The reporter Wergin
Clemens from Die Welt contacted Mayor John Spuhler and wanted to know why Rich County had the
largest percentage voting for Cruz and why we are so conservative. Die Welt newspaper is the largest in
Germany. Spuhler thought it might be
interesting to read and shared this. They had a
fascinating conversation on topics not in the article (see below for the link)
and then of course a long discussion about Donald Trump, the Second Amendment,
even Hitler was brought up. This has been translated from German and some German words and syntax remain.
Where Donald
Trump experienced his greatest defeat
Wergin Clemens, Washington Bureau
“Wes Tingey has come directly from the cow pasture and
apologizes
for the strong smell of his shoes. The man with the weathered face had to
help a calf which has just come into the world. "It still had the amniotic
sac through the nose and would have suffocated if I had not been there,"
he says.
It took a little persuasion to get Tingey for discussion in
the Country Store, the only attraction in Woodruff, a small patch in the remote
Rich County in Utah. It's calves season, and the cattle farmers have their
hands full. And in Washington, they are not good to speak, not even to
journalists who come from the distant capital. But Wes Tingey holds in addition
to his many professions, the office of party chairman of the Republicans in the
district. And therefore he can best explain why this remote corner of
northeastern Utah Ted Cruz with 79 percent of the highest ever victory earned -
and Donald Trump a crashing defeat.
"In this county live 98 percent Mormon, and Mormons are
pretty conservative people," says Tingey, who runs a cattle with 300 cows
and beside still the Country Store, which supplies the region with gas. He had
even been a Trump-trailer at the beginning, he admits. "I liked what most
Trump fans like: that it does not come from the establishment," says
Tingey. "But he has his mouth not under control, and that has scared me.
If he does not control his tongue, then he would give us einhandeln as president a lot of trouble."
Many voters have apparently similarly seen and voted
throughout Utah overwhelmingly against Trump. Cruz has surged in this
western state with 69 percent of the Republican vote, a dream result,
competitors John Kasich ended up with 16 percent in second place, while Trump
took humiliating 14 percent.
In a normal election year an arch-conservative like Cruz
might hardly have been given opportunities, in Washington party
establishment because he does not have any
friends and he has fallen out with many of his Senate colleagues. Because he is
so far to the right, the polls regularly show that Cruz could hardly exist in a
presidential election against Democrat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
But this is not a normal election year, and the rise Trumps
has many alarms inside and outside the party. And there appears a man like Cruz
suddenly as a savior who might save the Republican Party before Trump and the
damage that this would cause the image of the party in the long run. Reason
enough for a search for clues in the district of Cruz earned his best result in
the whole pre-election campaign.
"Cruz is the only one who has a chance to beat Trump.”
The local Republikanerchef Tingey will in any case that even
a conservative pragmatists like John Kasich would fit well to Rich County. The
high approval ratings for Cruz he sees primarily as a strategic vote against
Trump. "John Kasich could get more votes if anybody would have believed
that he would have had a real chance at the nomination," says Tingey.
"Cruz is the only one who has a chance to beat Trump."
Rich County has less than 3,000 inhabitants. The Rocky
Mountains are of an almost painful beauty. In the south, the Bear River Valley,
a framed by snowcapped mountains mountain valley, where many more cows than
people lies. To the north is the lake Bear Lake, having the largest water
marina Utah in Garden City and is dominated by the summer tourism.
John Spuhler, mayor of Garden City, has German and Mexican
ancestry. He says Trump's aggressive style has people quenched here. "That
does not fit well in this conservative community," says Spuhler.
"Because this community also appreciates sympathy and you ensures
here to treat people with dignity and respect. So if you're a conservative
idiot, then you ruin the people of it," said Spuhler. "It is simply
not appropriate to make fun of a disabled person or to say that you will kill some
people."
During the summer his city, Garden City, is a popular
destination for water sports tourists. The Mayor looks sporty and has moved
from Denver to Garden City because he loves nature and outdoor enthusiast is.
"Trump is more for a New York mentality. For the I-hit-you-on-the-nose-setting,
and that does not fit here," says the mayor, who incidentally still
operates an education company in China. "Even if we disagree, we laugh and
make jokes about and can eat dinner together. I do not know many people here
that are mad anyway."
Garden City is getting ready for the short summer season
before that, when the 500-inhabitant city suddenly swells two months a year to
30,000, even on weekends to 70,000 residents. "That's 60 crazy days, and
then after that the moose and other wildlife come back in your garden. This
morning, the bald eagle flew over my house." Spuhler pulls out his cell
phone and proudly displays the image of a friend who has just shot a huge
mountain lion. From all over the world people come here to hunt, and in winter
for ice fishing in the frozen lake.
Rich County is susceptible to an outsider candidate who
opposes Washington. What they like in Cruz, is his insistence on the
constitution, on the strict limitation of the central government. "Many
people have the feeling that the creators of our nation and its founding
documents on spiritual principles build as inalienable, God-given rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. The right to bear arms to
protect themselves. rule of law process, all these are the constitutional
principles that Ted Cruz embodies "says Spuhler.
Cruz’s religiosity finds here more reverberation than Trump,
who is perceived as secular. Also Trump’s socially populist message found no
takers. "We are here actually all independent entrepreneurs," says
Spuhler. When looking for a job, the state is the last thing one would think of.
"In Utah, we believe that a man pulls himself out of the swamp. If we cannot
find a job, then we create one, that is a question of attitude."
 |
| Mayor John Spuhler |
Here in the remote parts of the Rockies, the pioneering
spirit of the West is still very noticeable. 150 years ago, Mormon families from Salt Lake City were sent to the north, to colonize the area
inhabited by Shoshone and to report to the Mormon faith. They braved the harsh
climate - in the south in Woodruff about was minus 46 degrees Celsius, the
lowest temperature ever recorded in Utah temperature registered. "They are
mainly people from cold climates hergeschickt,
about Sweden or German," says Spuhler.
The Mormons fled to the West, in order to escape
persecution by the government in Washington. It also explains Utah’s aversion to
the central government, the Cruz served most convincing. He also has more
understanding shown for one of the basic problems of the countries in the West:
they do not own their own country. For reasons that have to do with the
expansion history of America, has the central government - unlike on the east
coast - most of the land in the West is owned by the federal government. Rich County is 70 percent Federal lands.
If you drive south from the lake, the valley opens to an
almost clichéd scene of the Wild West with a wide horizon, framed by mountain
ranges. Kuherden graze on the still
marked by winter brown pastures. Sometimes appears a lonely farmstead, until
you reach Randolph, the capital of the county with just under 500 residents.
Here is the built in brick Mormon Church, the Randolph Tabernacle, of which the
people here are proud. Opposite is the small administration building of the
district.
 |
Commissioner Bill Cox
Photo by Wergen Clemens |
There sits the gnarled Bill Cox who looks a bit tired
because he had to help at night several cows at calving. But when it comes to
the country he is really talkative. Cox, like all here in the County wears
multiple hats. He operates from 4 a.m. as a postman and distributes letters and
parcels at the post offices in villages and remote farms. He is farmer with 250
suckler cows, and farms 800
hectares of land. He is the head of the County
Commission, the county government, and responsible for social services. And Cox
finds that the central government makes life in the rural west and more
difficult.
The communities live mainly from property tax, here in Rich
County but only 30 percent of land is taxable, the rest belongs to the federal government.
For farmers, it is vital to be able to let their cattle graze on federal land.
But under Obama the environmental regulations have been steadily tightened.
"The problem is that there are people in Washington DC, who decide what
happens here with us, people who have never been here and who have no interest
in Rich County," says Cox.
The latest harassment is that now is to turn the whole
farming area to the sage grouse, which is at home here. "If the notice that
there is somewhere a Balzstelle, then
can take place no economic activity within a radius of four miles," says
Cox. Then no roads can be attached, no water pipes laid, no water troughs for
cattle and sheep to be built, and there is no resource extraction permits. And
requests sometimes took up to eight years before the approval because the
people responsible for this, change districts every one to one and a half
years. "That's ridiculous that regulate us, the economy broken, which is
really frustrating," says Cox.
You have here some good reasons for that anger at
Washington, that cultivated Trump. But the real estate mogul has fallen out with
the Mormons, as he put the Mormon faith of former presidential candidate Mitt
Romney in doubt just before the caucus. "Whether one is here very
religious or not, when the roots of the people look at here, then there is
always some Mormon pioneer," says Cox. Romney attacking so was not a good
idea. "Because Trump has lost all the support he has had perhaps. One does
not come to Utah and so says something rude."
What is required for the people here is basic decency. Also
Trumps penchant for boasting is a problem. "That was what repelled the
people in our conservative district most. It does not do to knock to the chest
and brags about how great he is," says Cox. "This is offensive to
people with middle incomes who work 12 to 14 hours a day to make ends
meet." Here you do not count how
much money you have, but what you begin with and what character you have.
In a sense, this is true for all of Utah, says Jason Perry,
who heads the political science institute at the University of Utah in Salt
Lake City the capital. He points to a recent survey of Utahns showing that
honesty and integrity are the most important qualities that they are looking
for in politicians. Right behind it was the demand that politicians should
treat others with civility, even the political opponents. "The typical
candidate in Utah is not as hostile as Trump, he does not fight in this way and
not say things like him," says Perry. And because the Mormons were a
persecuted minority once, even Trump’s remarks about Muslims came to no good.
"If someone as talks about a religious group, as the Mormon church is very
sensitive," says Perry.
But Trump's foreclosure fantasies against Mexico and the
world are not prepared to accept. "Most people see Utah as a global player
and consider themselves International, many speak several languages, although
Utah an enclosed inland state," says Perry. This has to do with the global
presence of the Mormon Church and the fact that particularly the young men are
encouraged by the Mormons to go for two years on a mission abroad.
When you arrive at the airport in Salt Lake City, then there
are at any time with families welcome posters welcome the returnees after two
years of absence. "From our population, many who once lived abroad and
therefore have a global perspective," says Perry. Many schools in Utah
would therefore offer "dual immersion" classes in two languages.
So it's a very unique mix of conservative, rural values and
world solidarity that has immunized Utah as no other state in the US against
Trump.
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