The Game Changer?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Well, it looks like Mitt Romney has been playing the "Selective Family Album" game and kinda/sorta/oppsies forgot to tell everyone he is 1/4 Mexican.

And just did why did Mitt's father flee Mexico for the safety of the US?

In his public life Mitt Romney has said and written little about his ancestors' history in Mexico.  In one oft-repeated quote he said his family left the U.S. for Mexico to escape persecution for their religious beliefs.

In fact, Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, led that first expedition to escape not persecution but prosecution for polygamy, or what Mormons called ‘plural marriage.’

Well, this is rather awkward, from a race standpoint. So we have the Southern US. There is a strong showing of rather simple minded voters who are Crusading Voters for Christ and All Other Things White™.

Who they going to vote for. Mitt the Mex? Barrak the Magic Negro?

Or maybe that white guy Gary Johnson, the only real social liberal/fiscal conservative in the race.

God DAMN I love Southern Idiocracy.

Question: Game changer? If Mitt embraces his SOTB roots, will this swing brown skins to his camp? WILL ANYONE DEMAND TO SEE HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE?

ETA: This just in! Cain demands to know more about this polygamy thing!

Comments

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I dunno, he looks white and that might be enough.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

maybe in an Antonio Banderas kind of way...

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

not nearly hot enough.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

LOL Do we have Newt to thank for this new controversy?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I bet Limbaugh is slamming shots of Old Crow about now.

What a mess for them!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Man, that entire article pisses me off. First, this came up in 2008 (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=frwiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1rUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1457,6030085&dq=romney+mexico&hl=en) when examining his Mormon roots (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254362,00.html). This treats it as some sort of news, and I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that NBC is demagoguing the issue, the really offensive part is here:

In his public life Mitt Romney has said and written little about his ancestors' history in Mexico. In one oft-repeated quote he said his family left the U.S. for Mexico to escape persecution for their religious beliefs.

In fact, Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, led that first expedition to escape not persecution but prosecution for polygamy, or what Mormons called ‘plural marriage.'

While those who treat gay marriage as a top issue shouldn't be silent about this, the editorializing here that somehow the Mormons should have been ashamed about their points of view on plural marriage/polygamy and the implication that they somehow earned the "persecution" because it was actually "prosecution"...ugh.

The reality is that the American treatment of Mormons is among the worst treatment of religion this nation has seen. It's doubly shameful considering our founding, and to treat Romney's family fleeing as some sort of cowardly act of sin is really appalling to me. I mean, for god's sake, a governor actually filed an extermination order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44) to try and drive the Mormons out of Missouri, if not worse.

I'm no fan of Romney, but the fact that this sort of religious bigotry is tolerable really frustrates me. Gotta be afraid them scary Mormons will marry TWO of yer daughters, right? Those who this tripe is directed to will appreciate the fact that his family was escaping religious persecution, not be horrified by the fact that he's "a fourth Mexican" = i.e., his father was born in Mexico because the United States forced his family out due to his beliefs.

Geez.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

So, I took the report not with disgust but with a deal of incredulous and some humor.

My first thought was "Where are the birthers?"

Obama's Romney's dad was a foreign national

Obama's Romney's mom was born in the US

Obama's Romney himself was born in the US


on top of THAT, I want to see how people react to this, as Romney
is essentially saying

"Hey Hispanic vote! I'm trying to lead the party that's been campaigning on building
a wall between our countries. Furthermore MY family fled into YOUR country
to escape conditions but we don't want *you* to do the same"

It should be interesting to see if this will work for or against Romney...

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

""Hey Hispanic vote! I'm trying to lead the party that's been campaigning on building
a wall between our countries"

If they are voting, wouldn't the U.S. be their country?

[politikitty.livejournal.com]

Im really nervous about Romney making it to the general. It will be a test balloon about whether we liberals support civil liberties because they matter, or instead as Johnson said, because black voters will vote Democratic for the next five generations.

I know there are liberals who think you should use any political weakness available. But if we're willing to throw the political progress of electing JFK under the bus, we're doing it wrong.

(and being a quarter Hispanic, that opinion regarding immigration is very common. Despite a long Democratic history, theyre a pretty conservative demographic So it won't hurt even if it's hypocritical. Especially since he doesn't need to make significant inroads into the Hispanic community.)

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

I agreed wholeheartedly with badlydrawnjeff above and think this focus on Romney's religious beliefs is despicable. Romney is, in his way, like Kennedy in 1960: a majority of Americans are misinformed about and mistrustful, if not outright hostile, towards his religion. In order to get enough votes to win, Kennedy had to pander to various Protestant groups and swear up and down that he wouldn't be taking orders from Rome if elected (a ridiculous assumption, as any Catholic then or now could tell you). Romney on the other hand has had to try his hardest to gloss over the differences between the LDS and contemporary evangelical Protestantism and fit his religious beliefs inside a generalized happy Religious Right vibe.

The way Mormons have been treated in this country, historically, is shameful. As much as we Catholics complain about anti-Catholicism in America, some of which continues to this day, at least the president never sent the U.S. Army to force us to conform to Protestant norms. Articles like this are especially disturbing, considering how much Evangelical America has molded itself around the semi-mythological image of poor, oppressed Puritans forced to flee England for new shores because of religious persecution. The Puritans were heroes of freedom and religious liberty who came to America to establish a place where people could worship God as they pleased (provided they wanted to worship a strictly Puritan God). But Catholics fleeing persecution in Ireland, Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, and Mormons fleeing persecution right here in the United States? Buncha riff-raff traitors and scofflaws.

Whether Romney ends up more like Kennedy in 1960 or Al Smith in 1928 remains to be seen. I've noticed that people on both the right (http://townhall.com/columnists/janetmefferd/2011/10/10/in_defense_of_robert_jeffress_mormonism_is_not_christianity/page/full/) and left (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/is_mormonism_a_cult_who_cares_it_s_their_weird_and_sinister_beli.html) have been criticizing and ridiculing Romney's Mormon faith, and it's just plain disgusting. A lot of Republicans here in the South will not vote for Romney, no matter what; they would rather have Obama win a second term than elect a Mormon.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

. . . a majority of Americans are misinformed about and mistrustful, if not outright hostile, towards his religion.

I dream of the day when I can proudly use a modified version of that quote of yours. It should read, "A majority of Americans mistrustful, if not outright hostile, towards religion."

Romney's plight would not be, therefore, one of distrusted because of his religion, but because he openly declares he has one.

Off topic, I know. Carry on.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Well, I dream of a day when all Americans will be respectful and civil towards the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of their fellow citizens.

Judging from comments like this, religious fundamentalists and intolerant atheists both will continue to push that day farther and farther away.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

His religion should have no bearing on how well he will do his job in public office.

SO WHY THE FUCK DOES EVERY POLITICIAN SMEAR JESUS BLOOD ALL OVER THEIR FACES AS THE REASON TO VOTE FOR THEM??

[taiki.livejournal.com]

I agree, but if he's 1/4th mexican... His stance on immigration becomes a BIG deal.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

Yup.

It would be interesting to hear Romney explain how HIS family sought refuge
in Mexico to escape conditions here but he doesn't want people
seeking refuge here.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Has there been any complaints about too many people escaping religious persecution or something?

euqal opportunity

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that people on both the right and left have been criticizing and ridiculing Romney's Mormon faith,

To be fair, I ridicule every candidates religious faith.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

As it should be ;)

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Or maybe that white guy Gary Johnson, the only real social liberal/fiscal conservative in the race.

Given the tennor of your post, and I am in complete agreement with badlydrawnjeff on this subject, I will probably regret asking, but where do you get the idea that Gary Johnson is the "only real social liberal/fiscal conservative in the race?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

but where do you get the idea that Gary Johnson is the "only real social liberal/fiscal conservative in the race?

"race" as in the November Ballot Race. We know Johnson is there and Obama is.

Who else ya got?

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

How does that saying go - "Don't condemn the son for the sins of the father."?

So what if Romney's father was a supposed polygamist? Mitt isn't and he's the one running for public office. Getting bent out of shape over this is as ridiculous as when people publicly condemned Sarah Palin for her daughter's pregnancy.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm....

When people were false accusing Obama's father of being a Socialist, that was enough to argue made HIM a Socialist. Or that he once met a socialist in Hawaii, that made him a Socialist.

NOW, all of a sudden it's "Hey... that guy's not the one running for public office"
and "getting bent out of shape over this is ridiculous..."


MY GOODNESS how the argument changes doesn't it?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

To me, his sin was being ashamed of his Paternal heritage.

He certainly didn't embrace it, yo!

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

There's conservatives busy eating their own when they don't have any handy liberals to pull that on. I don't care about his family history or Sacred Undergarment-wearing religion but then I wouldn't vote for him anyway.

My issue with Romney is not knowing or trusting his position on almost every issue.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

My issue with Romney is not knowing or trusting his position on almost every issue.

Yup on this. Stewart pointed out that during one of the debates, Perry called him out for hiring undocumented workers. Romney explained the lawn contractor thing, how his contractor hired them indirectly, and how Romney fired the contractor as a result. His reason? He said, "I'm running for office."

Not "hiring undocumented workers is illegal." Not "you should personally be ashamed of taking advantage of these men." Not any reason but that he, Mitt Romney, was the only person worthy of consideration because he was running for office.

Jon Stewart said it was like the mask dropped just a little, and for a moment we could see the real Romney. Everything else seems just a calculated facade.