Here’s the heartwarming story of Republican Utah State Rep Michael Noel trying to carry the oily water of Donald Trump and Ryan Zinke by proposing H.B. 0481. It’s a bill that would rename a stretch of highway after Trump. The move is supposed to show the great support Utah has for Trump and his interior secretary Ryan Zinke’s decisions to sell off federal lands to the highest bidder. The Cut explains that this madness is not going unchallenged.
Today in wildly unproductive political drama, two Utah politicians are arguing over the names of roads. After Republican state representative Mike Noel proposed renaming the Utah National Parks Highway the “Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway,” in stepped Democratic state senator Jim Dabakis, who proposed renaming the frontage road “The Stormy Daniels Rampway.”
Don’t worry.
Is this … really happening? At a committee hearing yesterday, Democratic state representative Joel K. Briscoe said he only received one email out of 300 in support of the bill to change Utah National Parks Highway’s name. At the same time, it’s highly unlikely Dabakis’s proposal will pass, given Democrats are the minority in the State Senate. Perhaps all this energy — and if either of these were to miraculously pass, money — should be directed elsewhere.
These are the things the Republican Party tries to accomplish while cutting rich people’s taxes and destroying social safety nets.