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Show The Enterprise Review , November 3 , 1976 Letters Editor Page ISh One of the most intriguing sights of this waning political season is Frank Moss trying to ride the coattails of Jake Garn to another Senate term. To believe the Moss campaign ads, he and Garn are bosom buddies who teamed up to protect Utah against the bad guys in Maine and New York and their Shut Down Utah Bill. One of the most incredible things is that the Utah press lets him get away with it. Surely some bright writer at one of the major dailies ought to point out that Senator Moss praised the Clean Air Act when it was reported out by the Senate Public Works Committee; it was only after Jack Carlson pointed out how bad it was that Moss agreed, reluctantly, to sponsor the Moss Amendment. (Gam agreed to do it, but industry thought that it would be better to have a Democrat be the primary sponsor, so Moss was persuaded.) His lack of clout was clearly demonstrated by the 1 vote against the If session, until he found out that Garn was committed. Garn is filibustering, I will have to, he said. Nd one denies that he was useful, if not essential, but any warm body would have done as well at that point. n The press failure to point out these truths its failure to treat Moss critically for his appearance parallels before the Utah Petroleum Institute. Moss reassured the oilmen that divestiture is dead for the 95th Congress. He neglected to point out, and the press did not remind him, that the Democratic Platform calls for divestiture, that the primary sponsors of divestiture will be back next year, and that Moss himself voted for the oil divestiture amendments which wre proposed last year during consideration of the Natural Gas Decontrol Bill. This last is the most incredible. Business has a long history of playing footsie with incumbent legislators, but you would think that someone in the press would notice this kind of doubletalk, and expose it. well-know- 63-3- amendment. Moss also hesitated to join the filibuster at the end of the .SCAEVOLA I fiW FFLUM AFRICANS. HAVE WON A VICTORS FD(? 69m 2 WITHIN 86 our sioe. VfARS RHOPE5IA 0OU6HT V6 HAVE 2 APPITIOtiAL-H6A9- 2UL6. COHWm-- T HAV6 I 6PRCAP PerCNTS TO AFRICA. 7UUS A6AIUST TH6 FLIHIIS ATM6 PeVSTRATION OF Tine F0R0URSIP6 t) MV MV FCUOW RUSSIANS: S TO 6SCAIAT& COV6RT OPERATIONS Me UUPBR BLACK MAJORITY rt r MV F6LLOW COLONIALISTS : MV P61.AV-I- K -GAlHeO MALUA&16 )& TACTICS WILL Feuow 9GFU0LI CANS'. FeAce IS AT HAWP A P0T6NTIAL-- AR6A OF CON', TILL RICT WBN AFRICA j)OVM06fc 3, AT USAST. Ml uftattwra 9VMNF, M Pragmatic Dogmatics 1976 Utah Republican Strategy: A Departure by Kent Shearer Although you will receive this Enterprise subsequent to the November 2 General Election, the deadline for submission of this column was Nov 1. So these words have the character of contemporaneous observation, rather than that of retrospective rationalization. On the heels of the September 14 Primary Election, Republican nominees held, in almost all cases, commanding leads. An unprecedented opportunity lay before them motivated by at least five factors: (1) the Allan Howe conviction; (2) the Rampton retirement; (3) the Moss age and ineptitude; and (4) the unneeded state income tax hike by the 1975 Democratic Legislature; and (5) a generally increased Utah receptivity to a bundle of ideas loosely labeled conservative. However, it became this years GOP in part by design, in part strategy to disregard through inadequate counsel the first four factors, and instead to concentrate upon the conservative element. Even this reliance was unbalanced in that it dwelled (particularly in the Romney gubernatorial effort) upon social conservatism abortion, birth control, ERA, at the expense pornography and the like lower conservatism of traditional taxes, less bureaucracy, removal of econetcetera. omic This emergent strategy broke sharply with the campaign plans which had brought success to such major office wins as the Utah GOP has forged over the past decade: ones involving, inter alia, Bennett, Burton, Garn, Lloyd, and Romney himself. Those former plans recognized the state to be roughly a third Republican, a third Democratic, and a third Independent; also a third orthodox unorthodox Mormon, a third more-or-leMormon, and a third Gentile. They premised that it was a Republican death wish to appeal exclusively to the sectors that were the third GOP and the third Mormon. evolved. Instead, a strategy of It consisted of holding the orthodox LDS and the Republicans through calm, unemotive acceptance of their basic tenants, but emphasis upon expansion from that base through issues designed game-playin- g, ss two-thir- post-Prima- ry ds but delimited by the nominees true beliefs to appeal to the the death wish Social would separate from the GOP. in this context, was conservativism, in that, appealing mightily to those suspect you already had, you ran great risk youd alienate those to whom through economic conservatism you might otherwise appeal. Well, Dick Richards (a new Dick, by the way, since the Rockefeller faction fired him circa 71 from his National Committee post), Cleon Skousen, Joe Ferguson, H. Austin Belnap, Arnie Wilkinson, and their entourand age sank the thrust of it with the death wish. Weve replaced heard little from Utah Republicans this year except abortion, birth control, ERA, prono-graph- y and the like. The new strategy may win. My vote, for one, will be cast in its cause if not for its If Romney and Hatch arc substance. victorious, the strategy will be thought brilliant. If both lose, the strategy will be thought idiotic. If one wins, and the other doesnt, it will be thought both brilliant and two-thir- ds two-third- idiotic. s, |