Restoring Power to the ____

My eyes did a double take while reading the tag line on the page of Utah United for the Utah Freedom Conference (Event Link). The tag line reads: "Utah's Freedom Conference - Restoring Power to the _____" The image below shows the tagline as it appears on my screen:

The tag line proposes a very interesting question. Freedom means giving power to _____?

What word goes in the blank?

Utah United and the Utah Freedom Conference fill in the blank with the word "STATE."

These groups believe that freedom means a powerful state!?

The first section of the conference is about getting at the land. Utah is a high desert with little arable land. Much of the in-arable land is used by National Parks, wilderness and open public lands. Utah United wants those lands sold off or given to the control of the state.

The conference wants more powerful local sheriffs.

The conference wants new state run currencies.

The conference wants the state governments to have more power,

The article claims to support freedom of religion. I was dismayed at the lack of attendance at the well publicized Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally (picture).

There's about 2 million people living on the Wasatch Front. The Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally brought in a scant 200 people. About half the people in the crowd were either speakers who came to grandstand or members of the press to get a story. Few of the people I met in the small crowd were LDS.

Finally they want stronger religion. The one true religion is, of course, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

One of the great faults I find in "conservatism" is that the beautiful rhetoric about freedom is also followed by an ugly political wrangling over who has power. \

This so-called freedom conference is not about "freedom." It is about the political issue of which group has power. In my opinion, if we try to counter the unprecedented growth of the Federal Government under Obama with an era of unprecedented growth of the individual states, then we will greatly diminish individual freedom.

Look at California. They have a super big powerful state and local governments. The whole state is in a mess.

Sadly, the Utah Freedom Conference is one of the few conferences that I've found that is open to the public.