Jul
2
I’ve been out of town for a couple of days. Time to catch up.
While I was on vacation, I finished reading Thomas Sowell’s marvelous book The Vision of the Anointed. It was a fantastic read! Many of my favorite current affairs books leave me wanting to strangle some liberal, just to make me feel better. So, I balance them with the heavy scholarly books, which are much more about principles, and take a lot longer to read. I get two benefits from these books–a grounding in true conservative principles, and time to cool off. Dr. Sowell’s book is a good balance of both.
In it, he explains that a good number of our population, especially of the academic variety but also many of those who simply have higher degrees, feel that they are exclusively qualified to lead us into the future; that only they have the vision to see what America really needs to be great. Right now you’re thinking, “Cool! A good book about Liberals.” Well, you won’t be entirely disappointed, but Dr. Sowell only occasionally mentions Liberals or Liberalism and does not point to them as the sole focus of his book. I came to realize, while reading the last few chapters of the book, that Dr. Sowell’s focus is on anyone who can be counted among the self-anointed, including Conservatives. No-one is immune from this self-aggrandizing vision.
Well, how interesting that Chris Cannon refers to the everyday folks here in Utah as boors (props to Brad Reneer at reneer.org). Here is a fine example of what Dr. Sowell writes about. Chris Cannon thinks the reason he was beaten in the primary was the low voter turnout. That Utahans don’t care enough to vote in numbers great enough to ensure a cannon victory. Well, after doing some analysis on the Utah County clerk’s Statement of Votes Cast, it appears that low voter turnout had little to do with Cannon’s ouster.
For example, in Provo’s 8th voting precinct, of 1366 registered Republican voters, only 6 made it out to vote and all 6 voted for Cannon. Conversely, in one American Fork precinct, the voter turnout was over 40%, yet Jason Chaffetz won that precinct with 60% of the votes.
Some other interesting results came out of Mapleton. You’d think that Mapleton would have been locked down for Cannon, but Cannon won in only two precincts there (I’m guessing the one in which he lives). Additionally, the Mapleton precinct with the highest and lowest turnout rates (24% and 16%) went to Cannon, but the 2nd and 3rd highest (21% and 17%) went to Chaffetz.
Overall, voter turnout was very low at less than 10%. But when the results are broken down by precinct, it becomes obvious that it would not have mattered if the voter turnout were higher. Cannon still would have lost. Perhaps Mr. Cannon should reflect on this truth. Over the years he has become one of the “anointed,” and out of step with reality. One of the things Thomas Sowell teaches us is those with the vision of the anointed find myriad ways to insulate themselves from reality. Chris Cannon is doing exactly that now.
I said in an earlier post that it was time for Mr. Cannon to step aside, in large part because he had reached the pinnacle of his power. Judging from his reaction to the election, I’m comfortable knowing I called it right.
(On a side note, I told Jason that we was going to win the nomination back at the Convention)
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AP Political Headlines- Obama stimulus: Campaign hits $745 million haul December 5, 2008WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama, who rewrote the book on presidential fundraising, amassed more than $745 million during his marathon campaign, more than twice the amount obtained by his rival, Republican John McCain....
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It is hard to stay in touch with reality once in power (and having to travel 1,000 miles away to DC can’t help). That is one of the reasons to support term limits.
I do think Chris was actually relieved after losing the election - I don’t think he is as happy about it as he sounds in his press releases, but I do think it would be hard to hang it up when still in power. The voters decided for him, and I’m sure he’ll move on and have a fine life after public service.
Matt, if you read what Cannon had to say today in the Daily Herald, he’s for sale, but he’s not cheap. Wow. He admits he can be bought.
I do agree he’s out of touch. I think Jason is very aware of how disgruntled voters are when their elected officials get “out of touch” with the people who put them in office. May he never forget and may he always stay a ‘boor’.
I see this same phenomena in every professional field. I once heard a computer programmer say, “you have to remember our users are idiots.” It was his explanation for why users were complaining about some software he wrote. The software was non-intuitive and hard for non-computer experts to use. He had to blame the users. This was at a University. His users held doctorates in psychology, physics, economics, etc. And the users were the idiots.
Humility is the first requirement for a clear view of the world. D.C. is full of flattery. It’s hard to stay humble when everyone that wants your vote is stroking your ego.
Stay Humble, Jason. Keep the passion as well.