When I began my summer contract work in rural northeastern Utah, I was expecting a political climate far different than that in my native Los Angeles. But far from the bastion of conservative propaganda I was expecting, I found... well, nothing really. You wouldn't know that a highly publicized election is merely a few months a way. There are no posters, no bumper stickers, and no door-to-door campaigning. Not even a single, wistful 'Romney 2008' sign anywhere in sight.
This really puzzled me. Surely everyone in the U.S. and many around the world are holding their breath until November? Even my LDS friends back home, California Mormons though they might be, are getting politically active and excited about the upcoming election. I thought I might be missing something as an outsider. So I decided to talk with some local people.
I decided to start with what I thought would be a relatively comfortable target: Karen, a Native American barista at the local coffee shop where all the non-Mormon townsfolk go for their morning lattes. After she handed me my coffee, I gave her my oh-so-California bright smile, and launched into a series of questions about whether people around town were thinking about the upcoming election. Hardly thrilled with the subject matter, she practically whispered: "Some of the morning crowd talk about it, but that's about it. My family is divided-- my mom's going for McCain, and my dad's more for Obama."
I asked if religion was an important factor in determining which candidate people would vote for. "I don't think it's divided on religious lines", she replied, and added: "Actually, most people just don't talk about it [the upcoming election]. You're the first person to ask me my opinion".
The reactions of other locals were similar, and I began to wonder if politics was some kind of taboo here. What I was able to glean from these hushed interviews was that neither awareness nor interest is that high around here. Some were not sure who was running. Many felt that they may not vote at all. All were curious as to why I was even asking them about the election. Mary, a clerk at the Wal-Mart in Vernal, Utah, clearly thought that I was some kind of government agent and didn't want to answer any of my questions at first. After explaining who I was, she reluctantly said: "I'm not going to vote. There's no candidate that I really like." So I asked: "Do you think that people in Utah would be more likely to vote if Mitt Romney was the Republican party's nominee?" She looked at me for a moment, and then said: "Is that the Mormon one?" I nodded. "Well, I suppose so", she said with a shrug.
Interestingly, many reported not feeling that either McCain or Obama has an edge here. Most seem to view McCain as anti-conservative and/or not religious and Obama as some kind of Islamist posing as an American. Such perceptions are unlikely to send people here rushing to the polls on election day, but it does make me wonder if parts of the conservative interior West don't deserve a little more attention from the candidates and major political parties.