Utah Governor Spencer Cox has been making the rounds of national media recently promoting his new book, Off Ramp: How to be a peacemaker in an age of contempt.
asserted
Cox → make → contempt
On Jon Stewart, CNBC, and CNN, Cox drilled down on a theme that brought him into the national spotlight last year after the assassination of conservative youth leader Charlie Kirk in Utah: political depolarization.
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that → drill → Utah
This was nothing new for Cox, who launched a “disagree better” initiative as the head of the National Governor’s Association in 2023.
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who → launch → 2023
While the work has earned him national plaudits and calls to run for president, it hasn’t exactly endeared him to people at home.
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it → earn → home
A new poll released on Tuesday shows that his net approval rating in Utah has fallen 23 points since April.
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rating → release → April
It’s not hard to see why.
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It → ’ → ?
He has signed laws supporting extreme Republican gerrymandering and taking fluoride out of the drinking water.
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He → sign → water
This year, he officially declared June as “Fidelity Month,” instead of its more familiar name, Pride Month.
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he → declare → Month
He has supported data center construction over the intense objections of Utah residents of all political stripes.
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He → support → stripes
And in 2024, the soon-to-be author signed one of the country’s most extreme book banning laws—a decision that’s now coming back to haunt him as he tries to get people to buy his own book.
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people → sign → book
Since the law’s passage, Utah has now banned 44 books from all of its public school libraries and AP class curricula—everything from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to popular books by Stephen King, Jodi Picoult and Sarah J. Maas.
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Utah → ban → King
(The full list can be found here.)
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list → find → ?
Some local school districts have banned three times that number, most of them because of LGBTQ-related content or what the book-banners like to call “pornography.”
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banners → ban → what
(An example: Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 midlife crisis book Eat Pray Love was challenged in the Davis County school district because, among other things, it “refers to a penis as a banana.”
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it → eat → banana
It survived after another reviewer pointed out that the author writes favorably about celibacy.
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author → survive → celibacy
I was in Utah when Cox’s book came out and thought I’d try to go see him talk about it while I was there.
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I → come → it
But the governor wasn’t doing any book events in his own state.
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governor → do → state
I eventually saw him in DC, where he spoke last week at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
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he → see → Institute
Since I couldn’t find the governor in Utah, I went to see the legendary Salt Lake City bookstore owner Ken Sanders, proudly displays a sandwich board outside his store announcing, “We Buy Banned Books.”
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We → find → Books
Born in Utah, Sanders has been selling books in the state since 1975, and he’s lived through various waves of state-sponsored censorship.
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he → bear → censorship
I showed him a copy of Cox’s new book.
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I → show → book
When he saw the book jacket highlighting Cox’s “dedication to depolarization and a commitment to peacemaking,” he exclaimed, “Oof.
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he → see → peacemaking
That ain’t you, babe.”
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That → ai → ?
“I would have to say he doesn’t understand irony at all,” Sanders said.
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Sanders → have → irony
“Or how would he title his book like that?”
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he → title → that
Sanders isn’t the only Utah resident to notice the contradiction between the subject of Cox’s book and his support for the book banning law.
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Sanders → notice → law
In late April, The King’s English, a venerable independent bookstore in Salt Lake City, announced a promotion of the governor’s book, similar to those it does with other prominent authors.
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it → announce → authors
Customers who pre-ordered his book would receive a signed copy as soon as it came out.
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it → pre → copy
But the store was forced to cancel the offer in the face of furious outrage from its customers.
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store → force → customers
“The book banner is partnering with a bookstore?” wrote one of hundreds of posters on the Salt Lake City sub-Reddit upset about Cox’s book promotion.
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one → partner → promotion
Cal Crosby, co-owner of The King’s English, says that the backlash was worse than when a bomb threat in 2023 forced them to cancel drag queen story time.
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threat → say → time
The bomb threat turned out to have come from somewhere overseas, but the attacks over Cox’s book came from close to home.
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attacks → turn → home
“It was very personal,” he said, noting that many of the most aggressive critics were among the store’s longtime customers or business connections.
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many → say → customers
Utah’s book banning law, according to critics, has a sweeping mandate.
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book → ban → mandate
Here’s how it works: If three school districts, or two districts and five charter schools, ban a book because they decide it meets the state definition of obscenity or “sensitive materials,” the book is automatically removed from every school in the state.
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book → ’ → state
A Salt Lake Tribune analysis in May found that almost all of the statewide book bans originated in only two of the state’s 41 school districts.
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all → find → districts
Of those nine, most of the bans initially originated from just one district: Davis County, a conservative area north of Salt Lake City, where fringe conservatives have taken over the local Republican party.
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conservatives → originate → party
In 2021, after a two-year investigation, the US Department of Justice forced the Davis school district to address widespread racial harassment against Black and Asian-American students.
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Department → force → students
Shortly afterward, a 10-year-old Black girl with autism died by suicide after allegedly suffering from intense bullying in a Davis County school.
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girl → die → school
Yet Davis County activists are leveraging the book-banning law to dictate what every school in the state is allowed to teach or stock in its library.
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school → leverage → library
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
