Romney's Mormon Campaign
Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 2:00 pm
I believe Mitt Romney has patterned his presidential campaign on the long-established patterns of LDS leadership.
1. Lying for the Lord
In LDS theology, even God lies to people sometimes, for their own good. (see: D&C explanation of what “eternal damnation” means) He certainly has told people to lie to others for the greater good. Of course, LDS leadership has followed that philosophy all along, from Smith’s lies about practicing polygamy down to the modern lies about LDS leadership involvement in fighting ERA. We are all familiar with Packer’s admonition that not all truth is helpful.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have lied repeatedly during their campaign. I believe Romney’s campaign will go down in history not due to the fact that he’s LDS, but due to the fact that he has lied so brazenly during his campaign. Paul Ryan’s VP speech in particular may go down in history as the acceptance speech containing the most, er, “factual errors”.
I suspect that Romney really does feel “called” to be president, and to save the country. His wife certainly thinks so, and I have no doubt he shares her views. So anything is justified to get into office, where he then can save us all.
2. Getting away with Lying for the Lord
One wonders how leaders can get away with such brazen lying. The answer lies in LDS history as well as George Orwell. If you can control information, you can control everything. LDS leadership have long persuaded their people that negative information obtained from sources outside trusted LDS sources ought not to be trusted. It’s “anti-mormon”, Satan-inspired, with the sole intent of destroying your faith. Don’t listen to them.
The modern republican party has developed a similar party-line. Don’t listen to the mainstream media. They’re liberals. They’re so biased against republicans they can’t be trusted. Listen only to us. Fox news. Rush Limbaugh. (and so on) I heard this demonstrated in perfect clarity in some “on-the-street” interviews with Romney supporters. Several of them offered the “fact” that Obama has removed the work requirement from welfare as a reason to support Romney. When the interviewing reporter offered the information that every fact-check organization has called this claim a “pants-on-fire” lie, the respondents simply asserted that you can’t trust fact-checkers. They’re liberal liars.
The sad part about all this is that it may well work. It’s worked to a certain extent for the LDS leadership, after all.
I'm sure it won't work on moderate republicans, or those who are a bit skeptical towards FOX et al. But it will work to fire up the base, just as it works to fire up the true believers. And Romney's recent race-baiting, which I believe is quite deliberate, will also work. It goes without saying that the LDS church has some history there, too.
1. Lying for the Lord
In LDS theology, even God lies to people sometimes, for their own good. (see: D&C explanation of what “eternal damnation” means) He certainly has told people to lie to others for the greater good. Of course, LDS leadership has followed that philosophy all along, from Smith’s lies about practicing polygamy down to the modern lies about LDS leadership involvement in fighting ERA. We are all familiar with Packer’s admonition that not all truth is helpful.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have lied repeatedly during their campaign. I believe Romney’s campaign will go down in history not due to the fact that he’s LDS, but due to the fact that he has lied so brazenly during his campaign. Paul Ryan’s VP speech in particular may go down in history as the acceptance speech containing the most, er, “factual errors”.
I suspect that Romney really does feel “called” to be president, and to save the country. His wife certainly thinks so, and I have no doubt he shares her views. So anything is justified to get into office, where he then can save us all.
2. Getting away with Lying for the Lord
One wonders how leaders can get away with such brazen lying. The answer lies in LDS history as well as George Orwell. If you can control information, you can control everything. LDS leadership have long persuaded their people that negative information obtained from sources outside trusted LDS sources ought not to be trusted. It’s “anti-mormon”, Satan-inspired, with the sole intent of destroying your faith. Don’t listen to them.
The modern republican party has developed a similar party-line. Don’t listen to the mainstream media. They’re liberals. They’re so biased against republicans they can’t be trusted. Listen only to us. Fox news. Rush Limbaugh. (and so on) I heard this demonstrated in perfect clarity in some “on-the-street” interviews with Romney supporters. Several of them offered the “fact” that Obama has removed the work requirement from welfare as a reason to support Romney. When the interviewing reporter offered the information that every fact-check organization has called this claim a “pants-on-fire” lie, the respondents simply asserted that you can’t trust fact-checkers. They’re liberal liars.
The sad part about all this is that it may well work. It’s worked to a certain extent for the LDS leadership, after all.
I'm sure it won't work on moderate republicans, or those who are a bit skeptical towards FOX et al. But it will work to fire up the base, just as it works to fire up the true believers. And Romney's recent race-baiting, which I believe is quite deliberate, will also work. It goes without saying that the LDS church has some history there, too.