Category: Washington - Jay Evensen

A rogue Electoral College? Let's hope not

12/7/2016

For perhaps as many as nine official presidential electors, Dec. 19 will be the day they hope to party like it’s 1836.

They are part of the last ditch effort, after many earlier ditched efforts, to finally change the outcome of the presidential race. Regardless how we feel about the president-elect, we should hope the party falls flat.

While the nation’s founders argued the Electoral College was a hedge against the public being

Is Gary Johnson changing what it means to be Libertarian?

8/22/2016

Is the current Libertarian presidential candidate trying to change what it means to be a Libertarian? Or is he just making the party’s rougher edges a bit more palatable in a year when the party has a real chance to make inroads?

Gary Johnson says he isn’t changing a thing, but he sounds a bit different than other Libertarians I’ve met.

In a meeting last Friday between the combined KSL-Deseret News editorial board and the Libertarian presidential ticket — Gary Johnson and William Weld — the topic somehow turned to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I was astounded to hear Weld say the two of them would have signed that act were they in the White House back then.

Why was I astounded? Because I’ve met with many Libertarian presidential candidates through the years. They always have assured me that the Civil

Can Jason Chaffetz fix the U.S. Postal Service?

6/21/2016

If any government task resembles that of the mythological Greek king Sisyphus, constantly rolling a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again, it is postal reform. That’s why it was surprising this week to hear that Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz is taking it on, and that he is optimistic.

Chaffetz is chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is working on a solution, at least the House’s version of it.

Getting that rock over the hill is important. The

Civility in presidential campaigns now seems quaint

6/8/2016

Sometimes, a look into the distant past can be startling. That’s true if you’re looking at photos of a younger, thinner you. It’s even more so when you look at the way presidential politics was waged.
The nation has gotten fat and cranky.

Recently, I came across a Youtube video of Edward R. Murrow’s news program, “See it now.” The episode, filmed in June of 1952, featured Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who at the time was hoping to win the GOP nomination (that wasn’t settled until that year’s convention in Chicago).

Murrow asked Eisenhower why he had said he wouldn’t campaign on “personalities,” which would translate today into attacks on his opponents’ character.

“First of all, I believe nothing is gained by dealing in personalities,” Eisenhower said. “Moreover, when you deal in personalities, you create hurt feelings, and they are very difficult ever to heal.

Political parties can't handle Trump or Sanders

1/13/2016

Politics always has been rough. It’s a safe bet Thomas Jefferson would feel right at home in today’s Twitterized climate, although his opponents’ claims in 1800 that “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed …” if he were elected might not fit the 140 character limit.

He won two terms, but I’m guessing today Jefferson might have had a harder time dealing with that kind of negativity — unless he had people like Diamond and Silk behind him.

To win the White House, you apparently have to go viral

12/9/2015

My barber told me why he supports Ben Carson for president.

“He’s a real guy; someone who has had to hold down a job and deal with real life, like you and me,” he said.

My barber gets paid more per hair when I’m in his chair than at most other times of the day, so there is ample opportunity for conversation. His opinion was a little confusing, in that Carson’s career as a neurosurgeon doesn’t exactly put him in our social circles. Neither would we fit in with the sorts of folks Donald Trump might invite to dinner. But I got the point.

Spreading better health will make the world safer

11/18/2015

Over the course of 150 years, profound statements can morph into clichés that lose their punch. So it is with this poetic line by William Ross Wallace, penned in 1865: "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world."

Jackson Ndegwa, a child health and development expert in Nairobi, Kenya, might have you look at it a little differently. A nation whose mothers rock the cradles of children who die before the age of 5 from preventable diseases, or who suffer the long-term affects those diseases have on development, won’t

Refugees are not a threat to the United States

11/17/2015

My wife and I used to frequent a certain Chinese restaurant, in part because of a particular server.

He was a pleasant man with a quick smile and helpful menu suggestions. Also, he was a refugee from Cambodia, and his story was so compelling that, the first time we heard it, we stayed long after our meal was done to listen to him.

He told of escaping through the jungle. He described the leaky boat he and his family used to

Ed Snowden continues to vex politicians

10/14/2015

The question was simple enough. Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor?

It may have been the shortest one Anderson Cooper asked during the first debate among Democratic candidates for president on Tuesday. But if there is any issue that transcends the predictable left-right political responses that dominate the Internet and talk radio, this is it. That’s true even though, let’s face it, bad guys no longer make a lot of domestic cell phone calls; and even though it’s unclear whether Snowden and the National Security Agency will play any role in next year’s election.

Seinfeld's son shows why licensing is hurting the economy

9/2/2015

Sometimes, we don’t notice a problem until a celebrity becomes the victim.

Last weekend, the young son of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and a few of his buddies decided to set up a lemonade stand along the road in their Hamptons neighborhood. They were raising money for a charity that helps needy families.

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