It’s hard to hold my tongue. My individual political power has been hijacked. State leadership has become comfortable discounting people like me who are outside their constituency. They take for granted they don't need to listen to citizen participants.
Evidence: Most people in Utah have supported Medicaid expansion for years. Most people don't want the national monuments reduced. The governor doesn't acknowledge a thousand people demonstrating at the Capitol against reducing national monuments or in favor of reasonable gun control. Leaders seem to be really comfortable having closed-door meetings whenever they want. The 2018 Legislature tried to stop ballot initiatives.
Republicans, clearly the majority in Utah, will win in fair elections. Even so, they cheat. They did some outrageous gerrymandering, especially in my voting district, the 3rd Congressional District. In Holladay, breathing fossil-fuel-contaminated air, I cast my vote into the same pot as Carbon County coal country and anti-regulation Phil Lyman in San Juan County.
Our state leaders don't support a republic or a democracy. They should. They don't support me having a vote or a voice. It's really hard not to swear.
Carla Coates, Holladay
