A Mormon Democrat for President in 3010 (we’re realistic)
A new poll found that 43% of Americans would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate. The poll, conducted for the Los Angeles Times, also found that 53% of Evangelicals were against voting for a Mormon. This has not deterred Mit Romney. By all accounts, he is still planning on announcing his candidacy early next year.
Not all Evangelicals oppose Romney out of hand. Jerry Falwell, who recently met with Romney, had this to say: "We're not trying to find a Sunday school teacher in chief; we're trying to find a commander in chief. Where he goes to church will not be a factor; how he lives his life will be."
Many Evangelicals are concerned because they perceive Mormonism as anything but Christian. This will be damaging to Romney’s campaign since Evangelicals and other conservative Christian voters are very effective at “get out the vote” campaigns.
Frankly, I would like to see Romney take the presidency. I think it would clear up a lot of misperceptions people have about Mormons. However, I’m afraid that if a Republican candidate, like Romney, cannot rally a base among Evangelical voters, his presidency does not stand much of a chance.
There is a great irony in all of this: if Utah is any indication, Mormons have inexorably supported President Bush, including the radically conservative political ideas of his Evangelical constituency. (There is a second irony that I have to point out: Evangelicals oppose Mormon candidates because we are members of a perceived cult, yet no one seems to mind the Bush family's participation in Skull and Bones. This is doubly ironic for Mormons who are so concerned over “secret combinations.”)
Shouldn’t Mormons feel a little offended that after all of their loyalty to the GOP, more than half of Evangelicals are unwilling to return the favor? Let’s end this one sided relationship right now while we can still save face.
3 comments:
I hadn't thought of the skull and bones irony. Thanks for pointing that out.
If we don't do as you say and end this relationship while we still can, Mormon republicans will soon have the problems that Black Democrats have---they get ignored by the party. After all, it's not like they're going to vote republican.
When the party is confident that it will get your support, it will largely ignore your needs and interests, aside from a few rhetorical tokens right before the election.
Romney's inconsistency or dishonesty, depending on your bias, (on abortion, especially) will be at least as big an issue for his candidacy as his Mormonism. That and his Mormonism will both make conservatives wary of him, and he already gave any moderate appeal he might have had when he decided he had to move to the right to assuage theocon fears of his cultism, which leaves him with virtually no chance anyway.
In answer to your question handle, I say, "Yes." Mormons should feel offended, and, as I have said for years, we should sever all ties with evangelicals. Why are we so anxious to cozy up to them? What have they ever done for us besides disparage our beliefs and call us a cult. Religiously, we have very little in common with them--why would we want to have anything to so with them politically.
My brother told me an interesting story that I think is instructive on this topic. When he was in med school in Missouri, he and some of his LDS friends decided to join the campus Christian club in an attempt to create a more ecumenical feel on campus among like-minded Christians. Silly Mormons, replied the evangelicals. (I'm paraphrasing here.) Didn't they know they weren't actually Christians and thus were ineligible to join the Christian club. Go back to your "cult club" and leave our club to its "Christian purity."
Such arrogance. If that's what Christianity is, I'll go by some other appelation, thank you very much. ***END OF RANT***
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