“Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is nipping at the heels of Republican Donald Trump in a new poll of Utah voters, with Democrat Hillary Clinton lagging behind but potentially within striking distance.
The poll conducted Oct. 20-27 for The Salt Lake Tribune and the Hinckley Institute of Politics shows Trump still holding a slight lead in the state at 32 percent, with McMullin within the margin of error (3.42 percent) at 30 percent. Clinton has actually lost some ground from earlier polls and sits at 24 percent.” Salt Lake Tribune, November 1, 2016
I know, I know; it is “as California goes so goes the nation.” But, if you are a contrarian (and I often am) Utah might be the precursor and maybe this time, to more than a fleeting contrarian’s dreams.
Another interesting finding from the Salt Lake Tribune poll: “Utah’s electorate also has a significant generation gap. Voters under age 45 favor McMullin by a big margin, while those 45 and older have a clear preference for Trump.”
Evan McMullin’s running mate is Mindy Finn. As is now standard, “if you want to learn more go to their website.” I might add that McMullin is on the write-in list on the Maryland ballot.
Lord Acton famously noted that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We have come very close to giving the major political parties absolute power over our elections.
It is easy to start a new Party; it is maddeningly difficult and expensive for its leaders to achieve sustained national reach, which must be done State by State. The political entrepreneur who would start a new Party must overcome obstacles set up by those whose livelihoods are tied to the major Parties. Incumbent politicians, regardless of their party, are not progressives when it comes to election laws. Free markets are for somebody else.
In business, most new ventures begin small, are rigorously tested by competitive markets and only achieve national reach at a later stage. Politics is mostly about the next election, not invention. The legal protection of the Democrat and
Republican Parties (plus their interest groups) and the short term focus of politics have resulted in third Party candidates of wealth or celebrity or both. Memory banks recall Wallace and Perot and Nadar while their political Parties proved ephemeral.
My background includes venture capital. Over nine years, I probably met, on average, two entrepreneurs a week and read their business plans and financial projections. I gained an enormous admiration for these bold risk takers. We need risk-takers to reinvigorate American politics and we won’t find them among the wealthy. News accounts, as I type, report that billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has written a $25 million dollar check to a political action committee supporting Donald Trump. How gratifying: billionaires supporting billionaires.
I know little about Evan McMullin, but I intend to vote for him. He will not win, although maybe he will win in Utah, and maybe that will be the start of something.
Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter, in a letter to his brother Theo, noted, “Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares—and who has once broken the spell of ‘you can’t’.”
I hope as Millennials stare into the depths of the major political parties, in the aftermath of this election, that they attack reform with the zeal of a “passionate painter.” Anything less will not succeed.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
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