“Strange Runnings in Utah “

Shamelessly Stolen from Irregular News.

It’s obvious by now that the 2006 congressional elections are going to be very big news. The Republicans, who have controlled Congress for almost 12 years, have made a huge mess of things and have taken America down a series of bizarre right hand turns. Lately, the House of Representatives and the Senate seem to be running a contest for which can pass the most extremist right wing nonsense into law.
But, America asks, what is the alternative? In Utah, at least, where right wing Senator Orrin Hatch must face re-election next year, there are two alternatives. The way it looks now, Utah’s 2006 senatorial campaign season is going to be one of strange runnings.

Take, for example, the Democratic candidate, Peter Ashdown. He seems like a nice guy, really, but maybe a little too nice. He’s got a lot of innovative ideas for his campaign – including making it open source. Oh, Mr. Ashdown makes a few concrete policy statements, but mostly, he’s trying to make his policies collaborative. Really. Instead of making policy statements, Mr. Ashdown is posing lots of questions, and then using Internet chat and wikimedia technologies to determine what his policy positions should be.
While this sounds all nice and town hallish, the results can be a little bit wishy washy. Ashdown’s policy so far, for example, is to point out that America had no reason to go into Iraq, but believes that progress is being made through the war in Iraq. So, Ashdown concludes, as the result of wikimagic, that American policy should be “to listen to the troops first and give them what they need.” Just listen to all the soldiers in the military, and do what they say we ought to do with our foreign polcy? I’m not so sure that would work.
Then there’s Ashdown’s policy statement on nuclear weapons. Ashdown bravely states that the huge size of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile, combined with the possibility of an accidental launch of a nuclear missile or terrorist threat of radioactive material, makes our own arsenal of nuclear weapons one of the “greatest threats in the history of humanity.”
Well, it’s nice that Ashdown is willing to recognize the threat, but what do we do about it? In line with his collaborative method of campaigning, all Ashdown has for a solution is to just ask everybody a question: “Are thousands of warheads really necessary to protect this country, and, at what count do they stop being protection and become a liability?”

You know, it’s nice to see a senatorial candidate actually demonstrate a willingness to listen to other people’s opinions. But, once a senator gets into office, that person won’t just be getting up onto the floor of the Senate and asking all the other senators a lot of gee whiz questions. That senator will have to take yes or no votes on a lot of tricky issues with very particular and complicated language. For that reason, I want a person who is running for the Senate to have the ability to describe in clear and certain terms what his or her positions are on key issues. It’s important to know what you’re voting for.

In response to widespread frustration with recent Democratic candidates for Senate in Utah, the Green Party there, which just recently resolved its own split into two separate Green parties jabbing eachother in the nose, is running its own candidate to beat Senator Hatch. The Green Party is promoting its own Senator Hatch, a cousin of Orrin Hatch named Julian.
Julian Hatch seems like an interesting fellow, from what I can make out. He is a longtime environmental activist, and a disabled veteran. Currently, Hatch is working as the Utah coordinator for the Western Watersheds Project.
Apparently, Julian Hatch is also the Director of the Utah Atheists. I say “apparently”, because the web site of the Utah Atheists is currently having its content blocked by AT&T. Why? Because the content is objectionable, because a bill hasn’t been paid, or because the account is closed?
Well, the Utah Senate race for 2006 certainly isn’t closed. It looks wide open, at least in terms of rhetoric, though anyone trying to unseat a Republican in this hard right wing state has a big challenge ahead.