This week I’ve had a visceral, sick feeling — a heavy weight of nausea tightens my chest. The current news cycle often promotes such a feeling, but today I feel it especially.
The actions of Sen. Mike Lee, who keeps a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his breast pocket and his Twitter account rolling, also give me that feeling.
In the spring of 2016, I was graduating from Payson High School and, after winning a social media contest, was awarded a flown flag from Lee’s office. I admired Lee. I was proud to be an American and was active politically. I represented Utah at Valley Forge on a civic leadership retreat, frequently sat in on the Utah Legislature, attended city council meetings and often made fiery social media posts. I worked towards organizing and founding an “Herbal Tea Party” conservative periodical.
Today, I hold distinctly liberal views. I was driven away from the policies I once supported by the rationale an emerging Donald Trump and the Republican party provided for them.
Lee does not understand or represent the flags he charges voters to fly over the U.S. Capitol. Lee is quick to find ways to ingratiate himself to Utah voters while only caring for his own interests and power. For all his talk, Lee consistently shows a callous disregard for human life, as he demonstrated this past weekend.
His senatorial social media account posted about his prayers for gun violence victims’ families while his personal account used the deaths to mock “Marxists” and Democratic governor Tim Walz. I have no idea if Lee prayed for the victims, but I know that he used sarcastic jokes to pray to what he really worships: his ego and online like counts.
Lee scrubs his image by deleting posts like these.He never apologized or explained, he simply hid his true self. Confronted by competent opposition, Lee has ignored or diverted questions, set up straw men and twisted or erased the truth.
The sickness I feel towards Lee extends beyond sound bites. His website calls for protecting human life from conception. He has opposed abortion pill access. Take away the tools, take away the killing, right? Contradictorily, he supports free distribution of deadly tools when it comes to gun rights. He opposes legislation that will criminalize familial access to an individual’s firearm and he wishes to loosen gun control. Shootings are opportunities for him to stand on a political soapbox.
Proudly waving his pocket constitution, Lee stands by his past efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020. He shot down compensation for 9/11 victims a week after paying lip service to it. He advocated for term limits until his congressional clock would have run out under his previous proposals. He supports selling federal land while standing complicit in the ever-increasing storage of nuclear waste in our state. He supports government shutdowns to derail a Democrat-held government, but votes to keep the Republican-controlled government running despite its excessive spending.
And the man who touts his membership of Utah’s predominant faith compared Donald Trump to Captain Moroni from The Book of Mormon. For those unfamiliar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the captain is described as an ideal man. Therefore, a philandering, chronically bankrupt, draft-dodging, vulgar, lying friend of a convicted sex offender is the ideal for Lee. As long as that ideal man has one attribute: allyship to Lee’s insatiable quest for power.
I urge you to call for Lee’s resignation. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, call for an end to Lee’s hypocrisy and heartlessness. Contrary to his warnings, the alternative to Lee is not “communism” and 1984-esque repression. Let’s begin work to replace Lee now, not in four or 40 years. Send back your flags with me. The U.S. flag doesn’t belong to Lee. If he touched one, I don’t want it.
(Garth Talbot) Garth Talbot is a Utah native who grew up attending events with Utah politicians.
Garth Talbot is a Utah native who grew up attending events with Utah politicians. He has no conflicts of interest, but does possess an unfortunate amount of interest in conflicts.
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