In my 45 years, there have only been 5 senators (all Republican) from my home state of Utah. Everyone of those senators was elected with statements about how there needs to be term limits, and that 10-40 years (and longer) is too long for anyone to be in the Senate. That claim dies by the second term, and everyone of those senators focuses on the need to maintain party majority, and their seniority becomes the unassailable reason we "need them in Washington". Almost without fail, whether the Senator is popular or unpopular we re-elected (almost) everyone of those senators until they want to retire. Almost without fail, we end up with senators that perpetuate the status quo. Voting party lines and complaining that the Democrats are to blame for every single negative thing extant. Nothing changes when we keep doing the same thing over and over again.
Mike Lee gives us a prime example of the problem. He was lucky enough to run for senate as Utah legal/political aristocracy (the son of a BYU president and a former US Solicitor General) in a mid-term election after the worst financial disaster the US has seen since the Great Depression. He is the rare example where he successfully unseated a long term Senator in convention. In his convention/primary campaign for the GOP nomination, he promised he would pursue term limits saying 2 terms is a long enough time for a senator to serve. By the 2nd campaign, his term limit promise expired.
The most concerning actions of Mike Lee relate to his views of our right to vote. He has declared that the United States of America is a republic not a democracy. This is a half truth. The United States is a democratic republic. A pure republic doesn't need public votes, there just needs to a leader that is not a monarch and a body of representatives of the people. For example, China and Myanmar are republics. Bringing up authoritarian republics as mentioned above may seem like hyperbole. However, keep in mind, Mike Lee touted the repeal of the 17th amendment (the amendment that allowed citizens instead of legislatures to elect senators) and he suffered zero consequences from it. If that is not troubling enough, he willingly participated in some of former President Trump's dubious strategies to overturn a landslide popular election loss.
The two party duopoly has polarized American politics to the point that a portion of Americans were willing to consider civil war. Mike Lee has, as a whole, chosen to exasperate the polarity. Complaining that Democrats are always the problem without offering an answer, choosing to vote against the other side of the isle on nearly every vote - including votes as benign as almost every ambassadorship appointed by both Democratic administrations during his two terms in office. He also takes (albeit not as bad as many GOP officials) occasion to exploit dog-whistle issues for social-conservatives. As early as May, he advocated new TV ratings that would block children's shows with LGBTQ+ characters. After the post-Roe verdict protests at conservative SCOTUS justices homes, he recounted an unverifiable anecdotal tale of being bullied by a bus load of pro choice activists protesting at his home when he was 11 years old in Washington DC. Like Trump and many current GOP leaders, he seems to be seeking the best Fox News sound bite of the day. Ambition and stature often seem to be his chief aim.
I am voting for Evan McMullin because he is a legitimate conservative with overseas intelligence service in the CIA, several years of being a senior Republican congressional advisor for the House Republican Conference. Most importantly, when taking a stand was needed, he stood. He walked away from his job as Chief Policy Director of the House Republican Conference and ran a long shot race for president against the worst two options which the GOP and Democratic parties have offered the American public in history. Although that race was not successful, it provided an outlet for thousands of Americans to express their discontent with the two ruling parties' offerings. Among his voters were Jeff Flake, and two Trump sycophants Lindsey Graham and none other than Mike Lee.
That's right, Mike Lee knows Trump was bad for America - he knew it from the start. However, his protest vote against Trump was as far as the pusillanimous Lee dared venture from being a sheepish follower. Considering the remaining threats to the democratic part of our republic, we need senators that value the constitution more than party status. We need senators who not only study the constitution, but who will defend it when it matters. Mike Lee failed us on this point after the 2020 election, he failed on this point in the impeachment trial after January 6th (it took him almost 2 months to realize how unconstitutional Trump's strategies were) and we cannot trust that he will find the fortitude to defend the constitution if and when we have another potential democracy killing moment. Electing Evan McMullin will give us a conservative that has proven he will stand up when everyone else on the right is cravenly sitting down
