Friday, April 19, 2024

Let Us Celebrate Utah — 70 Percent Reject Trump

Photo credit: penjelly via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Photo credit: penjelly via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Donald Trump won Arizona — more on what this means for Ted Cruz in another post — but Cruz won a resounding victory in Utah — an astonishing 69 percent of the vote.

This was not so much a vote for Cruz as it was a resounding rejection of Trump and “Trumpism,” as Romney called it. Even John Kasich beat Trump, 17 percent to 14 percent.

Let us pause for a moment and celebrate the unique community Utah has created, which unites some of the best of the traditional American values, hard-work, thrift, and family with a cosmopolitan openness to others. Utah is pro-immigration and pro-religious liberty, not as a code word for “my religion” but with a genuine respect for the rights of law-abiding people of all faiths, including Muslims.

“They are living in the 50s” one snide Facebook commenter wrote. But no, Utah is showing us that even in the 21st century you can build a community which combines creativity and procreativity, entrepreneurship and family.

Utah should be proud, and we should all be proud of them.

Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project and can be followed on Twitter @MaggieGallaghe.

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