Ode to Utah's GOP State Convention: Time to Own Your Vote

Success or failure in Utah will depend on whether delegates do their homework, look beyond the media sound bite, and elect the most worthy to office. The “correct” decisions are monumentally important as we need to correct our stalling economy, unify versus divide, and reestablish a meaningful and constitutional states’ rights balance.

The caveat: this only happens if we as a people gain control over our expectations and demand that money play a lesser to no role in politics.

With this said, I am officially owning my vote and endorsing the following stellar candidates across three different Utah races. I urge delegates to learn more about each of them and consider casting your vote for them this Saturday at Utah GOP State Convention:

Cherilyn Eagar

Sean Reyes

Cherilyn Eagar running for U.S. Congress in Utah's 2nd District
Sean Reyes, running to become Utah's next Attorney General
Stephen Sandstrom, running for U.S. Congress in Utah's 4th District

Stephen Sandstrom

Why these three? Because commonsense conservative principles and ideology are under attack and we need to elect proven champions of these principles. A prime example currently takes center stage as the Supreme Court weighs in on Obama’s healthcare law.

In a recent Reuters analysis examining why the U.S. high court may uphold healthcare law, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in his dismay at the corrupt nature of the two-year old healthcare law went so far as to write, "It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place."

This is but one example of how important our decisions are, at home. Congressional members who are willing to turn a blind eye to the detrimental impact of this key healthcare legislation may give us Judge Vinson’s Boston Tea Party conundrum.

Candidates’ connections and associations matter. Had Americans had the wherewithal to properly vet the POTUS in 2008, the election outcome may have been different and the Obama administration may not have had to the opportunity to wreak so much economic and social havoc.

Utahns have historically been ardent purveyors of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now is not the time to be complacent.  Now is the time to dig in and do the homework. It is not enough to have an “R” or “D” in your campaign slogan. It is not enough to take campaign marketing and slogans at face value. Delegates statewide must carefully vet and understand what each candidate has to gain by being elected.

Ask questions and also question the negative attacks. Are they prepared to serve as the founders had intended or are they serving themselves?

Influence of special interest money flowing from Washington, D.C., penetrates every level of representation. It can virtually overpower the politically weak, sometimes before they are sworn into office. With the passage of 17^th Amendment, which has disenfranchised the constituent’s voice and rule of law, representation attrition has rapidly infected this nation and caused further political heartburn.

The problem is that our Congress, which has the lowest favorability rating in history, can’t be trusted. The original constitutional foundation might be solid, but the provisional remodeling over the past 100 years has put our nation in a precarious position of inferiority.

It is up to us to dig us out of this mess. This means really understanding who we are voting for and who they are, what they believe in their hearts, and who is associating with them.  We can’t continue to throw self-aggrandized candidates into the system. If so, we can rest assured that the decision of trademark legislation such as ObamaCare and future reforms will be all our fault.