Differences Matter
I've been getting a lot of material lately from various Democrats in Utah. One thing I notice is how conservative Utah Democrats are. This is a good thing. But it also means that the differences between Republicans and Democrats in Utah are even more important.
There is no better place to see these differences than looking the Democratic and Republican platforms. The platforms are important because they lay out what the part as a whole strives for, and is a good indication of why people have joined that party. People do not join a party because they believe it is perfect, just that it is closer to their ideals than the other party. Then, people work to persuade the rest of the people in that party to move in their direction. When there are fewer differences between parties, then the differences are even more important because they signal the reasons that a majority of people have joined that party.
So let us highlight some of the differences between the Republican and Democratic party platforms. One thing to keep in mind is that things mentioned within the platforms become priorities for the people in those parties to get enacted by government, so things that one platform mentions and the other does not mention does not mean that the other party does not care about that issue, just that the other party does not believe that it is necessarily the role of government to get involved in that aspect of human life.
Limited Government
One of the key things I see mentioned in the Democratic platform is "Open and Limited Government". This sounds very nice because it is a guiding principle of the Republican platform, as can be seen from the section in the Republican Platform about "The Proper Role of Government". So what do each mean by "limited government"? Republicans mean that government should protect "life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness". I agree with this, although it can have somewhat broad interpretations. While Democrats mean that government should be limited to doing "what we cannot do individually". I can find no other statement about limited government in their platform and I find this statement to be contradicted in the other priorities of their platform, such as for "Social Security", "Health Care", "Education", and "Energy" where they call for much more government involvement.
Education
Both parties believe in better education. However, their approaches are very different. Republicans call for better accountability to individual tax payers through competition while Democrats call for more money. This is an area where I have very strong feelings. As we learned with last-year's vote about school choice, we spend $6500 per student in Utah. Democrats look at this value and lament that it is very low compared to national averages. However, the scores of our students are very high nationally. Which is a better indicator of success: per-pupil spending or per-pupil graduation rates and testing scores? I prefer the latter, and Utah is doing very well. More money, then, is obviously not the answer.
The answer, as any teacher will tell you, is more parental involvement. Throwing more money at the problem will not get more parental involvement. But, if people have more choice in where there children go to school, parents will start to be more involved in their children's education. With Utah spending $6500 per student, and 30 students per classroom, Utah is spending $195,000 per classroom in Utah. Where is this money going? There is no reason that Teachers cannot be paid 50K per year, with health benefits and retirement funds, while still spending less per child. The UEA is getting in the way of the kinds of things that would actually help our children and our teachers. For instance, I believe that giving teachers 401 Ks instead of pension plans will go a long way toward improving teacher salaries, happiness, retirement, mobility, and consequently improve how our children are taught. But I digress...
Energy
This is a curious one. Democrats address it directly, while Republicans do not. But as I stated earlier, this means that Republicans believe that Government should stay out of the way of private individuals in their pursuit of energy. Democrats state that they want to reduce dependence on foreign oil, but that it should be done through "mass transit, conservation, and alternative energy sources". Nowhere do I see encouragement to drill locally to get oil, which would go a long way toward reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Democrat proposals also mean more government involvement in personal decisions: I will be "encouraged" to ride mass transit more frequently, I will be "encouraged" to conserve. I ask, can't I make these decisions on my own?
And speaking of "alternative energy solutions", they oppose the largest alternative energy source we have: nuclear energy. They oppose the waste of nuclear energy, and hence the source of that waste. From my experience, this is mostly out of fear of the invisible and unknown. Most people don't realize that the Tooele (Pronounced "two-will-ah") Army Depot. The Government stored the kinds of nerve gas there that can kill a hundred thousand people with a single drop of the nerve gas. Nuclear waste is nowhere near as dangerous as that.
Most people don't realize this, but they are radioactive themselves. The typical 150 lb person gives off at least 4000 pieces of radiation per second. And those are typically not gamma rays, which are the most energetic radiation, but which typically goes right through people and never does any damage. No, this radiation is beta radiation from potassium, which is one of the most radioactive, naturally-occurring substances on earth, and it is essential to muscle operation. Without potassium, you die.
The beta radiation is more dangerous because it is "ionized". Betas are fast-traveling electrons. When they get near something with a more positive charge, the go toward it and typically hit it. When they do, they do two things: one, transfer energy to that positive thing, and two, tear that positive thing away from whatever it is attached to.
Betas are typically stopped by a sheet of aluminum foil, which means they do not have to travel far before they are attracted to something and hit it. This means that within your body, the beta radiation is going to hit some other cell and cause damage, including to the DNA within those cells. However, our bodies are very resilient: they can detect and repair that kind of damage quickly and easily. The only real problems with radiation occur when someone is overwhelmed with radiation, and that just does not happen with the modern ways in which nuclear fuel and waste is produced, transported, and stored. There is a lot of fear out there stopping people from making rational decisions in this matter.
Conclusions
The Utah Democratic party is making a lot of promises within their platform. Understanding these promises and their consequences, is very important to this and future elections. I believe that they have a good heart about many of their goals, but the means they wish to use to get to those goals I believe are very flawed and end up hurting more people than they help. Please pay attention to more than just what the politicians tell you their agendas are: read their platform and see where their party as a whole wants to move.