Posted by:
Brother Of Jerry
(
)
Date: July 13, 2021 06:19PM
"You can buy anything in this world with money."
It's [was?] in the Endowment, and Mormons believe it, in spades. Money is how they plan to influence the rest of the world. The Golden Rule: those that have the gold, make the rules.
They used to think the R Party was their ticket, since it believed in the same golden Rule - government of, for, and by the owners. Hence the LDS Inc drive to own as much as possible. And they have done pretty well at it. Hell, they own 2% of Florida. That any entity can own 2% of any state is pretty mind boggling. I wonder what percent of private land they own in Utah. It's a big state, but much of the land is public, rather than private. LDS Inc may own a noticeable slice of the private land.
Trouble is, now that the inmates are running the political asylum, the Q15 are getting very nervous. That was not supposed to happen. Meanwhile, the Blue Party is turning into the educated Yuppie Party, who treat their blue-collar constituents badly, mostly by ignoring them.
The Q15 now have more in common with the upwardly mobile college educated than they do with the QAnon crowd. Mitt Romney (and various other Utah politicians - Cox, Curtis) got the memo. Mike Lee did not.
For those of you not from Utah, some of those names probably don't mean much, but Rusty Nelson and Governor Cox have been so centrist, they could pass for <I can't say the word!>. Cox has been very sympathetic to LGBTQ+, especially T, and has been pleading with people to get vaccinated. He is not even close to being one of the lunatics running the asylum.
And all four of Utah's US House members just jointed the new Conservative Climate Caucus - there is at least recognition that there may be a problem, and the debate should be about what to do about it, not whether it even exists! About 25% of the R House members joined, so all 4 of Utah's members joining is a surprise. So, progress.
Same thing happened in ND WRT to a moderate governor. I am reasonably well acquainted with Governor Doug Bergum. His company (Great Plains Software) hired a lot of my students. He is basically a centrist D, but ran for governor as an R because he knew he could win that way, and he was right.
The next ten years should be interesting to watch in Utah, both in the legislature, and in LDS Inc - the Ammon Bundys versus the Rusty Nelsons. I suspect it will not be pretty.
I'm sure the Q15 still believe you can buy anything in this world for money, but they are not quite sure what it is they want to buy.