Heading into this year’s Republican primaries, it was an open question as to whether Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith would be a hindrance to his presidential hopes, as it may have been four years earlier. Evangelical resistance to voting for a Mormon was exploited by Mike Huckabee in 2008. Last October, when a pastor affiliated with Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke up about Mormons being part of a cult and said it was acceptable for voters to reject a candidate because of his faith, it was reasonable to wonder whether religious prejudice might play a role in this election too. But this time the attacks on Mormonism didn’t work and tonight Romney will be in the spotlight as he accepts his party’s nomination.
Just how much Romney will talk about his faith in the speech is a subject for speculation. But rather than shy away from it, tonight’s convention program will talk about the subject openly. Given that faith has always been central to him, that’s appropriate. But it’s also good politics. Though Democrats have at times spoken as if they could profit from a campaign aimed at portraying Romney as “weird” — coded language that could only be a reference to the uber-conventional Republican’s faith — the more the public understands about the candidate’s religiosity, charitable giving and belief in helping others, it can only help him.
Too many political pundits make the mistake of forgetting how religious Americans are as a people. It’s true that there are fewer Mormons than Jews in this country, but most voters have a deep respect for faith. That’s a lesson Democrats should have learned in 2000 when Joe Lieberman’s observance of Judaism proved to be an asset in terms of building respect for both him and Al Gore’s ticket.
Talking about Romney’s faith is important because it illustrates that the Obama campaign’s caricature of him as a heartless plutocrat bears little resemblance to the person running for president. As much as Ann Romney’s impressive speech about her husband helped fill in some of the blanks in his profile for most viewers, they also need to hear more about the way religion shaped the choices he made and the way he has always conducted himself.
Democratic opposition researchers wasted a lot of time this year trying to dig up non-existent dirt about Romney. The best they could do was a half-baked story about a high school prank. The connection between Romney’s dedication to his faith and the lack of success that such fishing expeditions experienced is obvious.
It is true that bias against Mormons is still a potent factor in American life and may exceed even anti-Semitism in terms of its influence. Though the bias that created pogroms in the early years of the faith and even a shooting war between Mormons and the United States in the 1950s is not a subject most voters know about, the image of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a cult is far from dead.
Nevertheless, Democrats ought not to be happy about more discussion of Romney’s faith. The more Republicans talk about it, the better their chances of convincing the public that he is the sort of person who can be trusted with the nation’s affairs and, of ultimately prevailing in the election, will be.
I think Obama-angst far outweighs the angst of tradition vs. tradition. n nThis ain’t Nicea and no one is talking about the "mangy heretic." It’s one big heresy-o-rama. And the intellecutal animus aimed at insistent believers (shrinking in numbers) is the mother of the family of heretics. n nI know I'm repeating myself but I can't stress enough how much Romney has to make plain that he understands the dire circumstances the average blue-collar worker faces. Charity alone can't help a population of 307 million. He needs to convince America that he has the back of those outside of his or any Church. n nThese people are not anti-government. They believe government should be on the side of the people and their cultural moorings (Righteous Minds) make them amenable to limiting government too. n nI really am in Romney's corner. I think he's an admirable man. n nP.S. I'm sure you realize (as Reason's Suderman points out) you just bought Medicare. Not really a problem for me. Just sayin'.
Much of the talk about Evangelicals not wanting a Mormon as president seems to have come from liberal or progressive columnists who know little about Evangelicals. Whether this meme came from inherent prejudice of Evangelicals as bigots, or whether it was a subtle attempt to stir up bias, I cannot say.
I agree that Romney's faith is more of an asset than a liability- BUT, many if not most Mormons would probably prefer him not "going there" much. Mormons are more aware of their "weirdness" than anyone else, with possibly the exception of Mormons in Utah, even though "non-Mormons" in Utah delight in informing Mormons how awful they are. btw- the number of American Jews and the number of American Mormons are actually quite similar, with possibly the number of Mormons exceeding the number of Jews. and btw- I know of what I'm talking, since I'm LDS (a Latter-day Saint, or Mormon)
There's a typo in the next to last paragraph – it should read "shooting war between Mormons and the United States in the 1850s." Unless you know something about Dwight Eisenhower (2 Mormons in his cabinet) that I don't know.
Huckabee had it right last night: "I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country." Let's hope he's been heard.
Janet Taylor – janptaylor@yahoo.com n nShooting war between USA and Mormons — 1850, not 1950.
nLike the article.
I don’t know what “almost shooting war in the 1950s” that Tobin is referring to. Could it be that the reference is to the 1858 expedition to Utah territory when James Buchanan was president? Maybe Tobin should stick to Israeli history or read up some more on American history before he writes more commentaries.