Comments on: Mormons, Romney, and the New York Times

By: Clair

Clair — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:58:47 +0000

About Utah politics:

At the Utah Republican state convention last week, Romney got 80% of the delegate votes in a straw poll.

Until a few years ago, 85% of Utah voters were unaffiliated. Party affiliation was not needed to vote in primary elections. It is now required, but about half of Utah voters remain unaffiliated.

Salt Lake City is heavily Democratic, but Salt Lake County is about evenly split.

Nebraska is also heavily red, as are most other inland states, even without Mormons. Mormonism, by itself, doesn’t explain Utah’s votes. In the 1970′s, the Democrats had a majority of Utah’s legislature and its Congressional delegation.

By: ed johnson

ed johnson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:31:27 +0000

Utah county went 86% for Bush in 2004 (vs. 12% for Kerry). It seems likely that over 90% of active Mormon voters in Utah county voted for Bush. That’s pretty one sided.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:15:18 +0000

Mitt, say goodbye international credibility.

International Mormons, say hello to a real disconnect with the perceived values of your American brethren.

By: Norbert

Norbert — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:06:31 +0000

Mark B –

He should have said that of course Jesus Christ would not return to the United States, because when Christ returns (or at some time before then), the U.S. will cease to exist as a political entity.

That would be hilarious. Of courser, he’d give that slightly panicked-looking smile he produced during the debates.

I didn’t know about the ‘double Guantanamo’ line until my neighbor, who works at Amnesty, approached me about it this week. Yikes. Mitt, say goodbye international credibility. (Does that really fly in the states? I’m really out of touch.)

By: cj douglass

cj douglass — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:32:21 +0000

All I know is every presidential election I’ve been alive for, the state of Utah is red. In addition, while serving a mission in the boon docks of southern Utah I heard on more than one occassion that registration in the Rep Party was a requirement for temple worthiness. Still, it was a good article that really pointed out the fine details of Romney and the Church. The part about him being more conservative than his church was my favorite.

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:36:32 +0000

As for the statistics about the voting registration–I’d be curious to find out how many are registered members of the Libertarian party, and other parties like whatever Bo Gritz’s party is. I imagine that there are a bunch of independent voters who always vote Republican too. And I’d bet that most of the Democrats are in SLC and Park City. In my little town, twenty – thirty years ago, when the election results were published in the paper there’s be about 120 votes. 4 would be for Democrats. We knew they were my mom, my dad, the guy who ran the little store, and my grandma. My grandpa always told her to vote Republican, but she would ignore him when she got into the booth. :)

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:38:50 +0000

He should have said that of course Jesus Christ would not return to the United States, because when Christ returns (or at some time before then), the U.S. will cease to exist as a political entity. And then he should have told Stephanopolous that, since the U.S. would have ceased to exist at that point, what difference did it make what a President believed about it.

By: J. Nelson-Seawright

J. Nelson-Seawright — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:20:19 +0000

Mahana, fair enough. But it’s not necessarily unfair to claim that we also follow Joseph Smith — and that’s clearly who Denton was talking about. Consider this additional quote:

In fact, in 1844, Smith announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency, advocating theocratic rule for the entire nation. Challenging the Whig and Democratic parties, he advocated what he called a “theo-democracy where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteous matters.”

It’s in context of that information that Denton asked the question I quoted above. I know this stuff is quite different from our modern experience — but that’s exactly why it’s an easy question for Romney to answer. And, hey, questions that rub us the wrong way but are based on clear, mainstream scholarly interpretations of Mormon history — like this one — are probably not something we should complain about too vociferously.

By: Ugly Mahana

Ugly Mahana — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:58:26 +0000

Ummm… Right now the prophet I follow is Gordon B. Hinckley. Does he believe in a theocratic nation state?

By: ronito

ronito — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:56:18 +0000

bbell,
I don’t know what the missionaries are hearing but I certainly am hearing a lot whenever I try to have missionary moments with Romney and Cheney combined. I’ve got a few gems. Here’s the most recent one:

“Wasn’t it the mormon guy on the debates the one who said he wanted to double guantanamo? And wasn’t it a university that is run by your church that gave Cheney a doctorate in civil service? No thanks, I’m not interested, I don’t want anything to do with that. Your church seems pretty bent on supporting torture.”

To which I should have replied, “No, it isn’t…unless you count the whole three hour block thing.”

In all honesty, Romney’s candidacy has been a trainwreck for me at least. So many people take his stance to be the church’s stance. The best thing I can say I’ve heard so far in my presence was a republican who was complaining about how much Romney has flip flopped on several issues and he said, “I’d expect a Mormon to be much more morally consistent.” That was a good thing.