COLUMN: Romney is a Mormon, but Obama doesn’t care
To say six terms in office as a United States senator have gone to Orrin Hatch’s frosty-white head would be a drastic understatement. Perhaps, with the recent semiannual LDS General Conference – an event that as an active and faithful member of the LDS church, I fully support and enjoy – Hatch may have confused himself for a prophet or a general authority of the church.
What else could explain his recent decision to make an absolutely ridiculous claim such as the following one. According to a recent Salt Lake Tribune piece I read, Hatch is quoted on the political commentary website Politico as saying that Democrats and specifically President Barack Obama are going to use Mitt Romney’s status as a Mormon to railroad his efforts to win the presidency in the fast-approaching 2012 election. Before I proceed, I’d like to rehash another recent occasion in which loose-lipped Hatch seditiously quipped about Obama.
A little more than a year ago, I witnessed Hatch’s uncanny ability to say preposterous things about the president – a practice his almost four decades as senator seem to predispose him to. During a College Republicans-sponsored event last year, the aptly titled and perennial Pizza and Politics – yet I think Heartburn and Heresy would better describe the spectacle – Hatch, on his high horse in a room he surely assumed was filled with a homogeneous crowd of white, LDS, Utah Republicans, referred to Obama’s Affordable Care Act as a “one-size-fits-all federal government dumbass program.”
After continuing with, “It really is an awful piece of crap,” Hatch followed the roaring laughter and applause with an apathetic promise to repent for cussing in front of the northern Utah crowd of malleable, young minds. I’m not quite sure, if anything, what exactly went through Hatch’s mind as he said those words – I’d love to know what the thought process was – but I’m beginning to believe that Hatch may sincerely be losing his mind. How else would an individual think it OK to spout off at the mouth with ungrounded ascriptions and accusations?
I’ve written this before, and I’ll say it again: I align my political beliefs with my faith, and my faith, according to the doctrine it’s founded on, teaches us to give liberally to all who are in need – without judging them or their predicaments. For this reason, I have come to denounce most Utah politicians for the simple fact that they exhibit characteristics consistent with money-grubbing, greedy men who support corporate capitalism over social programs and feeding, clothing and sheltering the sick, hungry, afflicted and poor.
Although it’s unfortunate how incredibly messy American politics have become, it’s absolutely preposterous how intensely delusional and out of touch with reality a large majority of present-day politicians have become. And now Republicans have resorted to calling Democrats bigots. Obama, certainly himself a victim of prejudice, is not a bigot.
Sure, Obama is not perfect, and I certainly don’t agree with everything he’s done or said, but I wholeheartedly believe our president is an honest, faithful man who most likely looks to God for answers – both personal and executorial. I cannot support Sen. Hatch or any Republican politician or conservative group who pre-emptively accuses Barack Obama or any Democrat of throwing Mormonism in Romney’s face.
There have been several claims, and even promises, made by the Obama administration and its supporters that neither religion nor Mormonism will be – at any stage in the process – a part of Obama’s campaign strategy leading up to his winning of the 2012 election. I’ll echo what other commentators have said recently, regarding Hatch’s and others’ claims – it takes nerve to hit this far below the belt. No one, especially not a representative of the LDS faith, has any right to predict that Barack Obama or any other Democrat need use Romney’s religious beliefs against him to win the 2012 election.
The people who’ve made a big deal about Romney’s status as a Mormon are his fellow Republican contenders, his own campaign staff and his Republican supporters, such as Orrin Hatch. I applaud Romney for his confidence as a Latter-day Saint. I do not support all of his political beliefs, and, like Hatch, he doesn’t hesitate to take swings at Obama; but I promise every single one of you that Obama won’t need to attack anyone’s religious beliefs to retain his seat in the Oval Office or his residency in the White House. It never would have crossed my mind that our first black president would ever dip so low below his own character as to commit an act of spiteful bigotry. After all, we may remember Obama faced his own unwarranted and undeserved share of filthy, baseless accusations regarding nativity and religious beliefs.
For this one Hatch truly should consider repentance. He and his entourage of Utah Republican cronies are all good at running their mouths, but essentially referring to Obama as a religious bigot is going too far. Sen. Hatch and I may worship the same God, but we certainly have different views on what’s politically prudent. He may have more years’ experience as a politician than I even have as an inhabitant of Earth, but age doesn’t always equal wisdom. Anyone who criticizes our nation’s leader as carelessly and profusely as Hatch does ought to reconsider his or her reasons for doing so.
– D. Whitney Smith is copy editor for The Utah Statesman. Comments on his column may be sent to statesmanoffice@aggiemail.usu.edu.