The good thing about Romney’s pandering “faith” speech
The good thing is that it seems to represent the very highest point of the GOP’s pendulum swing toward the empowerment of idiots. Just listen to Peggy Noonan.
There was one significant mistake in the speech. I do not know why Romney did not include nonbelievers in his moving portrait of the great American family. We were founded by believing Christians, but soon enough Jeremiah Johnson, and the old proud agnostic mountain men, and the village atheist, and the Brahmin doubter, were there, and they too are part of us, part of this wonderful thing we have. Why did Mr. Romney not do the obvious thing and include them? My guess: It would have been reported, and some idiots would have seen it and been offended that this Romney character likes to laud atheists. And he would have lost the idiot vote.
My feeling is we’ve bowed too far to the idiots. – WSJ via Firedoglake
This is good news for America. the GOP is awake to the fact that they’ve given too much power to idiots. Horray! 15 years too late but I’ll take it.
Unfortunately this revelation comes from Peggy Noonan, who came in with Reagan and has not in the past decade been in touch with the “mainstream” of the new GOP fusion between social conservatives and libertarian conservatives.
The rest of the GOP remains as morally myopic as the Democratic wing of the Demopublican Party remains remains morally relativistic.
Kip caught it way before Peggy Noonan..
Peggy Noonan calling out anybody as an idiot is abit rich, you know?
Multiple-choice Mitt’s speech, though, is a wonderment of dog-whistle politics — aimed quite precisely at the type of religious folks (GOP base) who wear their so-called religiousity in about the same way hip-hop artists wear their bling. The semiotics are the only thing at stake.
Jason,
I did not see Romnay’s speech live but only heard clips from a news service. My opinion may not be terribly informed as the speech goes.
I was unmoved. For the most part I don’t care about a person’s faith whether they have one or not. Mostly, I want to know if they share my values. If they act on those values through faith then I see that as a positive.
Plenty of folks claim a faith but don’t live it. Mr. Romney does live his faith and I applaud him for that fact but his opportunistic changes in values is my concern.
Here’s the thing about Noonan. I agree she is a moron, but why I think she’s a moron is different from why some R’s do. She is really a Reagan person. For all of the Reangan love that was going on earlier in this campaign, there isn’t anyone that fits the Reagan model. Certainly it isn’t the Rominator 3000.
The dog-whistle comment is a good one. He purposely left non-theists out of this to kiss religious ass. Reagan had dog-whistle speeches (probably written by Noonan) but his issue wasn’t religion. I suspect he would be disappointed in the way that religion (esp. Evangelicals) have hijacked the Republican party on a national level.
I do consider us lucky in Delaware that that influence hasn’t been the dominant issue with most of our Republican friends (FSP, Smitty, Protack, Nixon…not necessarily in that order).
Romney’s atatement “Freedom requires religion” is malignantly un-American. He knows he is losing and is making a Hail Mary pass (pun intended) for the American Taliban vote.
I do consider us lucky in Delaware that that influence hasn’t been the dominant issue with most of our Republican friends
No shortage of idiots, though.
I love anything these Huckabee/Romney second coming wannabees do to endear themselves to the retreating, paranoid zealot core of the National GOP. If either Huckabee or Romney get the nod, the Dems can run Mickey Mouse and win.
Freedom requires a ham sandwich.
Fuck Mitt, and fuck his cult.
VC