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Pollsters say there is a big difference between telling someone on the phone that you would support violence in the streets as a reaction to this November’s election and actually picking up a brick or some other weapon and using it.
Well, thank goodness for that, but it hardly makes me sleep better at night.
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On Monday, Spencer Cox was declared the winner of the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary, having won 36.4% of the vote in a four-way race.
And while no one should doubt the legitimacy of that victory, a natural question to ask is whether a little more than one-third of the vote ought to be enough. Does Cox now have any sort of a Republican mandate going into his general election contest with Democrat Chris Peterson? That question is even more applicable in Utah’s first congressional district, where Blake Moore was declared the winner of the Republican primary with, as of Monday, just 30.92% of the vote, also in a four-person race. It’s a rare day when this column veers into the sports world. But then, it’s a rare day when baseball cancels its entire minor league season.
The last time that happened was never — not during the influenza pandemic 100 years ago and not during either of two world wars. No one could have foreseen this, of course, least of all the late former Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini, who risked much of her political capital three decades ago building what now is called Smith’s Ballpark, and who lured a triple-A team to the city, now known as the Bees. In an age when some people confuse mask-wearing with a litmus test for constitutional fealty, it may be useless to say this, but Utahns should not be allowed to set off fireworks at home during the July holidays.
I feel almost silly as I write this. It’s raining outside and temperatures are in the 50s. I just got soaked on my morning bike ride. But the desert never hides its true identity for long this time of year. By the time everyone celebrates independence this Saturday, temperatures should be back in the 90s and the air should be bone dry. As I write this, only six months remain until Christmas. And by the time you read this, chances are it will be even less.
How’s that for optimism in a time of distress? Of course, no one knows today what Christmas will look like, but if you’re like most people, I’m guessing you have high hopes for a glorious holiday. In fact, you probably believe deep down we’ll have a vaccine by then for COVID-19 and Santa’s beard won’t have to double as a mask. So, now what, Utah?
The state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Angela Dunn, the face of the medical profession in the fight against COVID-19 in the state, authored a blunt and unequivocal memo last week. “We are quickly getting to a point where the only viable option to manage spread and deaths will be a complete shutdown,” she wrote. That is, a complete shutdown of the economy; the one that boasts an unemployment rate of 8.5%, which is the second best in the nation and far better than the national rate of 13.3%. Given the economic hardships caused by the pandemic, the federal government was right to authorize stimulus checks and approve loans to help people cope with the sudden drop in economic activity.
But no one should discount the seriousness of what $3 trillion in new spending will do to the nation’s heavy debt burden, nor its impact on future generations. Washington was irresponsible leading up to this crisis. Once it has passed, Congress and the president need to work to reduce spending. Happiness, the old Ray Conniff song used to remind us, is “different things to different people.” That makes it hard to measure.
Which hasn’t stopped people from trying, anyway. And it shouldn’t keep us from learning lessons from what they find, especially during this time of pandemic and protest. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s positive test for COVID-19 this week ought to have brought the message home to the people of Utah: The pandemic is not over.
A lot of you have been acting as if it is, or as if you’re just plain tired of dealing with it. A month ago, I wrote a column speculating about why Utah was doing better than just about any other state when it came to managing the novel coronavirus outbreak. Those were the good old days. Now it’s time for a different take. We’re not doing so well any more. Calls to defund the police, echoing from coast to coast right now, come at a time when local governments might not have much choice. Simply put, there isn’t much money to go around.
Thanks to COVID-19 and, to a much smaller extent, the economic effects of riots that have harmed public property, cities and counties also may not have much left over to fund the social programs or neighborhood investments many protesters and others would like to see. |
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The author
Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has 32 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities. Archives
April 2020
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