The remedy for a nation roiling with public distrust and political dysfunction isn’t a revolution, according to the Sutherland Institute’s newly revised mission statement. It’s a recommitment to the nation’s founding principles, by voters and politicians alike.
Utah’s oldest conservative policy think tank announced its updated mission, vision and principles earlier this month in a stated effort to re-anchor Utahns to the ideas that made their country the best in the world, and their state the best in the country, Sutherland Institute President and CEO Rick Larsen said.
But also to remind citizens of their responsibility, especially in a contentious election year, to reward lawmakers who practice principled debate that strengthens institutions instead of political performance that undermines them.
“We feel like there needs to be a voice reminding voters, reminding elected officials, reminding people of influence, that we were designed to be better than that,” Larsen said in an interview with the Deseret News. “We were designed to represent people with character and integrity. And voters were designed to expect that of their elected representatives.”
While not marking a change in their commitment to “the constitutional values of faith, family and freedom,” Larsen said the slight rebrand opens a fresh chapter in Sutherland Institute’s history, building on the work of three previous presidents who helped make the organization influential on Utah’s Capitol Hill and relevant on the national stage, to better position Sutherland as a shaper of public opinion in the Beehive State.
“What’s noteworthy in today’s combative climate is that we’re holding on to those principles when it seems so many around us are modifying their positions for political expediency,” Larsen said. “People are not sure who to trust today.”
The biggest problem facing Utah & nation? Distrust.
To those familiar with Sutherland’s 30-year history, there are few surprises in its revamped guiding document, Larsen said.
Centered around bolstering religious freedom, strengthening the family unit and promoting limited-government solutions, the think tank aims to equip Americans with data-based research to defend America’s founding and preserve Utah as “America’s last great hope.”
But their vision has expanded beyond lobbying legislators and hosting heady forums, to “making sound ideas broadly popular” through a multimedia approach that includes a recently started podcast, live community events and long form video content.
“So it’s more of an integrated effort to get those elected and those who elect them on the same page when it comes to the problems facing the state of Utah,” Larsen said.
The central problem, Larsen clarified, facing the state and the nation, isn’t the traditional wedge issues that divide political discourse, it’s the plummeting levels of trust in America’s system of governance that prevents political discourse from happening in the first place.
Public confidence in all three branches of government, the media, the police, large businesses and organized religion all hit record lows over the last two years. While much of this distrust has been exacerbated by click-bait news cycles on social media, much of it is well deserved by a political class that has refused to engage in substantive negotiations on tough problems, Larsen said.
Americans “can’t continue on this path,” where we have “abandon(ed) our ability to talk about issues,” Larsen said, because if we can’t talk about our differences, then every difference — whether on the economy, immigration or national security — becomes “overwhelming.”
“It’s important that we regain the skills and the understanding to express our beliefs and our positions and listen to those who may disagree with us,” Larsen said. “We’re not talking about compromising our principles — we’re talking about understanding how to make a case for them.”
What makes Sutherland Institute unique?
Reasoned dialogue, and the values of “faith, family and freedom,” resonate with people across the political spectrum, Larsen believes. And thats why Sutherland Institute has staked its future on time-tested principles rather than what it considers culture war talking points, in the hope it can help voters transcend partisan echo chambers and help elected officials do the actual work of governing in a diverse society.
Sutherland is on its way to achieving this goal of gaining respect among policymakers as well as “speaking to regular voters,” according to Aimee Winder Newton, director of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s office of families.
“They’re the adults in the room when it comes to policies that can sometimes be hot button political issues,” Winder Newton said. “Bringing principles to the table with a tone that turns down political tensions, but elevates the important issue, is so important in this day and age.”
Sutherland Institute’s research on welfare reforms that lead to self-sufficiency and factors that lead to family formation have often laid the groundwork for elected officials, Winder Newton said.
One example of this, according to Winder Newton, is the governor’s office working with Sutherland Institute on teaching the importance of the “success sequence” — graduating high school, obtaining full-time employment and getting married before having children — in post-elementary school curriculums.
The director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Brad Wilcox, says Sutherland Institute stands out for its unique focus on the two underlying institutions that he says lead to the success of all others.
“If we’re interested in reviving the fortunes of the American experiment, we can’t lose sight of the importance of both faith and families,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox, the author of “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization,” has written extensively in the pages of the Deseret News about the “Utah miracle” — a combination of exceptional economic growth, high religious attendance and unmatched rates of married families. Sutherland Institute has often been a brain trust thinking about how to keep this momentum going, according to Wilcox.
“Sutherland, both historically and I think even more so in the present, is playing a role in helping the state think about new and creative ways to strengthen families in the Beehive State,” Wilcox said.
But amid the chaos of national politics, Larsen says it might be easy for “a very exhausted majority” to lose sight of the fact that it is precisely Utah’s unique combination of traditional values and temperate tone that made it the No. 1 state in the nation.
“Our message to them is, there is still a home for these foundational, constitutional values and principles that you’ve always believed in,” Larsen said. “They’re not going away.”