Talk:George Dern

"whose maiden name was the same as her married name, Dern."

Instead of this, how about just, "whose maiden name was also Dern."? For me, this flows a bit better....Kingsfold (talk) 12:55, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

== "best known for the Holt-Dern process..."

What about the Dern Foam process, a process for the preliminary separation, i.e. the ore-enrichment, of silver from rock? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.24.109.211 (talk) 20:34, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

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Democratic governor in Utah

“At the time, Utah was extremely Republican oriented. This was largely due to the high concentration of Mormons, typically having conservative Republican viewpoints, living in the area. Although George Dern was neither a Republican nor a Mormon, he won by a plurality of 10,000 votes, 81,308 to 72,127, while the Republicans carried all the other statewide offices by a margin of 30,000 votes. Dern obviously had an incredible knack for reaching across party lines, a skill that is highly desirable when running in a minority party. Dern's ability in this area can be attributed to his outgoing, open-minded and empathetic personality.”

There is so much wrong with this passage, that it’s hard to know even how to fix it, I’m deleting it for the following reasons.

1. None of it has a source listed, so there’s no way to clarify the meaning.

2. I don’t even know what it means that the Republicans won all other elections by 30,000 votes. 30,000 votes combined? Each one by exactly 30,000? Each one by at least 30,000? It’s so vaguely worded as to be meaningless.

3. The passage greatly overstates the supposed anomaly of Utah electing a Democratic and non-Mormon governor. A Democratic non-Mormon governor had already served only four years previously. It is true that Utah leaned Republican during Dern’s term (see here), but Democrat William King represented Utah in the senate 1917-1941. The only reason it can be claimed that the GOP carried all other statewide offices is that King didn’t stand for reelection the year Dern first ran for governor. Furthermore, Dern was followed by two more Democratic governors, giving the Democrats continuous control of the governorship for 24 years through 1949. And by the time Dern left office, Utah had swung strongly Democratic and remained so through most of the 30s and 40s, and to some degree into the early 1950s (controlling both houses of the legislature, all statewide offices, and electing Democratic presidential electors). When Dern was elected, he was on the cusp of a Democratic turn that controlled the state for the next 25+ years.

4. I’m not sure that the term conservative can be applied to US politics of the 1920s in the same sense as the current meaning, but in any case, the Mormon connection is also overstated. The majority of those Democratic office-holders in the 30s and 40s were Mormon also, as was the Utah electorate that put them there. And the same predominately Mormon electorate put Democrats in the governor’s mansion again from 1965 to 1985.

5. The last two sentences about his personality are subjective and unsourced. If we can find a reference that indicates that people said that about him, then we can put back in a statement about his reputation.

I’m just replacing the passage in question with a statement that Dern was on the leading edge of a Democratic swing in Utah. --LeftField (talk) 13:32, 12 August 2019 (UTC)