REAL ELECTIONS – REAL CITIZENS.
Hello, Cache County neighbors. This is David R. Gillie. As you know, I am running, unaffiliated with any political party, to become your next County Clerk. You have read or heard me repeat the formula
REAL ELECTIONS – REAL CITIZENS.
This formula, this connection, is more essential for us Americans, including us Utahns, than for people in any other country.
Why?
We Americans are peculiar. In a good way.
Among several other astoundingly significant peculiarities, we Americans are the only people in written history to define our distinct identity by those five truths about God, men, governments, and the relations between them that we assert at the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. We are also the only people to erect our Constitutional Order squarely upon that succinct and unequivocating statement of truth and to expressly hold ourselves accountable to God and each other under it.
How are we measuring up?
As Americans and as Utahns, we are failing egregiously. We are less free today than at any time in the history of Utah or the United States, and woefully far from being the one united people that God surely intends us to be. Our Civic Union is coming to resemble a Marriage teetering on the brink of Divorce. One reason is our failure in the Civic Duty that we owe to each other to insist upon REAL ELECTIONS.
As you know, the fourth of the five truths upon which we have staked our Civic Existence is a two-part legitimacy test for all human governments. We Americans alone maintain that government is lawful only as it,
· Confines itself to securing the unalienable Rights with which God has endowed each of us, and
· Derives all its powers to do so from the Consent of the Governed.
In our unique American understanding, Consent of the Governed comes at two levels, in two types or stages: Ultimate and Proximate. We might call them Constitutional Consent and Year-in, Year-Out Consent.
We exercise Ultimate Consent when we institute or constitute government, defining its purpose, powers, functions, offices, modes, and limitations. We did this when we framed the Constitutions of the United States and of our State, then adopted each by covenant with our fellow citizens of the United States and Utah, respectively. And we have engaged in Ultimate Consent each time we have framed and adopted amendments to these same Constitutions.
In this State, we exercise Proximate Consent when we legislate directly, either by Voter Initiative or by Voter Referendum. More frequently, we exercise Proximate Consent by vesting and divesting officers and holding them accountable by their oaths to support, obey, and defend our Constitutions. Immediately or mediately, the exercise of Proximate Consent necessarily entails the conduct of elections.
The Constitutional Order which binds us as Utahns, no less than that which binds us as Americans, is very much like a Marriage. Perhaps we do not always think of it in these terms, but the terms are precisely appropriate to our peculiar American case, so we should.
Really, Mr. Gillie?
Just How Is Entering into Citizenship in our Republic Like Entering into a Marriage?
Whether we enter into our Constitutional Covenant as first framers and adopters or whether we merely accede to it by assuming the benefits and fulfilling the duties of Citizenship — and likewise, whether we and our fellow citizens chose to amend our Constitutional Relationship or to let it pass unchanged to our children —, the relationship is covenantal, and entails duties to each other under God of both self-limitation and positive obligation.
One of the most important of our positive obligations to each other is to regularly renew our Ultimate, Constitutional Consent, and so fortify our Constitutional Commitment to each other, by exercising our Proximate Consent together in Elections.
Faithful husbands and wives do more than inhabit shared space. They do Marriage with each other, not to each other. They regularly enact certain things together that, while filling very practical functions, also and more importantly signal their respect for themselves and each other, build confidence in themselves and each other, and deepen their commitment to each other, thus fortifying their covenantal relationship against Divorce.
As Utahns and Americans, we owe it to each other under God to Do Citizenship together, with, not to, each other. At the Grade A, Blue Ribbon level of Citizenship, this includes conducting open, honest elections at stated times, in stated places, on principles that have received, and deserve, our common consent, because they reflect respect for ourselves and each other and inspire confidence in ourselves and each other as citizens, fallen mortals all, to be sure, but capable of Civic Virtue, capable of doing right by each other and of maintaining Liberty under Law, together. By being able to look each other in the eye and state “I believe that what we just did was genuine, honest, and I am certain you do, too.” we strengthen our precious Union and, ultimately, our prospects for Liberty under Law.
Earlier Utahns did just this. So can we. So should we.
On 12 November, 1849, by act of the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, we adopted an ordinance regulating elections. In 3 1/3 pages we accomplished all that good Americans (even Americans exiled from their own dear country) owe to each other by way of elections.
After Congress had created the Territory of Utah, on 5 February 1852, this time by act of the Governor and Territorial Assembly, we did something quite comparable in a little under four pages.
When Utah was finally admitted as a State in the Union, Section 119 of Congress’ Enabling Act carried over our Territorial Election Law as the Election Law of now the State of Utah.
We Did Real Elections Before — for Over a Century — We Can Do Real Elections Again! We must!
A husband and wife insufficiently committed to their Union can come, by imperceptible degrees, to neglect their obligations to each other, maybe even try to get one over on each other, until they begin to do Marriage more and more to each other and less and less with each other. Such a husband and wife soon find themselves teetering on the brink of Divorce.
We Utahns have failed each other in an analogous fashion. Are you looking for evidence? Our current Utah State Election Code stands at 743 pages, 228,433 words. I’ve not met a soul who has read it. I am working my way through it, and I see the product of decades of ploys and counter-ploys by conflicting parties to do Citizenship to, not with, each other. I defy anyone to maintain straight-facedly that it outlines the conduct of open, honest elections at stated times, in stated places, on principles that have received, and deserve, our common consent, because they reflect respect for ourselves and each other and inspire confidence in ourselves and each other as citizens.
Our current Utah Election Code reflects our failure in a vital duty to each other. It is a significant contributor to our increasing Civic Estrangement. We Utahns stand in great need of Civic Repentance in the matter of how we conduct elections. Let’s begin with it now.
Cache County can’t immediately change the rest of the State, but it can do some things to set its own house in order and thus show the way to her Sister Counties. The County Clerk alone can’t change the statute — quite the contrary; he is duty-bound to administer it in its lamentable present form. He can play a leading role in helping us get our house in order, first by administering it conscientiously, second, by informing County Citizens of something in the law as it stands right now that, it appears, the incumbent County Clerk wishes them not to know, and by tirelessly making the case to citizens, County Councilors, and State Legislators to take the required steps back toward REAL ELECTIONS worthy of REAL CITIZENS, who are determined to govern themselves, in respect for themselves and each other. Every step taken in this direction is a victory.
Allow me to lead us on this journey of Civic Repentance. Elect me your Cache County Clerk on November 5th.
Posted on 26 Aug 2024, 10:36 - Category: News
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