an unseemly mix of politics and Mormonism
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President Monson votes. Poor guy can’t even do early voting without a camera following him. Is that an expression hoping for change or another eight years? (Plus, it looks like early voting is packed)
The SL Tribune published my letter adapted from my blog post in response to a columnist. The letter so far has a negative vote of -19!
Rebecca Walsh’s column “GOP is the LDS addiction” (Tribune, Aug. 31) makes no sense. Of course Mormons (and Utahns) believe in virtues such as service, charity and sacrifice. But Walsh mistakenly thinks that unless the government does it, it isn’t charity. She has it exactly backward. Mormons are taught to not wait for the government to tax and act in our place. In fact, we are not performing our charitable duty unless we give of our own time and talents.
So where’s the disconnect? It is with Walsh.
Conservative Mormons are similar to other religious conservatives who are suspicious of government’s inefficiency and ineffectiveness. According to Ben Gose in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, studies show that “religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.”
So putting aside social issues and other sundry reasons why Mormons vote Republican, there’s no inconsistency that a people who believe in service and charity support a party that doesn’t want to outsource those virtues to bureaucrats.
David H. Sundwall
Holladay
Perhaps the oldest and most unanswerable question of the Bloggernacle is why do Mormons vote so overwhelmingly Republican.
I’ll try to avoid that directly, but the SL Tribune’s weekly provocateur of the dominant Utah culture, Rebecca Walsh, joins Sen. Reid’s latest lament that misguided Utah LDS so overwhelmingly align themselves with the GOP.
Democrats have been scratching their heads for years, trying to make sense of the paradox that has Reid so flummoxed: It seems counterintuitive that a state largely populated by compassionate, peaceful, faithful people who are admonished by their religious leaders to volunteer, give to the poor and live modestly and within their means should hang on the coattails of a political party that does not.
This makes no sense. Of course Mormons (and Utahns) believe in virtues such as service, charity, and sacrifice. But Walsh seems to mistakenly think that they are synonymous with supporting government action: unless the government does it, it isn’t charity.
Except she has it exactly backwards. We are taught to not wait for the government to tax and act in our place. In fact we are not performing our charitable duty unless we give and do of our own time and talents.
So where’s the disconnect? It’s in fact with Ms. Walsh. Conservative Mormons are very similar to other religious conservatives who are suspect of the government accomplishing charity and instead rely on themselves. Arthur C. Brooks has studied the poltical and religious influences on charitable giving and found that:
religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.
So putting aside social issues and other sundry reasons why Mormons vote Republican, there’s no inconsistency that a people which believes in service and charity support a party that doesn’t want to outsource them to bureaucrats.
Rumors that McCain may announce his VP pick this week, in part to tamp down the media barage devoted to Obama’s world tour.
Last week, Mitt Romney forgave a $45 million loan to his campaign. Perhaps a multi-multi-millionaire fundraising for his failed campaign would have been futile, but it sure seems Romney must really want all GOP fundraising to be focused on helping his former rival, McCain.
Selfless gesture or getting all his ducks in a row (or both)?
WSJ.com: “GOP Flake Out” House Republicans deny Rep. Jeff Flake’s bid for a seat on the powerful Appropriation’s Committee:
Mr. Flake is the scourge of earmarks and the last person Members of either party want on Congress’s main spending committee. He would have been a whistle-blower for taxpayers, in particular against the powerful Democrats who get the most earmarks now that they are in the majority, such as Pennsylvania’s Jack Murtha. But Republican spenders couldn’t tolerate someone who would call out their pork too.
Are typically “true [red], through and through” Mormons going to go blue because their man Mitt was shunned by the GOP?
That’s the wishful thinking that has traveled parts of the Bloggernacle since Mitt Romney ended his campaign last week. And as Sen. Obama has been gaining momentum as the candidate of unity and change, it appears that his personal charm is winning over a lot of unconventional supporters (heck, this former Romney campaigner and Reaganite is now making a case that Catholics should go for Obama)
The Mormon argument for Obama seems to be that since the Republican primaries “rejected” a Mormon candidate, Mormon GOP voters should vent their anger and seek revenge by supporting the Democratic candidate of hope and optimism.
This Beehive Standard article suggests that if Obama only changed ever so slightly to the right he would be attractive to mainstream conservative Mormons and Utah - the state that gave President Bush the greatest margin of victory in 2000 and 2004 - would swing Democrat in 2008.
That will be hard for the Senator who has the most liberal voting record of 2007. As Jettboy explains very well, traditionally Republican Mormons may like Obama personally but will find his policies unpalatable.
Sen. McCain definitely lacks Obama’s charisma and appeal. He hasn’t reached out to Mormons as Obama has. But Republican Mormons are more savvy than to vote Democrat just because they feel the Republican party is dominated by anti-Mormons (which isn’t true). Wouldn’t that be the ugliest form of identity politics?
Unless McCain picks up Huckabee as his VP pick, Utah won’t go blue in November. If McCain does, then let’s talk.
“Romney’s Mormonism WAS a Big Factor” and it goes both ways:
By the way, those Democrats who might chortle that Republican intolerance cost them their best candidate, don’t get too smug. Our survey showed that Democrats were just as intolerant of Mormons as Republicans are. At least they have that in common.
At least Utah Republicans were motivated
Likewise in Utah, increased interest in the Republican contest among Mormons was behind the three-fold increase in participation among Republican voters, Thurber said. GOP turnout jumped from 91,000 in 2000 to 285,000 on Super Tuesday in Utah, a state with a significant Mormon population that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney , who is Mormon, won with an overwhelming 90 percent of the vote.
Does it even matter who wins the GOP nomination?
Here are the numbers just for the 19 states where both parties had elections yesterday
Obama/Clinton voters: 14,460,149
McCain/Romney/Huckabee voters: 8,367,694Or, 73% more Democratic voters than Republican voters.
Jonah Goldberg borrowing from P.J. O’Rourke on Hillary Clinton’s Christmas ad:
The contrast between the Candidate of God and the Candidate of Goodies should remind everyone of P. J. O’Rourke’s timeless book Parliament of Whores.
“I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat,” wrote the indispensable O’Rourke.
“God” he explained, is “a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well being of the disadvantaged. … God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God’s heavenly country club.”
P. J. continues: “Santa Claus is another matter. … He’s nonthreatening. He’s always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without the thought of a quid pro quo.”
“Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one,” O’Rourke concluded. “There is no such thing as Santa Claus.”
You can see Hillary’s ad here (which I could see the GOP rerunning next year as an attack ad). Romney’s smart for not joining the bandwagon with his own Christmas ad.
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