Democrats' fate is in own hands
He might be surprised to know that, as a political scientist and longtime observer of Utah politics, I agree with his general proposition — one-party government is usually a bad idea. We have seen it in various places in America, and it often leads to financial corruption; recent examples can be found in Arkansas and Maryland, where high-level officeholders ended up in jail. We have even seen some of that in Utah.
I am old enough to remember those days. J. Bracken Lee was able to break the Democratic hammerlock on the governorship primarily because of voter disgust with the scandals inside the State Liquor Commission during Democratic administrations. He was then re-elected the same year that Dwight Eisenhower became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state in 24 years.
I can also recall when my father was the only Republican in Utah's congressional delegation. Since then, control of the state's top offices began to swing back and forth.
So what happened? What nefarious devilry did the Republicans employ to bring us to the condition Holland finds so deplorable? The answer, of course, is that there was no behind-the-scenes trickery. Utah became a Republican stronghold because the Utah Democratic Party collapsed. Once all powerful, it ceased to be a viable political institution by moving in an ideological direction that has turned Utahns off.
Bob Bennett is Utah's junior senator.
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