Letter to the editor

By Lou Sansevero Ferron

What gives them the authority?
People who have read my comments have often said they really enjoyed them but have also said they are very long. Well, they’re probably right but when I get passionate about something it is really hard to keep my comments to 200 words or less but in this one I’ll really try, let’s see how I do.
Over the course of the past several years we’ve heard a lot of debate about governmental overreach and in Utah that debate has extended to how the political parties pick their candidates. During this past state legislative session the legislature passed a compromise bill, SB54, which ended that debate (at least for this year). My question is, “Why does the state think it has the authority to decide for a private organization, and a political party is a private organization, how they will choose their candidates?”
The state doesn’t tell the boy scouts the method used to choose its leaders, they don’t tell the Mormon church or other churches the method used to choose their leaders, they don’t tell private corporations the method used to choose their board members so just what makes the state think they have the authority to dictate to political parties how to choose their candidates and more importantly, why do we allow them to.
My response to those questions is that they don’t and that we shouldn’t allow this governmental overreach. We should contact our state legislators and the governor and demand that they pass a statute or constitutional amendment that leaves the decision on selection of candidates up to the political parties.
Well that was 273 words, guess I didn’t make it but that shouldn’t stop you from taking action to stop governmental overreach on this and all other governmental overreach issues.