Chris Buttars: Hater

Chris Buttars is a Republican state senator representing some wonderful people in West Jordan, South Jordan, and Herriman. He is, potentially, the worst person in Utah.

His most recent comments are embarrassing to Utah, hopefully to Republicans, and to Mormons. He was interviewed for a documentary film and had some nasty things to say about gays. He called them, "the greatest threat to America." He compares them to radical Muslim terrorists. He opined that "it's the beginning of the end. … Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide." And many other things. Here is the clip on youtube.

Never mind that Sodom and Gomorrah was about a lot more than homosexuality (perhaps it would be helpful for Mr. Buttars to crack open the big book), this is just hate-mongering. Comparing gays to radical Muslims is insulting to our intelligence. I would hope that our elected leaders understand that threats such as actual terrorism, a crumbling economy, unaccounted for nuclear weapons and technology, and poor education are perhaps, perhaps, more serious than gay rights.

But why stop with gays? We believe that smokers and coffee drinkers are breaking the Word of Wisdom, why aren't those sinners singled out by Buttars? What about real threats to the family like adultery and pornography? Why isn't Buttars spending any of his time on these problems? Because Buttars has found a nice scapegoat that he feels are icky.

So Buttars, lets not worry about other parts of our moral code, such as love thine enemy, pray for them, turn not any away, the whole have no need for a physician, etc. Lets forget that our religious leaders plead with us to be tolerant and open-minded, to love the sinner but hate the sin and all that. All of those are apparently just inconvient side notes for some. It is easier to hate and be inflamatory and, what's this?, get a bunch of media attention. That can't be a motivation of his, can it?

But it's certainly not the first time Buttars has spewed his bigotry. Last year, during a debate over a bill, he slurred, "This baby is black…this is a dark, ugly thing." This comment caught on nationally with the NAACP demanding an apology for this blatantly racist slur. He kind of apologized and then got defensive and, once again, hateful. Chris Buttars continues his fight against the mythical War on Christmas, by supposedly anti-Christian heathens who want Christmas to be a time of unity and inclusion, even when its not Christmas season.

He has said and done many more offensive things that I won't document, but a simple Google search will bring them up.

Chris Buttars is the the face of the Utah Republican party. He gets the most press, he is the most outspoken, he says the things that the legislature wants to say but is too afraid to. He is also never disciplined or censured by the state senate for any of the racist, bigoted, offensive things he says.

Even after his long history of being shamed in the the local and national media for his offensive and hateful diatribes, he keeps getting elected. And this is the perfect example of the problem with Utah politics. For so many people, as long as there is an "R" next to the candidate's name, he or she is acceptable. Certainly there are other states similar to Utah on both the conservative and liberal side of the spectrum, Maryland comes to mind, but Utah has a unique factor: religion. There is the underlying presumption that Republicans=Mormons, that the party=the church, that precincts=wards. So when it comes time to pull the proverbial lever, the motivating urge goes beyond political to religious. This leads to a special kind of one-party domination of state politics that is particularly damaging and dangerous. Not only do you get more and more extreme politically without opposition, but you begin to think that divine intervention itself is on your side.