The practice of wearing blackface has a long history of racism and is a dehumanizing representation of African Americans. There is never an acceptable excuse to mock human beings through the portrayal of hurtful stereotypes, including on Halloween.

As a community, we must be better, and we must teach our children to be better. They watch us to learn what is and is not acceptable behavior. Let’s teach them respect by practicing respect ourselves and condemning racism when we see it.

While condemning racism and racist actions, we must also be cautions about sharing the video of the incident. To quote the Cedar City Police statement, “We encourage everyone to be mindful when sharing videos of juveniles on social media.”

Shareable Page

In 2018, Utah Proposition 4, Independent Advisory Commission on Redistricting Initiative passed during the general election. In 2020, the legislature revised the law, giving them back ultimate power. Which they used. Taxpayers spent $1 million dollars on the independent commission that was largely ignored, leaving us with gerrymandered districts for another ten years.

Gerrymandered districts, especially when combined with closed caucuses and primaries, mean that only a small portion of registered voters have any real say in our elected officials.

A healthy representative government requires competitive elections to fuel debate and provide accountability. When we cannot hold our elected officials accountable, we lose our power as voters.

My opposition to gerrymandering and closed primaries is not about any particular Republican Platform issue. There are policy ideas I agree with and others I disagree with that are pushed by the Republicans, the Democrats, and even members of my own United Utah Party.

But this isn’t about policy, it’s about having a healthy representative government. People argue over whether we should call our government a democracy or a constitutional republic or whatever else. I don’t really care what term you use, as long as the ultimate power stays in the hands of the voters.

It may seem great to have total power when your party is in control. But things change. And people change. You may like what the majority party is doing today, but nothing says that you will next year or the year after that.

And when we lose the power to hold our elected officials accountable, when we allow them to choose their voters instead of the right way around, we cede our power as citizens and the government is no longer, “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

It is simply government of the people.

We need fair redistricting, open primaries, campaign finance reform, and alternative voting methods to make sure that the ultimate power of our government stays where it belongs, with the voters.

Shareable Page

For many religious conservatives, marriage is a religious ordinance or sacrament that man can not redefine. For many others, marriage is about civil rights. It’s about taxes and mortgages and inheritance laws and getting to visit your loved one in the ICU. And all the other rights and conveniences that come with having a relationship legally recognized by the government.

This realization helped me understand that the causes of religious liberty and civil rights do not have to be mutually exclusive. The First Amendment of the US Constitution reads, in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…”

Religious freedom and freedom of speech mean that the government can protect the civil rights of all people by codifying marriage equality, while also protecting the rights of churches and religious individuals to manage their own practices and express their own beliefs.

There is a long-standing precedent for churches and governments having different definitions of marriage. For example, the Catholic Church does not recognize legal marriages that take place in secular settings. My understanding is that if you are Catholic and get married in a courthouse or on a beach somewhere, you are married according to the government, but not in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

There are gray areas, of course, where the religious world and the secular world overlap. Such as with church owned businesses or universities. There are also times that conflicting views on religion and LGBTQ+ issues cause tension in other parts of public life.

In these cases, we need to handle any dispute in the same way we should handle all conflict in a pluralistic society. With good-faith compromise that starts understanding that, “Every individual is of inherent worth, has a right to be respected, and deserves to fully participate in our shared political and economic life.”*

*United Utah Party Platform

Shareable Page

Shareable Page

The Founding Fathers were many things, but single-minded was not one of them. By 1787, it had become obvious that the Articles of Confederation had several critical flaws. Most leaders recognized that something must be done, but there were diverse opinions on the actual solution. Some believed they could revise the Articles, while others wanted to scrap them and start from scratch. Even the leaders who wanted a new system had varied ideas about what that system should look like.

In the end, 55 different men spent a muggy Philadelphia summer (in an era before air conditioning) hashing out the minutia of a new government structure. There were many conflicting opinions, priorities, and interests. Along with the famous debate between “small states” and “large states,” the delegates debated dozens of other points that included federal versus states’ rights, agriculture versus business priorities, slavery, taxation, and countless other issues. Opinions varied, debates got heated, some men even gave up and went home. In the end, 39 men signed their names to a document, not because they believed it was flawless, but because they had hope that it was workable.

Over two centuries later, that document is still the framework for our national government. I believe that one reason the Constitution has endured over the decades and centuries is because of how it came into existence. It was the product of hours, days, and even months of spirited debate over the best possible plan for a wide variety of interests and people.

Was it perfect? No. But it is incredible. We can learn a lot from the United States Constitution. Not just from its contents, but from its origin.

Shareable Page

1. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the 2020 election in a free and fair election. The former president and his allies have provided no credible evidence of election fraud sufficient to overturn a single state’s result. Much less the several states needed to change the election result.
2. The January 6th attack on the United States Capitol directly resulted from the election lies told by the former president and his allies. The United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has interviewed countless witnesses (under oath) and continues to find more evidence that January 6th was part of a larger effort to overturn the 2020 election.
3. We are a nation of laws and nobody is above the law, including incumbent and former presidents. That being said, caution is warranted in order to avoid the appearance of political motivations. For example, the alleged misuse of the Presidential Seal by a former president is probably not worth involving the FBI. However, with sufficient evidence of serious wrongdoing, the Department of Justice has both the right and the obligation to investigate and even charge a former president.
4. Vocally disagreeing with President Biden or his policies is 100% allowed in our free country. Being a registered Republican does not make someone a threat to the United States, nor does having supported or voted for former President Trump in 2016 or 2020. That being said, there is no place in the United States of America for political violence, the threats of political violence, or the rejection of free and fair election results simply because we don’t like them. Trust is the most important resource in a constitutional government. Trust that the system is fair and that every vote counts. The need for trust is the very reason that it is so difficult to export democracy. It is challenging for someone who had no reason to trust their old system of government to suddenly trust a new one. Spreading lies and pushing accusations of corruption that have zero evidence backing them up is dangerous for our system of government precisely because it erodes that precious trust.

Shareable Page

Too often, politics is about tearing things down. About defeating the “other,” or at least preventing them from winning. To do this, politicians and political parties seek to divide us by focusing on our differences.

I am a member of the United Utah Party because I believe that there is more that unites us as Utahns, and as Americans, than divides us.

The United Utah Party is constructive by nature. We are building something; something worthwhile. Uniters are optimists who believe that there is a better way, and that we can achieve it through hard work, patience, and cooperation.

One of the early slogans of the United Utah Party was, “Practical, not Partisan.” Human beings are complex, as individuals and as groups. We cannot and will not fit into two neat sides on any issue, and especially on every issue. Instead of trying, we should embrace our different perspectives as building blocks to new ideas and lasting solutions.

I’m a Uniter because I believe in bringing people together for common purposes. And good government is a common purpose that benefits us all.

Shareable Page

I’m grateful to the Democrats for putting country over party. Kael Weston would be a great candidate in any other year, but his chance of winning in Utah is effectively 0%. Evan McMullin and his coalition have a real shot at unseating a deeply unpopular incumbent who has shown himself to be more concerned with playing politics than representing Utah.

I’m an Evan McMullin supporter, but I sympathize with Democrats who wish they had someone they could vote for wholeheartedly; rather than just voting against Senator Lee. The Utah race for the US Senate is a textbook example of the need for alternative voting methods.

Our current system naturally favors a two-way race. Three-way races can risk splitting the vote and putting someone in office with a minority of the vote. The problem is that, despite what some would wish us to believe, people do not sort nicely into two groups. We are much more complex than that. Choosing between only two candidates often leads to strategic votes (“the lesser of two evils.”) or moral votes (“I would rather lose with my candidate than win with yours.”). I’ve made both choices in my voting life and I think we need new options.

Alternative voting systems make three or more candidates the ideal. If Utah used Rank Choice Voting (RCV) or Approval Voting for Federal elections, the 2022 election cycle would look completely different.

With Rank Choice Voting, a voter who would normally vote for Weston, but who prefers McMullin over Lee, could rank Weston first and McMullin second on their ballot. Then, if no candidate receives the majority of first choice votes, the second choices come into play. The calculations continue until someone receives the majority and wins the election.

For Approval Voting, the voter selects any candidate they can stomach winning. If someone only supports Lee, they could only vote for Lee. If they can support (or even tolerate) either Weston or McMullin, they vote for them both. Then the highest vote count wins.

I prefer Approval Voting for its simplicity, but I can see the appeal of ranking your choices instead of giving them equal weight. Either method is an improvement over our current system, which encourages political strategy, polarization, and a race to the extremes.

Shareable Page

Though certainly not all-encompassing, I wanted to highlight three things that I consider non-negotiable.

#1 Human Dignity

We are all members of the human family and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We may not always agree with each other, but that never gives us the right to dismiss, demean, or abuse another human being.

For me, one of the most important indicators to determine if a leader is worth following is how they speak about their political rivals. The fastest way to lose my support is for a politician to use dehumanizing language towards any individual or group.

#2 The Rule of Law

We are a nation of laws, not rulers. While no laws are perfect, the principle of the rule of law is a cornerstone of freedom. When laws need revision, there is a process to follow. When laws are broken, there are protections in place to ensure justice. When injustice or mistreatment happens, there is a path for recourse. All of these things protect our freedom.

Laws prevent us from doing whatever we want, but they also protect us from someone else doing whatever they want to us. Effective laws put everyone on equal footing. Ineffective or harmful laws must be rewritten.

#3 Integrity

The Google dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

Though my favorite definition of integrity is from the children’s show VeggieTales. In one episode, a character sings a song with the following lyric:

“There’s a thing

That’s called integrity

That means doing the right thing

Even when no one’s looking.”

For society to function well, we need people who will do the right thing, even when no one is looking. This applies to the government and the newsroom, but it also applies to the community center and the neighborhood park.

Shareable Page

That being said, I am not pro abortion. In fact, elective abortions make me very, very sad. What I am is pro problem solving. And I believe that the constant battle over the legality of abortions causes more problems than it solves.

Banning abortions does not stop women from seeking the procedure. It never has and it never will. It does, however, open up legal arguments for restricting other rights, including necessary forms of healthcare and contraceptives.

Legislation that includes exceptions for specific circumstances cannot hope to account for all the possibilities and variables, leaving women in difficult circumstances with no legal protection. Women deserve flexibility to work with medical professionals to decide what is best for their own health, mental and physical.

Strict abortion laws also demonize women who would benefit more from our help than our censure. Women have abortions because they feel they have no other options. So let’s reframe the discussion and look for ways to give women better options.

I’ll start by proposing affordable contraceptives, expanded adoption programs, initiatives that support mothers and children, and laws that hold men accountable for the life they helped create.

Shareable Page

Slavery continued in the far-flung corners of the failed Confederacy long after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863.

On June 19, 1865, Federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and declared the slaves freed. The actual process of emancipation took a little longer since some masters did not inform their slaves until after the harvest that fall. But June 19th, later shortened to Juneteenth, became a day to mark the new freedom of a long enslaved people.

Generations of African-Americans petitioned the government to make Juneteenth a national holiday. It finally happened 156 years later, in 2021. Utah followed soon after by declaring it a state holiday.

So why do we celebrate Juneteenth?

We celebrate the 4th of July to mark the founding of our country, with all the promises that come with living in the Land of the Free.

We celebrate Juneteenth to mark a critical step in making sure that the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” applies to all of us.

Shareable Page

“Each white headstone in this image represents an actual individual; a real human being who risked their life in the service of the United States of America. Some of these individuals lost their lives in active service; some lost the opportunity for a normal life because of debilitating injuries; while others bore emotional burdens that, while not visible from the outside, may have been just as debilitating. In addition to being a military veteran, each one of these individuals is someone’s child, they may also be someone’s spouse or parent. Each of the 400,000 people interred at Arlington National Cemetery are, just that, people. As real as you and I.

“While family barbecues and cemetery visits to non-military family graves are a meaningful use of time, and the source of many fond memories for me, let us not forget the real reason for Memorial Day. Namely, to honor the fallen who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.”

Shareable Page

In the spirit of transparency, I am a gun owner. I grew up in a home with guns and I’ve been shooting since elementary school. In our home, guns were both a family activity and a chance to teach responsibility. My father required us to take Hunter Safety courses and learn to use our firearms safely. We had to learn to clean them and care for them. And few things would have gotten me into deep trouble faster than showing my friends the location of our secured gun closet. A lot of Americans have similar stories, especially in Utah.

As a law-abiding and responsible gun owner, I recognize that something has to change. We cannot keep watching our children and our neighbors die at the hands of mass murderers with semi-automatic rifles and then shake our heads and think, “What a shame. I wish something could be done.”

There are things that can be done and now. Here are just two common-sense reforms we could pass almost immediately.

1. Raise the firearm purchase age to 21. 21 is already the purchase age for handguns and handgun ammo. Semi-automatic rifles are a lot more powerful than handguns and should be under the same purchase rules.
2. Red flag laws. If someone exhibits obvious signs that they could be a danger to themselves or others, there must be a legal way to prevent them from accessing firearms. Over half of firearm deaths in America are suicides. Carefully crafted Red Flag laws can help prevent both murders and suicides, while still providing due process to protect people’s rights.

Firearms are not the only factor in America’s mass shooting crisis. But they are a critical one. We don’t wait to deliver food and water to an area affected by natural disaster until we can also provide medical care and shelter. We address each need as soon as we have the ability.

The choice is not between solving the entire problem at once and doing nothing. The choice is between doing something and doing nothing. We have to start somewhere, and we can start with passing common-sense reforms.

Shareable Page

Don’t let the length of the video intimidate you. My segment is only about 10 minutes long. 🙂 Though if you want something to listen to as you go about your day, Jay's livestream is well worth your while.

YouTube Link

Instead of curating history based on modern moral judgements or political agendas, I believe we should teach the good, the bad, and the relatable. As an example, let’s look at America’s Founding Fathers.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others helped create a system of government that forms the foundation of the freedoms and protections we enjoy to this day. Were their efforts and results perfect? No. But the United States Constitution was and is an incredible document and totally unprecedented in a world where power came from either military might or genetic luck (which their contemporaries would have called the “Divine Right of Kings.”)

Many of the Founding Fathers owed their political influence to their economic and social influence, both of which were built on the backs of enslaved human beings.

Both truths can co-exist. Just like living people, historical figures are complex. You cannot define them by only the good or only the bad. But we can learn from both.

Washington, Jefferson, and many other founding fathers knew that slavery was in direct conflict with their professed ideas of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But most kept their slaves despite that. Why? Because without their slaves, they lose their economic, social, and political influence.

Does maintaining the status quo in order to create the United States of America justify enslaving human beings? No, nothing ever does. But their choice to maintain the status quo makes them very relatable. How often do we maintain the status quo because the cost of doing the right thing feels too high?

We have to be selective about what we teach in classes simply because there isn’t enough time in a single class or a single lifetime to cover all of human history, or even just American History. But there are ways to teach important lessons without sanitizing history or turning it into propaganda.

Shareable Page

“Fellow Uniters and friends. I wish I could be with you in person today, but unfortunately I have been fighting a cold, and I did not think anyone wanted me to share. Thankfully, we live in a time that allows me another option to speak with you.

“My name is Patricia Bradford and I am running for Utah Senate District 28.

“I have lived my entire life in Utah and I will be the first to tell you that it is an amazing place. But like anywhere else, Utah faces challenges. Both in the present and looking towards the future. Challenges that deserve real solutions, not sound bites or partisan gamesmanship.

“To find these solutions, Utah needs to reintroduce thoughtful problem solving to the governing process. What does “thoughtful problem solving” mean? It means carefully considering a wide variety of voices. Voices from all parts of the political spectrum, from content area experts, and from the everyday people whose lives are affected by government actions.

“We cannot hope to make the best possible decisions when looking at challenges through tunnel vision. So let’s work together to broaden our view.

“Vote for me and together we can find real solutions to Utah’s challenges.

“Thank you”

Shareable Page

Perfection conflicting with progress is an idea that applies in many areas of life. Artists, musicians, and other types of creators must eventually learn that nothing is ever perfect. Otherwise, they spend years making microscopic changes to their works and finish nothing. This prevents them from sharing their work and from moving on and applying what they’ve learned to their next endeavor. There is something to be said about accepting “good enough.” This does not mean that we should strive for mediocrity. It does, however, mean that we should recognize that pretty good is better than unfinished. Especially since perfection is always out of reach.

In politics, striving for perfection often takes the form of an “all-or-nothing” attitude. There are elected officials who would vote against legislation that has 80% of what they want, simply because it does not have 100% of what they want. I consider this perfectionism at its most toxic.

Standards are important and some things are non-negotiable. But when everything is non-negotiable, we accomplish nothing. Instead of striving for an impossible level of perfection, we should measure progress by determining whether the new idea is better than what we had before. As an example, there are a variety of alternative voting methods in use around the country. If I had to pick a favorite option to try, I would choose Approval Voting (for reasons that are not relevant in this conversation). However, if there was a push to adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), I would get behind it. RCV may not be my first choice, but I still believe it reflects the will of the people more accurately than our current system, making it worth trying.

A second way that political perfectionism stands in the way of progress is that it seldom considers the status quo. Political platforms and pundit sound bites present shiny ideas of what they think the world should look like, but not how to get there. Actual progress includes a realistic plan for how to get from where we are to where we want to go.

The status quo needs to change in many areas of society, and particularly in the government. But we will get farther, faster by focusing on progress instead of perfection.

Shareable Page