{"id":36340,"date":"2016-09-03T10:14:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T16:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=36340"},"modified":"2016-09-03T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T16:16:10","slug":"will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html","title":{"rendered":"“Will Utah’s conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
The Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple (LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah\u2019s Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national Environmental Protection Agency (2003-2005) and then as Secretary of Health and Human Services (2005-2009) in the administration of President George W. Bush:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p046nzg7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for myself, I\u2019m debating whether I should cast my vote for the Libertarian Party ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld or for the independent candidacy of Evan McMullin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m probably more aligned, on the whole, with Evan McMullin, but voting for him would have few long-term ramifications beyond November. \u00a0Casting my ballot for Johnson-Weld would have the positive value of helping the Libertarian Party gain a bit more prominence. \u00a0I\u2019ve often thought that robust and prominent ongoing debate between Libertarians and conservative Republicans about how much the government can be reduced in size and how many government services might advisably be privatized, as well as about how interventionist our foreign policy ought to be, would be very salutary for the United States. \u00a0(Libertarian Party foreign-policy positions are among the things that prevent me from signing on as a member of that Party. \u00a0But I do think that they pose a substantive challenge to mainstream \u201cestablishment\u201d thinking that is worthy of engagement and that often makes important points and raises issues worth considering.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we\u2019re stuck with the unpalatable, indeed repulsive, choice of Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton versus Mr. Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told daily that I must back Mr. Trump in order to defeat Mrs. Clinton. \u00a0But, in my judgment, it\u2019s just as imperative to back Mrs. Clinton in order to defeat Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can do neither.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an item from back in March that captures something of the problem:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Over, Gandalf. \u00a0We Need to Unite Behind Saruman to Save Middle Earth from Sauron!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a rather inside-baseball illustration, from Jonah Goldberg, of the damage that Mr. Trump and Trumpism are doing to what I once fondly thought of as the conservative movement:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Naming Names\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some pro-life people see Mr. Trump as our great white hope for saving the unborn. \u00a0Would that this were true! \u00a0I\u2019m a pro-life person of long standing, but I see no such hope:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Pro-Lifers, a Bad Omen for Their Future in the GOP\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I see Mr. Trump\u00a0as essentially a Democrat \u2014 though, for his current purposes at least, a demagogic and nationalist one \u2014 on abortion, as on other issues:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump, George W. Bush, and Lies\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of lies, though, the lead editorial in yesterday\u2019s edition of the Wall Street Journal<\/em> correctly notes, regarding the new summary released by the FBI about its investigation of Mrs. Clinton\u2019s email scandal, that \u201cThe new information makes a hash of what\u2019s left of the former Secretary of State\u2019s credibility.\u201d \u00a0(I would provide a link, but the article is\u00a0behind a subscriber pay wall.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The presidential polls seem to be tightening. \u00a0It\u2019s unlikely, though not impossible, that Mr. Trump could still win the White House. \u00a0If so, it won\u2019t be because Americans generally adore him, or even like or trust him. \u00a0The winner of this election will be the Democratic or Republican candidate who is somewhat less abhorrent to the electorate\u00a0than the other.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What a sad, sad, sad political year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah\u2019s Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national Environmental Protection Agency (2003-2005) and then as Secretary of Health and Human Services (2005-2009) in the administration of President George W. Bush: \u00a0 http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p046nzg7 \u00a0 As for myself, I\u2019m debating whether I should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-03T16:14:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-03T16:16:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/09\/oquirrh-mountain-temple-lds-817600-gallery.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-03T16:14:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-03T16:16:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Will Utah’s conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?\"","description":"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?\"","og_description":"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2016-09-03T16:14:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-03T16:16:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/09\/oquirrh-mountain-temple-lds-817600-gallery.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html","name":"\"Will Utah's conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-03T16:14:28+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-03T16:16:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah's Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/will-utahs-conservative-mormons-vote-for-hillary-clinton.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Will Utah’s conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}