Utah Republicans should see that winning an election is not cheating
George Pyle: Utah Republicans should see that winning an election is not cheating
Gabriel Sterling a top Georgia elections official speaks on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020, during a news conference in Atlanta. On Tuesday Dec. 1, 2020, Sterling called on President Donald Trump to condemn supporters who have threatened violence against election officials. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Whatever possessed my high school civics teacher to tell the whole class that I had earned a perfect score on the midterm exam, I’ll never know. Maybe it was an attempt to shame the kid sitting behind me.
“That’s not fair,” the other student said, apparently in serious indignation. “He studied.”
And if by “studied,” he meant that I more or less paid attention in class and opened the textbook, well, yes, I guess I studied. But it wasn’t any extraordinary effort. And I certainly never thought that studying wasn’t fair. That it was a form of cheating.
I guess that guy was a Republican. Or, more specifically, a supporter of the soon-to-be-former president of the United States.
Control of the Senate will come down to which candidates emerge from those elections. So, if by “cheating,” Stewart means that Democrats are working really hard and raising lots of money, well, of course they are. So are Republicans.
It seems that Stewart and others could base their appeal on those indisputable facts rather than roll out more malarkey accusing the other party of being not just a rival but also an enemy of the people.
Government officials and voting system contractors have received death threats in retaliation for having dared to tell the truth about how the state’s election was free and fair.
“Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed,” Sterling said.
“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” Sterling added. “Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up.”
Nationally, the list of those recognizing the reality of a President Biden includes Wyoming Rep. Mary Cheney, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Our county needs a healthy Republican Party — or something that is what that party used to be — not just to to represent a small-government, low-tax view, but also to keep the other party honest.
The fact that the president’s reelection effort was so soundly thumped even as other Republican candidates were successful up and down the ballot, gaining seats in the House and standing very near victory in the Senate, shows that the Republican Party retains widespread support across the nation.
Party leaders worthy of the name will move quickly to build on and broaden that support. To do so, they must abandon, once and for all, the loser who sits momentarily at the top of their ticket.
If they don’t, they are not just overly partisan. They are not just wrong. They are dangerous.
George Pyle, editorial page editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, has done well for himself for a long time by reading one chapter ahead.