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Re: Re: Re: How many people can I piss off today?

Posted By: Daniel Murphy
Date: Thursday, 26 April 2007, at 4:52 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Re: How many people can I piss off today? (Chuck Bower)

"No man complains of his neighbor for ill management of his affairs, for an error in sowing his land, or marrying his daughter, for consuming his substance in taverns ... in all these he has liberty; but if he does not frequent the church, or then conform in ceremonies, there is an immediate uproar," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1782.

Here we are 225 years later and the polls say most Americans would rather vote for a ... hell just about anybody even a Mormon than an atheist. Maybe. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fervently hopes that his prospective voters (read: evangelical Christians who might not be sure that about the Christian bonafides of Mormonism) will agree with him that "people, evangelical Christians and others ... very badly want a person of faith to lead the country. They don't care so much about the brand of faith as they do the values of the person."

"Most people in South Carolina want a person of faith as their leader," said Romney to a South Carolina audience. "But they don't care what brand of faith that is … I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe in God. I'm a person of faith and I believe that's the type of person Americans want."

Well, Mr. Romney, I think you are right that a lot of us don't care too much about "brands of faith." It'd be a cold day in hello before I voted for you but I'd be happy to put a checkmark next to the name of your fellow Mormon Harry Reid. I think you are right that most of us care about "values." But some of us also care about the fuzzy thinking that equates "having faith" with "having values" and suggests that any old faith or new faith is as good as any another ... just so long as Mr President Wannabe has one (it's about time we had an astrologer back in the White House eh, Nancy?).

Romney, whose great-grandfather had five wives, does have a sense of humor I'll give him credit for that. Slate.com reports: "'I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman … and a woman … and a woman,' Romney quipped at the 2005 St. Patrick's Day breakfast in Boston. He made the same joke on Don Imus' 2006 St. Patrick's Day show." Funny! I guess he won't be making the same joke on Don Imus' 2008 St. Patrick's Day show.

Maybe if Romney keeps saying the same thing over and over enough his evoterangelicals will be convinced. A Very Presidential Strategy. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda," said George Dubya a couple of years ago. Catapult the propaganda. Is that not a beat-all metaphor for the years of George W. "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator" Bush.?

Vote for me, says Romney -- I got faith! I'm a believer! Here's a value for Romney to consider. "Life is of no value but as it brings us gratifications. Among the most valuable of these is rational society. It informs the mind, sweetens the temper, cheers our spirits, and promotes health." So wrote Thomas Jefferson to James Madison in 1784. Those Founding Fathers of ours were some radical dudes for their times. And perhaps in these times too we could use a little radical behavior. "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." A prescient fellow, that Orwell.

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