Letter to the Editor: The Mike Noel and Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway — a marriage made in Utah
The only surprising aspect of a bill (HB481) sponsored by Kane County Rep. Mike Noel is that it is not called “The Mike Noel and Donald J. Trump National Parks Highway.” The two share characteristics and attributes oh so very similar. Both are extremely outspoken, aggressive, ambitious, and generally full of themselves.
Let’s take a closer look at the elements of this odd bill, now hotly pursued in the Utah legislature by Rep. Noel, who, we hear, has been seeking a high-level position within the Trump administration. It makes little sense to memorialize anything or anyone after one short year on the job. Who knows what the future may bring. Trump has a long way to go to establish himself as worthy of any memorials.
The fact that he’s made it through merely one fourth of his first term gives us little on which to make a final judgment.
Forty-five percent of voting Utahns supported Mr. Trump, a low number indeed. And we don’t yet know if his downsizing of two monuments will be permanent. Several lawsuits seek to cancel his actions.
Mr. Trump is currently experiencing some of the lowest national approval ratings every seen in the past many decades.
I get the strange feeling that Rep. Noel’s fondness for Mr. Trump has a great deal to do with the fact that a parcel of his property is now free of the encumbrance of being within the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. What a gift to Mr. Noel. Time will tell what it all means, but one has to wonder.
If the Utah legislature is foolish enough to pass Mr. Noel’s bill, maybe it should contain an alternative name just in case Mr. Mueller’s investigation leads to Mr. Trump’s impeachment. Several alternatives come to mind: “The Donald J. Trump Memorial Impeachment Highway” being one.
For all these reasons and many more too numerous to mention, it seems clearly premature for such a bill to be passed. But then, time has taught me to never under- nor overestimate what our legislature can accomplish and how convoluted their thinking might be.
—R. Paul Van Dam
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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