Category Archives: Radio Commentaries

With a part-time Legislature, Utah is prone to difficulties with ethics in at least two ways. First, there always is the possibility that legislators will legislate matters pertaining to their own business interests. Second, and the more serious concern, legislators may create business interests because of their political power.

More often than not, the public debate over government ethics reforms center on systemic issues. Time is the biggest one. It is both a blessing and a curse. When the Legislature is not in session it cannot do any harm. The more time the Legislature is in session, the expectation will be to do something. Why meet if not to do something? So Utah’s 45-day legislative calendar is a blessing. It’s also a curse. read more

Yes, I never thought Donald Trump should be President of the United States. No, I never supported his candidacy. Yes, I think he is unfit to be president. And, no, that thought is not new for me. I have said on numerous occasions that Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist. Who knows why? I’m not condemning him for deep-seated mental or emotional challenges he may have faced all of his life. But he is a pathological narcissist and unfit to be president. And, now, it is time to move to impeach him. read more

Many Latter-day Saints might be sad or confused about the announcement from the LDS Church that it will no longer be participating in the Scouting program for older boys. And that sadness or confusion is understandable. The LDS Church was one of the original partners with the Boy Scouts of America dating back to 1913. Their partnership has been deep over the years in terms of membership, programs and finances.

I am neither sad nor confused.

I never have been a fan of the scouting program. None of our four boys participated. Rarely have I donated to the Friends of Scouting fund and, when I have, it was usually out of some kind of neighborhood peer pressure. My indifference to Scouting is not based on any sort of animosity. I think they have served many millions of boys and men very well. It’s simply not my cup of tea. I’m not an outdoors guy. I don’t like bugs. I don’t like dirt. I don’t like eating from cans and drinking from containers requiring purification. I don’t like sleeping on the ground. Nor do I like heat or cold. I realize that scouting has become easier. Its culture of enduring the great wilderness has given way to fast food, big cookers, diverse energy sources, mutli-room tents and comfortable and cushioned bedding. read more

From the beginning of the modern conservative movement in America, there always have been philosophical divisions. We have different species of conservatives: economic, social, neo- and paleo. Unfortunately, the movement often gets lumped together with non-conservative, but right wing, strains of delusional freedom fighters such as libertarians, the alt-right and conspiracy theorists.

In the 1950s and 1960s, conservative icons such as William F. Buckley did their best to create a movement based on what they called “fusionism” – the idea that all freedom fighters can work together for what they have in common. Admittedly, and rightly, fusionism did not include conspiracy theorists and other crazies, regardless of their popularity. In fact, Buckley went out of his way to separate the crazies from intellectual conservatives. Still, a big effort was made to bring every other reasonable freedom-loving philosophy together. read more

Harvard business guru Clayton Christensen made a name for himself by studying business disruption and how disruption makes titans of an industry disappear almost over night. Christensen first studied the automobile industry and explained how so many foreign carmakers we able to crush the American grip on car sales. People my age and older can remember the Datsun and the early Honda that resembled today’s “smart cars,” tiny, built inexpensively and, frankly, death traps. I remember, as a young teenager, my friends and I could actually lift a Honda and move it to another parking spot. You could take your fingers and press the metal on the doors. But those early Japanese cars came to overtake the car market. Today, what was once the maker of cheap cars now owns Lexus. read more

Can we ever get a break from politics? The last two years of Trump and Hillary should have been enough politics to last a lifetime. But, no, it never stops. Here we are in 2017, five months after a presidential election, already talking about Senate and House seats in 2018 as well as the governorship in 2020. It is what it is, I guess.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz just announced he won’t be running for reelection – a surprise to many people. We expect every incumbent to keep on running and, when they don’t, it seems surprising. We think, “what’s wrong?” Well, what’s wrong is that Chaffetz cannot afford to have a contentious congressional race in 2018 right before he looks to run for governor in 2020. While Utahns should be grateful for his decision, it was a decision made out of self-interest. I assure you that he didn’t sit back and say to himself, “You know, I should step down. It’ll be good for the country for another person to have their turn at this.” read more

As has been said a million times since 9/11, the “war on terror” is unlike any war America has faced. And, yet, war is war and some things don’t change – not even with Donald Trump at the helm (as frightening as that thought is).

That we act globally should be no surprise to anybody who has studied American foreign policy over the past century. George Washington’s concern about “foreign entanglements” and our once sacred Monroe Doctrine were abandoned long ago. America has acted globally since World War I a hundred years ago. If this fact ever needed punctuation, the war on terror put a period on the end of that sentence. read more

Evidently, the art of the deal is really just the art of lying. Donald Trump has proven that not only is lying an art but it’s okay to do. We’ve all heard of “white lies” but Trump has developed a new course of study in academia: Blue lies. A blue lie is lying in the name of the collective good. Of course, a blue lie isn’t really a new thing. It’s just that Trump has raised it to a new level and the disintegration of political discourse has run with it.

What comes to your mind when you hear Trump lie about crowd size at his inauguration? How about when he lies about wiretapping or about any of his campaign promises, short of nominating a conservative judge to the Supreme Court? Turns out, his supporters don’t care. In fact, they feel his lies are justified. They feel that the Trump revolution is under siege by, well, everyone and anything is justified to hold the wolves at bay to accomplish what he said he would do. read more

Over ten years ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was looking to build a Deseret Industries store in the middle of Draper, Utah’s shopping district. In response, the Draper city council, urged by residents, passed a zoning ordinance to keep Deseret Industries out of the area. The council said it didn’t mind if the LDS Church built its thrift store and mentoring program outside of the main flow of its commercial district, just not where other people shop. Of course, that decision made Draper look silly and snobby. More so, it made Draper look hypocritical – Draper’s population is overwhelmingly LDS. read more

Not many people envy House Speaker Paul Ryan’s life these days. You might recall that he was begged to take over as Speaker of the House after conservatives were tired of John Boehner. Ryan was very reluctant. He knew the toll that role would take on his family and his own sanity. Yet he accepted. And, even still, amidst all of the Trump era chaos, I don’t think he regrets it. Ryan is a policy wonk. He might hate the politics but he loves the deep dive into fixing problems.

Let me take you into his world for a moment based on my own experience working on Capitol Hill years ago. Given that today is the seventh anniversary of Obamacare, let’s just focus on its repeal and replacement. Again, you might recall that not long ago I predicted Obamacare would NOT be repealed – a prediction I stand by still. So here is why I say that and the heavy lift faced by Speaker Ryan. Let’s piece together all of the forces in play. read more