If there’s one thing Donald Trump’s rise accomplished within the Republican party over the last half-decade, it’s been to help separate some of the rot from the core. Neoconservatives like Bill Kristol now spend their time stumping for Democrat positions and doing MNSBC hits, and that’s a good thing. The GOP was getting no benefit from being led by a bunch of squishes who are too afraid to actually win, and their exposure was an objective good.

Unfortunately, there’s still work to do in regards to the establishment of the party, which brings me to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

You may recall Cox as being the “conservative” who recently shot down school choice in his state and refused to sign a bill to protect women’s sports from radical transgender ideology (he was overridden). You know, because he’s super principled and stuff.

Now, Cox has taken things a step further, fully bending the knee to the religion of wokeness. In a recent video, the governor is seen sharing his preferred pronouns while riffing on the importance of “equity and inclusion,” a phrase that is often used as a stand-in for Critical Race Theory.

Ignore the comedy cuts and silly overdubs. It’s what he actually says in the video that is relevant.

Utah "republican" Governor Spencer Cox shares his preferred pronouns with students to teach kids leadership with Equity & Inclusion#utpol @GovCox @SpencerJCox #Utah pic.twitter.com/ioLWv7WC4r

— Adam Bartholomew 🗨️ (@lifeisdriving) April 5, 2022

I can already see the response from some conservatives, especially those that have been in the commentariat a while. “This isn’t worth fighting over,” they’ll proclaim, asserting that while they don’t agree with Cox, “he’s not hurting anything.”

I disagree. The reason we are in the position we are in, having to fiercely fight a culture war over radical transgender ideology, is because spineless Republicans decided a decade ago that “this isn’t worth fighting over.” So instead of nipping this insanity in the bud, it was allowed to become pervasive with almost no pushback until recently. If GOP politicians continually give up the premise and refuse to fight, they will lose by default, and Republicans like Cox seem completely content with that outcome.

Objective reality should matter to conservatives. “Preferred pronouns” do not exist because pronouns are not malleable. Rather, they are dictated by what actually is. Any Republican accepting the premise that someone can change them is feeding the beast that will eventually consume them.

I don’t know what the heck is going on in Utah, but the voters there need to wake up. It’s bad enough they’ve sent Mitt Romney, who is going to vote to confirm far-left Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, to Washington. But to elect someone like Cox who can’t even be counted on to promote basic conservative principles like school choice? While bowing before the woke and speaking their language, in some ridiculous attempt at pandering? As one of the reddest states in the union, Utah can and should do better.