The Return of a Meme as Things Start to Heat Up.
“Romney, a Mormon”…
When we wrote our 2008 recount, we defined that meme as one of the more damaging actions of the press during the cycle. It did the most damage in Iowa and last week saw Romney return to Iowa on his book tour. Here’s the story from the Des Moines Register and the Iowa Politics blog. Should Romney elect to run in 2012, Iowa does present him with some serious strategic challenges. Recent polling suggests that today the GOP primary choices are Romney and Huckabee, and Iowa was where their showdown in 2008 really mattered. We still think the odds of the Huckster getting in are low, but given that his success in Iowa was based largely on his playing the Mormon card, it would not be hard for someone else to do so this time around leaving the battle lines about where they are.
Thus it is quite legitimate for Jonathon Martin at Politico to write a piece about possible Romney Iowa strategy, or for Ben Smith to point out that his book signing looked a lot like a campaign event. Martin saves until the 4th from last paragraph of a long piece, this little goody:
His problem in 2008 wasn’t just that the evangelicals who dominated the process wouldn’t support a Mormon candidate; it was also that Romney struggled at times to connect with voters who demand personal contact.
I think Martin is right in that. Romney is impressive and “real” when you meet him. Pressing the flesh can go a long way to overcome suspicion concerning his religion. It’s the comments to both of these posts where one starts to really see problems. From the Smith post (this is the entire comment):
Come on. No-one is going to elect a Mormon to the presidency.
It gets worse from there. (Dear readers, please do not forget our call to Online Activism.) But aside from the usual snotty stuff, both post’s comments have some serious discussion about Romney’s religion and its effect on his electability. I heard the same sort of discussion after a public event a week or so ago where presidential possibilities were examined.
The very left “Media Matters” tried to respond to Martin, but they were typically snippy and dismissive. The very first comment out of the bag on that post:
The other Romney Riddle: will the Sarah Palin Troglodyte Christian Nutbag wing of the Republican Party really support a Mormon? They consider Mormonism a cult, you know. In their minds, it’s about the same as Scientology.
Which brings me to the main point I want to make here. Romney’s religion is a not a factor that we can consider in political calculation, even in reasonable discussion. We went through this with Jim Geraghty in the last cycle. Accepting his religion as a factor accepts that which is unacceptable. Such discussion must be denounced. Legitimizing it in any fashion leads precisely to what we see in the Media Matters comments – derision towards religion generally.
And make no mistake, the left wants this is a big way. It is clear that Democrats see Romney as the current front runner – Obama is setting him up to take the hit over healthcare that he does not deserve. We have already discussed how the entire health care thing feeds the “flip-flip” mis-impression which is fueled by Mormon suspicion. If we take Mormon out of the equation, that house of cards grows a lot weaker.
It is very sad to me that some of my fellow orthodox Christians, very smart ones for that matter, fail to see that singling out Mormons leaves the door open for the same kind of ugly attacks against them that Mormons have suffered. That is why I tend to agree with this guy – a Mormon analog to the ADL might be a useful thing – and I think smart orthodox Christians would be behind it as well – for the reasons I just discussed.
You Need Look No Farther…
…than the coverage of the so-called “Christian” militia story of the last week if you doubt my contention that the left wants to put orthodox Christianity into the same cross-hairs as the Mormons. We need look no further than Great Britain where Christians are “held in contempt.” Of course, we do not always help ourselves. Consider this coverage:
Surprisingly, it is a gay outlet that points out that the only one of this bunch that appears to be a registered voter is a Democrat. These people are about a “Christian” as the FLDS is “Mormon.” The press has beaten the very specious connection of these people to the Christian faith to death. The appear to have no motive to do so other than to paint Christianity is general as populated by wackos, violent wackos – certainly angry wackos.
This stuff not only hurts Christianity, it hurts Republicans. There is no question that the Tea Party folks are a bit angry. Dan Quayle is concerned they will go third party, but Salon, the lovely left Salon, thinks they are indistinguishable from the GOP.
And then, of course, there is the NYTimes obvious campaign to discredit the Roman Catholic Church by falsely implicating the Pope in some of the abusive priest scandals. This has been well documented elsewhere, so we are not bothering, but it is atrocious. It also marks a shift in the religious influence of Christianity inside the Republican party. Given that Evangelicals kind of self-destructed last time, and as the Democratic party has turned continually anti-religious, the Catholic influence inside the GOP has been rising. So now they are targets too.
Come to think of it, we may just need a “Religion ADL” that defends us all! Or maybe instead of an “ambassador,” we’ll need a “czar.”
Back to 2012…
There was serious stuff on the docket last week:
Members of the RNC’s Temporary Delegate Selection Committee are working on a proposal they hope can reform the primary calendar. Their proposal must pass a high hurdle later this summer, when two-thirds of the full RNC must ratify whatever they come up with.
Hotline clearly wants to make this about Romney. Which means they also think he is the presumptive at this point. But it’s about everybody and it needs to be done.
Pawlenty seemed to have something up his sleeve according to All Headline News. The Corner found it good, but not all that startling.
The Rick Santorum drums are continuing to beat according to Politics Daily and The Des Moines Resister. If he gets in, I still do not think it will be to win, it’ll be to garner support for other initiatives.
Somebody is pushing Haley Barbour a bit more. Haley may be the best fund-raiser in the game, but….
John Thune keeps getting discussion as well, particularly from Chris Cilizza and those that read him. If Thune is in this time it’s a dress rehearsal or he is running for Veep.
I am so very proud of my alma mater, Butler University, basketball team, and I like Mitch Daniels – but this pushes a point just a little too far - besides someone much smarter has already tried the metaphor.
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