The Utah GOP Convention Hot Wash
News from the trenches from someone who was actually in those trenches.
I attended the Utah GOP Organizing Convention as the Chair of the Summit County GOP and as a voting delegate.
Since the media is focused solely on how terrible it was for Mitt Romney to be booed, quoting other squishy and NeverTrump Republicans like Susan Collins and the groomers of underage interns in the Lincoln project, it should be noted far more significant happenings were afoot.
The entirely predictable reaction to Romney and his arrogant "Aren't you embarrassed?" retort were the least significant things that happened on Saturday.
What was missed were the rousing welcomes received by Mike Lee, Blake Moore (my congressman), Burgess Owens, and Chris Stewart (less so for RINO John Curtis - but more on that later) - but even Mike Lee drew some grumbles for his tight relationship with the Tech Oligarchs in Silicon Valley, and he is wildly popular here in Utah.
I thought it appropriate for me to share my observations of, and deductions drawn from, the 2021 Organizing Convention held on May 1, 2021 at the Maverick Center. Sort of a “hot wash” or “after action report" that I shared with our delegates and interested Republicans everywhere.
Here are my biggest takeaways:
The May 1 Convention likely marked a tipping point in the lifecycle of our State Party. The torch was passed to a much younger group of new leaders. Our new Chair, Carson Jorgensen, is 32, Jordan Hess, Vice-Chair, and Mike Bird, Treasurer, are both 33, while Olivia Horlacher, Secretary, is 29. One of the most frequent discussions we have had as an Executive Committee is the need to reach younger voters. One of our first acts after our election was to create an Outreach Committee to formulate and execute strategies for reaching out to younger people through events, the schools, and social media. I agree with Chairman Jorgensen when he says the youth of our state leadership will help us as they seek to connect with younger voters.
The Utah Establishment GOP was handed a pretty big setback. I do not think it can be understated that while Donald J. Trump is no longer our president, his brand of “Anti-Swamp” populism lives on in our Party. In my opinion that is much to our benefit. Stuart Peay, Austin Cox and sitting Secretary, Kendra Seeley were all endorsed by Spencer Cox and the GOP “Good Ole Boys”. This might just be a break from the old “who’s next” process by which state level influencers, candidate and elected officials are produced in our state, but it needs our support if it is to be a real change and not just a temporary deviation.
We are not a divided Party. Even though there were many messages from the stage focused on the message of unity and how we cannot survive as a house divided and how we were told that we should be the party of principle, not personality, I saw little division within the Utah Republican Party.
Of course, and as could be easily predicted, the media made out the booing of Mitt Romney and the close loss of Proposition #1 to censure him (798-711) as evidence of a fracture, but my witness of the reactions of the over 2100 delegates to both situations tells me a different story.
Senator Romney was soundly booed by the entire hall, so I must assume the censure vote outcome means that while most there had problems with the Senator’s actions on some level, at least half of the delegates bought into the "unity" message put forward by leaders in Party and the state Government. Senator Romney was clear in his speech that while he agreed with many of Trump's policies, he just did not like the guy (that is not a direct quote, but it is the essence of Romney's excuse). Personally, I cannot reconcile the principle over personality rhetoric in Senator Romney’s case. It would seem if the Senator honestly believed in principle over personality, he would disregard his personal dislikes and not supported bogus and politically motivated impeachments – as he did TWICE.
Most of the "unity" messaging was clearly because the party leadership and the speakers anticipated the expression of unhappiness Utah Republicans felt with Senator Mitt Romney. Most of the speakers at least paraphrased the Ronald Reagan quote that "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20 percent traitor."
But I would reply to our leadership that of what that 20% consists is what matters - nobody's life is altered by a vote to name a highway for some lifelong politician but there are votes that matter because the Pareto Principle applies. The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule) says that roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. In statistics parlance, we call that 20% the "vital few". If your "friend" shafts you on the vital few, as Romney and other "go along to get along" Republicans have repeatedly done in the past, they are 100% a traitor.
I am all for unity - it is a necessity, but do not shove someone in front of me who decided to go against the wishes of his constituents and then tell us we are the ones who must suck it up to keep the peace. That is traditional Establishment GOP rhetoric and process, and something our Party has begun to reject. Now the expectation is that our elected officials actually deliver results instead of rhetoric. That is one aspect of the Trump legacy.
It occurs to me there is a confusion in terms. What the old guard wants is subservience, not unity. Subservience and unity are markedly different concepts, the former is one way, the latter a two-way street. The former enslaves people, the latter bestows power upon them.
Perhaps, if our state leadership and our DC legislative team wanted more party unity, members of those teams should stop doing divisive things - things that please Democrats - that split us apart.
People are tired of this crap and Utah Republicans are especially tired of getting urinated on by perfectly coiffured, entitled elitists with great skin care regimes and hairdressers, makeup artists and cosmetic surgeons on standby and then being told it is just yellow rain.
While we may not be a divided party, we still have large variations in approaches and definitions of the word “principle”.
In my view, the presentation from Congressman John Curtis was prima facie evidence of this. Curtis, representing the people of the Third Congressional District could not be with us, he was at a "legislative retreat”, but he sent two of his minions to brag about how he is a consensus builder and gets 97% support for his bills from Democrats in the House. Curtis’ presentation was met with groans from the crowd, clearly there is a large number of people who are not happy with Congressman Curtis’ tendency to play the “Republican In Name Only” role when he wants to “get things done”. In my opinion, just getting things done is a false goal, getting the RIGHT things done is not.
If Congressman Curtis is truly getting 97% support from Democrats, he is giving up waaaaay too much to reach agreement. I have negotiated business deals for the better part of a quarter century, I can tell you one thing – if agreement is your primary goal and winning for your side is secondary, the fastest way to agreement is to give your opponent everything he wants. It is a way to win and lose at the same time. I learned a long time ago that to win a negotiation, you must be prepared to lose, to get up a walk away.
So, there you go, news from the trenches from someone who was actually in those trenches.
Perfectly said. The negations point is so very true and mittens should have put aside his personal dislike of Trump for principle. This shows nothing more than a despicable arrogance and mean spiritedness....same as McCain. These men have no principles.