Making Sense of It

Here are some miscellaneous thoughts that have occurred to me regarding the contest for County mayor.

When I was at the Sandy Independence Day festival a man approached me as I was handing out Ben's campaign literature. He was interested in one thing… the Equestrian Park in South Jordan. It's a unique facility that sits on 120 acres and features a polo field and a race track. Evidently there are advocates for converting this property into soccer fields, and of course there is a loyal core of supporters who want to keep it as an equestrian park.

The fellow who approached me fiercely supported maintaining its current use. This same issue came up in the KUTV debate between Winder and Crockett, with Winder wanting the county to get out of the horse business. I wonder how significant this controversy is with the voters in Salt Lake County?

I think it's fair to say that Ben is evaluating the issue, but has not yet arrived at a fixed position.

……….

On July 4th I marched with Ben in three separate parades: South Salt Lake, Magna and Sandy. What most impressed me was the diversity of this experience. These three different communities could easily be in three different states.

South Salt Lake is largely an immigrant community with a transient, renting population. Their parade was lightly attended and I attributed that to a population yet to develop a strong sense of community. The traditions of their adopted land are not  yet fully understood, nor fully subscribed to. All of that will be the business of a second or third generation.

Magna couldn't be more different. Here there is a strong sense of community and the parade was heavily attended. The demographic is decidedly blue collar, and perhaps not all that distant from South Salt Lake's economic profile, but here the sense of community and shared traditions seems a good deal stronger. There are families and businesses that have been in Magna forever.

Sandy is a place where the upwardly mobile set up housekeeping. The population is racially and economically homogenous. And while it may lack the community feel of a place like Magna, the habits and customs of America are not new to these people. They know the drill, though they probably live in a neighborhood filled with people they barely know.

So, how do you make political sense of  this collection of different entities? Is there any one message that could be meaningful to all of them? How do you make yourself immediate and relevant to experiences that have so little in common?

………

My expectation was that Ben would get his coolest reception in Sandy, because Sandy's suburban conservatism would be a poor venue for Ben's political message. But surprisingly that didn't seem to be the case. The parade was very heavily attended, and often, when our Jeep moved into new real estate, a general cheer would go up at the simple presence of Ben's name. It was a very encouraging experience.