’s also an offense to our Constitution.
We know that barring refugees is flat out immoral. Their story is our story.
We know these things. And that makes me very proud. Not as any kind of partisan, but as a Utahn.
Since the election, though, I’ve been quite disappointed: our elected officials didn’t seem to get the message.
As its first item of business, our entire congressional delegation voted to hobble the Office of Congressional Ethics. Rep. Jason Chaffetz has announced that he has no interest looking into Trump’s conflicts of interest or his relationship with Russian operatives. He has plenty of time to harass the Office of Government Ethics and draft a bill to turn public land over to private interests, but can’t be bothered with what may be the biggest conflicts of interest the White House has ever seen.
And when thousands and thousands of Utahns called Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch last week, expressing sincere opinions about Betsy DeVos, the Muslim ban and Steven Bannon’s unprecedented service on the National Security Committee, our good senators dismissed them as “out of state robocalls.” No, it was us, senators. We called and, being the kind souls that we so often are, had to resort to sending you free pizza with the hopes that you’d finally listen.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I don’t have all the facts. But here’s what it looks like from my vantage point: our senators and representatives strained at gnats when Democrats were in charge, and now they’re swallowing camels. What changed? Certainly not the scope of the problems — Trump has promised to disregard ethics, persecute a religious minority and start indiscriminate wars. It’s almost as if our elected officials have prioritized something above their duty to their constituents.
Lest this get too vague and theoretical, let me give a concrete example. President Trump issued his so-called immigration travel ban a few weeks ago. There have been rumors of whispers that our senators, representatives and governor are not happy with the ban. They think it goes too far, that it is a direct attack on religious freedom, that persecuting refugees is not the Utah thing to do.
Or something like that. Maybe. We don’t really know, because none of them has actually taken a stand. Not a single one of them has stood up for Utah values. They’ve either stayed silent (you know who you are), or they’ve issued tepid platitudes about the importance of kindness and the power of immigrants.
Dear Gov. Gary Herbert, Rep. Mia Love, Rep. Chris Stewart, Rep. Chaffetz, Rep. Rob Bishop, Sen. Lee and Sen. Hatch: that’s not how you defend Utah’s values.
We spent the entire 2016 election showing you what we stand for. We didn’t send you to Washington to boost a political party. We sent you to represent us.
Either start representing us, or please let someone else.
Jeff Swift, Ph.D., serves on the board of Alliance for a Better Utah and as policy director for LDS Dems. He lives in South Jordan with his wife and children.