Situational Analysis | July 2, 2021

It's Friday of a long weekend. Enjoy celebrating, but please - don't burn the state down. Utah Policy will take the holiday on Monday, so look for us back in your inboxes on Tuesday.

Be in the Know

Utah's COVID-19 rates are on the rise again, hospitals are at capacity.

Two major SCOTUS decisions to close out this term. First, the court upheld an Arizona law that placed restrictions on voting and second, the court ruled that California's requirement that charities report their major donors to the state violates their First Amendment rights.

The new jobs report is out - 850,000 new jobs were added in June, which is better than expected.

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Policy News

Business, government and community leader Ally Isom enters 2022 U.S. Senate race

Republican Ally Isom, a respected leader in Utah’s business, government and community sectors, registered her federal campaign today, signaling the beginning of her 2022 U.S. Senate run and launching her “Walk a Mile” statewide listening tour.

“Our nation is at a critical crossroads. It’s time to return to the fundamental conservative principles we share—responsibility for our shared future, fiscal discipline, limited government, valuing life and respecting others,” Isom said. “Public dialog is often more about personalities than ideas, more about division than solutions. We can do better.” Read More

Supreme Court deals blow to freedom to vote

Today, the United States Supreme Court dealt another blow to the freedom to vote in Brnovich v DNC by upholding Arizona’s discriminatory voting laws and weakening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to make future challenges against anti-voter laws even more difficult.
Lauren Simpson, policy director for Alliance for a Better Utah, issued the following statement:
“Whatever our color, background or zip code, in America we value our freedom to vote without discrimination and without intimidation. In Utah, with some exceptions in San Juan County, Republicans have intentionally expanded the freedom to vote for all people. Meanwhile, their colleagues across the country are choosing to go the opposite direction." Read More

Gov. Spencer J. Cox appoints four to Utah Homelessness Council

Gov. Spencer J. Cox has appointed Pamela Atkinson, Brian Higgins, Bonnie Kier-Herrick and Tiffanie Price to serve as voting members of the Utah Homelessness Council.

“Finding lasting solutions to better serve those experiencing homelessness remains a top priority of this administration,” Gov. Cox said. “I’m grateful for the time, experience and perspectives Pamela, Brian, Bonnie and Tiffanie will bring to this important effort.” Read More

Rep. Stewart reappointed as a member of the China Task Force

This week, Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reappointed Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) to the China Task Force. Rep. Stewart released the following statement on the importance of holding China accountable.

“Today, the Chinese Communist Party will celebrate its 100th anniversary. But it is no occasion for joy. It is a reminder of their gruesome legacy, from Tiananmen Square to Uyghur internment camps to the coronavirus cover-up. China is the leading threat to global freedom and democracy. America cannot allow China’s continued wrongdoings and human rights violations to go unchecked. Read More

Commentary: Happy 4th of July! Do you have a philosophy of government?

By LaVarr Webb

As we celebrate America’s 245th birthday, here’s something to contemplate: Do you have a basic political philosophy? Why do you hold certain political views?
I believe it’s important to subscribe to basic underlying principles to help form opinions on day-to-day political issues. We each should be able to articulate what guides us as we support or oppose disparate issues in government.

I want to outline my thinking as I have developed my philosophy of government. It has to do with what I believe is the essence of government and the government structure and principles the nation’s founders gave us.

First, a very basic question: Why do we have government? That sounds simplistic, but when I ask people that question I get answers all over the place. The answer I like most is this: We have government to do things collectively that it wouldn’t make sense to do individually. Read More

The legacy and promise of liberty

By Derek Miller

July is special in Utah. Not only do we celebrate the founding and freedoms of our nation but also the pioneering spirit of our state that created a legacy which has made it first among equals in America. As we remember our founding and consider the blessings that have come to the world because of America and her institutions, I want to express my gratitude for the bedrock principle that has made it all possible: Liberty.
America’s most sacred social compact is the Constitution of the United States, and the freedoms derived from that document are so powerful that it has become the model for hundreds of nations throughout the world, including former adversaries. Among its rights are those that guarantee independence of conscience with freedom of religion, speech, and assembly; the right to associate one with another under the rule of law; the right to elect our leaders; the right to hold property; and the right to engage in commerce and stand independent from other nations.
These are only a few of the liberties that uphold the freedom which our founding documents make clear comes from our Creator, thereby establishing the path to true equality among individuals. Read More

Number of the Day

Deep Dive: Four essays on liberty worth your time this weekend.

By Holly Richardson

As we head into a long holiday weekend, you might just have some extra reading time. I want to point out 4 pieces that you could start with.

Salt Lake Chamber President Derek Miller has an essay about the legacy and promise of liberty. "Liberty’s eternal power is America’s legacy," he writes, "its gift to the world, placing self-determination in the trusted hands not of the government but the governed, and for this reason, so many seeking to aggrandize themselves and consolidate power for their own purposes seek to undermine this and other founding principles.
He also writes about the responsibilities of liberty and the deepening of our social capitol, "the power we have collectively to overcome shortcomings and adversities, to promote opportunity and fairness, and to lift those who stand in need."

LaVarr Webb writes about the philosophy of government and shares his thought on why we even have government. However, he notes that "there is one really important thing that sets government apart from all other institutions in society. Most debates in government, in legislatures and Congress, are really about this peculiar and crucial characteristic of government...the power of FORCE and COERCION." He then shares foundational principles behind the US Constitution and what powers are embedded in it to restrain the power of government, and finally, the vital roles of values in our government.

Dallin H. Oaks has a lengthy piece on the "Our inspired Constitution" and its impact on our lives today. As a scholar of the Constitution, for more than 60 years, he writes, "To facilitate moral agency — the power to decide and to act — is an important divine purpose for the Constitution. The most desirable condition for the exercise of moral agency is maximum freedom for men and women to act according to their individual choices....This obviously means that human slavery is wrong. And according to the same principle, it is wrong for citizens to have no voice in the selection of their rulers or the making of their laws." There's much more in his piece that's worth your time.

Finally, be sure to check out this essay from Arthur Brooks on patriotism, nationalism, and happiness. “Nationalists may identify as patriots, and some people opposed to both ideologies might argue that they are equivalent,” he writes. “For national and individual well-being, though, distinguishing between them is important. Following Tocqueville and Orwell, we might define patriotism as civic pride in our democratic institutions and shared culture, and nationalism as a sense of superiority or identity, defined by demographics such as race, religion, or language. Modern social science finds a major quality-of-life difference between the two. In 2013, a cross-national team of political scientists measured the effects of each on the levels of social trust and voluntary association, both of which are strongly positively associated with personal well-being. They found that civic pride usually pushed both up, and ethnic pride pushed both down. Given the evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that patriotism, as we have traditionally understood it in the United States, is good for our happiness. Meanwhile, nationalism (under Orwell’s definition) is not.”

Happy reading.

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On This Day In History

From History.com

Wise Words

"I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better."
-Justice Thurgood Marshall

Lighter Side

What do you call an American revolutionary who draws cartoons?

A Yankee Doodler.

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