Have Mormons Checked Out of the Political Process?

by

On the very large sample size of my Facebook friends and my own personal feelings (so clearly, sound and publishable data), I’ve noticed that Mormons (read: my Facebook feed and myself. Except, I guess, not me at this moment.) are kind of quiet about the election this year. I’ve never seen it happen (on my Facebook feed).

I’m going to extrapolate from this great sample of data: I wonder if this silence has to do with the following.

This year we have a super rich guy with multiple marriages, multiple failed businesses, no government experience, no experience turning around a failed business, no (previously) conservative values, who is vulgar, rude, hates immigrants, hates women, speaks without learning, and is doted upon by the media (even when they are making fun of him its with a gentle glee that their (read: Democratic) nominee will surely beat this buffoon).

Mitt-MissMeYetOnce upon a time we had an amazing anti-Trump candidate (other than he was also rich, but only 1/18th as rich as Trump). But this candidate had this YUGE personal problem. He was a Mormon. And that just won’t do. The media, Republican establishment, and core Republican (conservative? evangelical? INSANE?) voters just could not allow a stand-up guy like this to be the nominee, unless of course it was against a sitting president, a set-up for failure.

This is what you have done to us media (Democrats?) and Republicans. But they haven’t just done it to Mormons. They’ve done it to America.

3 thoughts on “Have Mormons Checked Out of the Political Process?”

  1. This post pretty perfectly captures how I feel about this election as well. I don’t think I’ve ever paid this little attention to a presidential primary in my adult life, and I still feel like I know too much.

    Here are a couple of other articles that show how bad things have gotten.

    First, here’s Andrew Sullivan citing Plato to explain how: Democracies end when they are too democratic, and right now, America is a breeding ground for tyranny. Sullivan doesn’t pull any punches, either:

    To call this fascism doesn’t do justice to fascism. Fascism had, in some measure, an ideology and occasional coherence that Trump utterly lacks.

    It’s a very, very long piece. But it’s worth your time. Here are some more quotes:

    And so those Democrats who are gleefully predicting a Clinton landslide in November need to both check their complacency and understand that the Trump question really isn’t a cause for partisan Schadenfreude anymore. It’s much more dangerous than that. Those still backing the demagogue of the left, Bernie Sanders, might want to reflect that their critique of Clinton’s experience and expertise — and their facile conflation of that with corruption — is only playing into Trump’s hands.

    And

    More to the point, those Republicans desperately trying to use the long-standing rules of their own nominating process to thwart this monster deserve our passionate support, not our disdain. This is not the moment to remind them that they partly brought this on themselves. This is a moment to offer solidarity, especially as the odds are increasingly stacked against them… And if they fail in Indiana or Cleveland, as they likely will, they need, quite simply, to disown their party’s candidate.

    I don’t agree with Sullivan’s suggestion (basically: campaign for Clinton), but I do agree with his #NeverTrump mentality. (I’m personally holding out for a third party to try and block Trump or Clinton from getting a majority in the EC.)

    And then there’s one other article: ‘Are They Going To Kill Me?:’ Trump Supporter Talks About Being Injured During Melee Word came today that Trump has topped Hillary for the first time in national poll, making me (and a lot of other folks) genuinely worried that he might have a shot of going all the way. And if he does? People who thought rioting, stomping on police cars, and physically assaulting Trump supporters were an effective way of stopping Trump are going to have to share the blame by playing right into his hands.

    The most important thing about Trump? It took all of us to make him. And it’s going to take all of us to stop him.

  2. I have been paying attention to this political cycle. Especially today, when I get to vote here in Indiana. I feel like Indiana will decide whether Trump pushes through or we have a brokered convention (something I fear, but not as much as I do having Trump as nominee). I also just read Andrew Sullivan’s post. I don’t usually pay attention to him and his form of liberalism, but I have thought for months the same things. However, I’ve compared Trump to Napoleon, after the mob rule of the Jacobins led from anarchy to tyranny (and even after Waterloo, the French still loved Napoleon!). This will decide whether I remain a Republican or not.

  3. As a Mormon myself, it’s my belief that the people who ran the Romney campaign were incompetent. I could site many examples. This is one of many reasons he lost the election.

Comments are closed.