Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Chris Buttars Fiasco: A Total Lack of Leadership and Accountability From Utah Republicans

Things we have not heard from any Utah Republican legislators or elected officials:
  • "We are embarrassed by Chris Buttars' comments. They do not reflect the views of the Utah Republican party."
  • "I disagree with what Chris Buttars said. Utah deserves more respectful dialogue and constructive solutions to our problems."
  • "The Utah Republican party and the state legislature understand that on a list of things threatening America, homosexuals rate somewhere around moles eating our carrots from underground."
  • "Senator Buttars should resign for his insensitive comments that reflect poorly on the Republican party and the great state of Utah."
  • "I realize that almost all Utahns disagree with Chris Buttars' comments and would prefer open dialogue that is civil and respectful. We can disagree without being hateful."
  • "We should expect more from our state leaders. More civility, more sensitivity, more openmindedness."
  • "We apologize for Senator Buttars comments."
Instead his fellow Republicans are saying things like:
  • Chris Buttars "represents the views of many of his constituents and many of ours [in the state legislature].  We agree with many of the the things he said."
  • Chris Buttars losing his chairmanships on judiciary committees "will be a freeing mechanism for Sen. Buttars to function, to more fully express his freedom of speech."
  • Any that would like to see Chris Buttars apologize only dared express so anonymously.
  • "I am not encouraging him [to apologize]."
  • The more than 10,000 emails sent in from Human Rights organizations and those critical of Buttars are "form emails [that] don't mean anything."
  • We don't want to infringe on Buttars' free speech rights.
  • We don't want to have a chilling effect on free speech.
  • "The debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open."
  • "This isn't a company. We are elected officials. Sen. Buttars was elected by his constituency. We're not going to mandate he has some sensitivity training. He's responsible for what he says. He's been a politician in public service for a long time. He can defend himself."
Are the Utah Republican leaders that tone deaf? Do they really think it is honorable to stick up for and encourage Buttars' hateful and insensitive speech? Do all of Utah Republican elected officials agree with Buttars? Because not one has come out and disagreed. Not one has distanced him or herself from his comments. Not one is willing to stand up and defend Utah and Utahns from this embarrassing man. No, just the opposite. The Republicans are actually encouraging him! They are applauding him! They think he's a real hero!

Republicans have a stranglehold on Utah for now, but if these sorts of episodes continue, and if the Republican leadership completely fails as it has here, that domination will end sooner than they think.

10 comments:

MAYFAMILY said...

I must admit when it comes to a stereotype for a bigot, Buttars does fit the mold. I mean for starters his name is "Buttars." Which is a pretty good start. Additionally, he looks like the guy in the movie who is tactless and intolerant, and then you realize, he is that guy, and this is no movie. This is living in Utah baby.

MAYFAMILY said...

I must admit when it comes to a stereotype for a bigot, Buttars does fit the mold. I mean for starters his name is "Buttars." Which is a pretty good start. Additionally, he looks like the guy in the movie who is tactless and intolerant, and then you realize, he is that guy, and this is no movie. This is living in Utah baby.

MAYFAMILY said...

I must admit when it comes to a stereotype for a bigot, Buttars does fit the mold. I mean for starters his name is "Buttars." Which is a pretty good start. Additionally, he looks like the guy in the movie who is tactless and intolerant, and then you realize, he is that guy, and this is no movie. This is living in Utah baby.

peter said...

It's actually really frustrating because though a good portion of Utah would consider themselves conservative and therefore vote Republican, this can't be what the majority of Utah thinks. The people that I know are caring and tolerant and would never identify with these kinds of comments. I agree that the Republican leadership needs to do something, or the voters in South Jordan need to decide that enough is enough. Conservatism is not synonomous with hatred and bigotry.

peter said...

synonymous (sorry)

Anonymous said...

I agree with Buttars. He only said that homosexuality will always be a sin. You say you are a 'mormon,' left or not, that's what we believe. So what wrong with what he said? It was the truth!

Jacob S. said...

Except that's not what he said. He said they are the greatest threat to America. He said they will destroy the foundation of America. He compared them to Muslim terrorists. If he had just said that we believe it is a sin, there obviously would not be this outrage and I would not disagree. So if you are going to imply that it is not 'mormon', as you write it, to disagree with Buttars then I am going to go ahead and disagree whole-heartedly. Again, we can disagree respectfully with what we believe is the sin and then extend a hand of fellowship and love to the person.

Peter, I agree with you completely and that was my point. The vast majority of Utahns don't agree with Buttars. But then the Republican leadership doesn't seem to care what Utahns think.

Anonymous said...

They ARE one of the greatest threats to America! What happens when a nation turns their back on God? It is the downfall of a nation! Now you said that "we can disagree respectfully with what we believe is the sin." I could be misinterpreting your meaning, but it sounds as though you don't believe that homosexuality is a sin. If that is the case, maybe you should change the title of your blog because you apparantly don't understand lds doctrine. I understand that Senator Buttars could have been a little more tactful about what he said, but that doesn't change the fact that most of what he said is spot on.

Jacob S. said...

You in fact did misinterpret it badly. And then based on that failure of reading comprehension questioned my faith and understanding of doctrine. The in very post you quoted I explicitly stated that I do not disagree that it is a sin. Not sure how you missed that.

So let me be clear. The Church itself, in a public statement that I linked to in the Common Ground Initiative post just further down the page, stated that it supports gay rights and has made statements that it supports civil unions. So either 1) the Church is purposely leading us astray and wants God to destroy America, or 2) realizes that less than 10% of Americans are gay and that this small minority has certain rights that, if granted, are not a threat to our country.

I'm going to say this in all caps now just to make sure there is no further confusion: THE LDS CHURCH SUPPORTS GAY RIGHTS SHORT OF MARRIAGE. THE LDS CHURCH HAS NEVER DISPARAGED GAYS OR IMPLIED THAT GAY RIGHTS WILL DESTROY AMERICA.

Anonymous said...

I apologize for misunderstanding you. But, I think it's stretch for you to claim that the church 'supports' gay rights and civil unions when the churches official statement says only that it "does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches." How you interpret that as support I do not know. How does the phrase, "does not object to" lead anyone to the conclusion that this is a show of support?
Anyway, after reading earlier postings as you suggested, I realized that I disagree with you on probably every issue you've ever written about so I'll just leave it at this. You interpret things in a much different way than I do. Good luck!