As an Iowan, I had a front-row seat to the underhanded suggestions by Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign that evangelicals were supporting Gov. Mike Huckabee because we’re too bigoted to support a Mormon. It’s true that the evangelical vote did power Huckabee to a win in Iowa, but I have a different explanation for why we did it. Values…
There’s another side of this story though that is not being told by Romney, or virtually anybody else for that matter. Romney won the Nevada Caucuses based largely on his support from Mormons in the state, who made up one out of every four Caucus attendees, and who “almost unanimously supported Mitt Romney,” and accounted for “about half” of Romney’s overall vote total. Were they too bigoted to vote for evangelical or protestant candidates?
Or should we prefer the way of the Democrats? Get a little diversity in the pool and then vote for the candidate whose immutable traits most resemble our own. Sen. Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary by garnering nearly half of the female vote to Barack Obama’s 34% and John Edwards’ 15%. Were they too bigoted to vote for male candidates?
Sen. Barack Obama will most likely win the South Carolina primary because he is currently getting support from nearly seven out of ten African-American voters to Hillary’s anemic 16% and Edwards’ 6%. Are they too bigoted to vote for white candidates?
All this apparenly has lead black women to quite a quandry… Do they trust the prejudice telling them to vote against a man or against a white?
I hope you’re picking up on my sarcasm. This is not bigotry, but a natural human tendency. Though the Democrats are increasinly voting by race and gender, at least Republicans are still judging candidates by character and values rather than immutable genetic traits.
Huckabee earned my vote because he was the only candidate that is trustworthy on right-to-life and traditional-family issues, not because of some anti-Mormon “bigotry.” And any “analyst” who thinks he or she knows my thoughts and motivations better than I do is simply full of crap…
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“Romney won the Nevada Caucuses based largely on his support from Mormons in the state”
Romney won Nevada by securing 51% of the vote to McCain’s 14%. So take away the “half” of Romney’s votes that came from Mormons, and you still have Romney at 26%, still nearly double the nearest competitor.
The race-gender split in the Democrat party is completely at Hillary’s deliberate instigation; she is counting on white/Hispanic backlash to carry the day on her behalf. If the GOP had done this, there would be riots in the streets.
However, the number of Evangelicals voting for Huckabee, despite disagreeing with much of his record, shows others can be guilty of identity politics as well. Myself, my family has historical Mormon roots; however, our famil strongly rejected Mormonism two generations ago and today. However, I’ll be casting my vote (reluctantly as a FredHead) for Mitt based on policy.
If Mitt would be nominated and the shadow campaign against his religion start up (as it surely would), Mitt would need to bring it out in the open and ask Harry Reid what he thinks on whether a Mormon is qualified to serve.
“Mike O,” Identity politics, yes (though I still think most people considered his record on life and family issues above his faith)… that does not equate to bigotry though. That’s my point.