This is a note about Milt Romney, Lawrence O'Donnell, Mormon-bashing and my father's broken nose.
I intend to vote for anyone nominated by the Democrats for president. I'm happy with all of the Democratic candidates, whom I consider a talented group.* The Republican field is something else, but at least four could arguably lead the country with vigor and competence, including, in particular, McCain, Romney, Huckabee, and Giuliani. I find Huckabee's populism surprisingly appealing, but his preacher routine creepy. Giuliani is the most scary of the bunch (do we really want a smarter version of Bush?), and unfortunately, all of the Republicans are expected to attack the right to a legal abortion. The only Republican I would consider voting for would be McCain, because he has been a good leader on issues such as campaign finance reform and torture, as he is in protecting consumers and taxpayers.
Early on, I was intrigued with Romney's campaign. By any objective evaluation, Romney was a good governor of Massachusetts, and is impressive in many other areas. But in running for president, he took a sharp turn to the right, and began giving these terrible stump speeches, designed to appeal the most narrow-minded, bigoted and stupid elements of the Republican primary voters. At the end of the day, however, the biggest hurdle he faces is the narrow-minded and bigotry of voters, when it comes to the Mormon religion.
I pretty much expected to see Romney have trouble with the Republican rank and file. I have been a bit disappointed to see the way some of the liberals have engaged in Mormon-bashing. Lawrence O'Donnel's "I don't hate Mormons. Some of my best friends are Mormons," post in the HuffPost was a gloves off rant against Mormons, that I found offensive, in a personal way.
My father was Mormon. I was raised in my mother's faith, as a Methodist. My mother disliked the Mormon faith as passionately as she loved my father, and I grew up knowing next to nothing about the Mormon religion. One day, as a child, I was ridiculing some literature I had found about the Mormon religion, to my father. He took me aside and told me that that every religion could be made to look ridiculous. He said that seemingly absurd doctrines and beliefs were not very important, and that one had to consider more generally the values that each religion espoused, and the way it comforted or improved the lives of its believers.
My father grew up in a small and poor ranching town during in the Depression. His mother was very poor, and she converted after being helped by Mormons. Growing up, he got into a number of fights, for simply being a Mormon. His broken nose was a reminder of this. He later worked his way through college, enlisted in World War II, where he served in the infantry, was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He went on to law school, and eventually helped found the city of Bellevue, Washington, where he was elected mayor, and later became a judge.
There are plenty of reasons to oppose Mitt Romney's candidacy. But his religion is not one of them. Would O'Donnell have opposed Mo Udall's candidacy on the same grounds? Should the Democrats dump Harry Reid?
My father was right. Every religion can look absurd, from the outside. A literal reading of the Bible gives a lot of room for ridicule, and even more so are the many highly visible spokespersons for the Christian religion (James Dobson, Pope Benedict XVI, Ann Coulter, etc). Are my children "Jewish" because their mother is Jewish? We are taught relentlessly to hate Islamic fundamentalists. There are plenty of wacky things to notice about many other religions, sects and philosophies.
I agree with O'Donnell that we need to acknowledge both freedoms "of" and "from" religion. For non-believers, it is a mystery why anyone would buy any of this hocus pocus, and it is an open question whether or not at any given moment religions have on balance promoted war or peace, love or hate. But for now, many people, including Romney, are not likely to abandon their religious beliefs, both because they sense something fundamentally wholesome and uplifting in the faith, and they love the community that shares the faith.
If the Democrats want to be a majority party, they should reject religious bigotry. Romney has said a lot of appalling things on the campaign trail. But no one should hold his religion against him.
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*With the exception of the former Senator from Alaska.