Pure Bigotry

19 November 2007



Anti-Romney Push Poll Shows Campaign's Ugly Side

This journal holds no brief for the current crop of Republican candidates for president of the US. They are, except for Ron Paul, determined to continue with a failed foreign policy, a failed domestic agenda, and an impossibly irresponsible fiscal attitude. Mr. Paul, as a former nominee of the Libertarian Party, carries a belief that government can do no right, so he is a dubious candidate to lead the government. However, a recent set of phone calls illustrates that bigotry still plays a role instead of debating the issues. It appears a host of push-poll calls have been made against Governor Mitt Romney, playing against his Mormon faith.

The Associated Press reported, “Western Wats, a Utah-based company, placed the calls that initially sound like a poll but then pose questions that cast Romney in a harsh light, according to those who received the calls. In politics, this type of phone surveying is called 'push polling' -- contacting potential voters and asking questions intended to plant a message in voters' minds, usually negative, rather than gauging peoples' attitudes.” The AP added, “Among the questions was whether a resident knew that Romney was a Mormon, that he received military deferments when he served as a Mormon missionary in France, that his five sons did not serve in the military, that Romney's faith did not accept blacks as bishops into the 1970s and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible.” All of which is true, but tone carries the day.

Romney supporter and state representative Ralph Watts got such a call. He said, “I was offended by the line of questioning. I would be equally as offended if someone called and said in the nature of if, 'you know the Catholic Church supported pedophile priests.' I don't think it has any place in politics.” And it doesn't, despite what around 30% of Republican voters might think.

Governor Romney is entitled to whatever faith comforts him, and the constitution makes clear that there shall be no religious tests to hold office in the American republic. That should be the end of the matter. The Mormon Church may believe any number of silly things that the Baptists and Catholics do not (they have their own silly issues like dunking people in swimming pools and thinking communion bread and wine become flesh and blood), but none of this has a thing to do with free trade agreements, ending the pointless spending on nuclear powered submarines when the current enemy lives in the deserts and mountains of Asia, or rebuilding America's collapsing infrastructure. One would be fascinated to know the theological difference between the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), the Episcopal Church, and Southern Methodist Church on what the correct dollar-euro exchange rate should be and what policies one should adopt to achieve it. WWJC -- Why would Jesus care?

No, the calls made were made for one reason only – to appeal to the worst in human beings. Bigotry is loose, pure and simple. It is dangerous to the welfare of civil society, and it is dangerous to the health of the republic (which already is running a fever). It is unacceptable; it is unbearable; it is un-American.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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