COLUMN: Multiple-choice Mitt quite the character
After exhausting his campaign funds in Iowa and the early primary states, Mitt Romney returned to his cash cow over the weekend – Utah. Of the roughly 700 people who attended the “Rally for Romney” fundraiser at the Salt Palace Convention Center, about 30 were from USU. These 30 supporters alone raised at least $70,000, according to The Herald Journal
While Mitt Romney’s Mormonism may be his greatest asset with Utahns, it is proving to be an obstacle on the road to the White House. Polls consistently show that more than a quarter of Americans would not vote for a Mormon as President. The evangelical Republican base is most wary of Mormonism’s strange doctrines and perceived secrecy. Evangelicals insist that Mormons belong to a cult and are not Christians. Despite even their shared values, they will be reluctant to vote for him. Romney will have to deftly downplay his faith to neutralize this opposition and win the nomination.
It’s not fair that Romney be singled out for his religion, because who can honestly say his beliefs are notably sillier than any other candidate’s? For example, in the second Republican presidential debate, candidates were asked if they believed in evolution. Rep. Tancredo of Colorado, Sen. Brownback of Kansas and former governor Huckabee of Arkansas answered in the negative for religious reasons. Such an answer would disqualify you from the show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”, and yet it wins votes in the Republican primaries. So if Romney’s Mormonism is to be on trial, so too should the irrational faiths of every candidate from both parties.
I do think it’s appropriate that religion undergoes more scrutiny during a political campaign. Austin Cline, a director for the Council for Secular Humanism, notes, “A candidate’s religion is an ideology from which a voter might draw valid, reasonable expectations about how that candidate will act or make decisions. Refusing to vote for a person based on their religious ideology need not be worse than refusing to vote for them based on their political ideology-provided, of course, that one has an accurate, fair, and reasonable understanding of that ideology.”
For me, however, Romney’s religious beliefs are a secondary concern to my political objections. He’s running the most craven and contrived campaign of this election season.
Aside from empty platitudes and the obligatory criticism of the war’s handling, he has been deafeningly silent on Iraq. Like his faith, the occupation is another issue he wants to avoid-he doesn’t even list it as an issue on his campaign Web site. I’m afraid he’s too busy saber-rattling against Iran and extolling the virtues of torture. And in an amusing political irony, Utah Republicans are supporting a flip floppin’ Massachusetts patrician for president. Romney has conveniently tailored his opinions to the office he’s seeking-the same cardinal sin Sen. John Kerry was accused of committing.
Running in Massachusetts for a Senate seat in 1994 and the governorship in 2002, Romney billed himself as a moderately liberal candidate. He vowed his judicial picks would uphold abortion rights. He claimed to be a greater advocate for gay rights than Ted Kennedy.
“All people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation,” he said, and gays should serve “openly and honestly in our nation’s military.”
He pledged to fight abstinence-only sex education. He took measures to combat global warming. And he supported tough gun control laws, like the Brady Bill.
But now, having to woo the radical right, Romney is casting himself as the conservative candidate. He will appoint justices bent on overturning Roe v. Wade. He opposes both civil unions and same-sex marriage, even favoring a constitutional amendment to ban the latter. He no longer sweats global warming, dismissing it as a “radical” idea. And he is seeking the endorsement of a skeptical National Rifle Association, of which he’s only been a member for a year. In a pathetic effort to assuage the concerns of gun rights activists, he told them he was an avid and lifelong hunter. Turns out, as Romney was later forced to admit, he has only hunted twice in his life-shooting rabbits and quail as a kid-and doesn’t even own a gun. What kind of man can’t even be honest about his hobbies.
With his integrity, I half expect “multiple-choice Mitt” to change religions as well.
Jon Adams is a junior majoring in political science. Comments and questions can be sent to him at jonadams@cc.usu.edu.