Freedom Needs Religion
posted by TheDon
Those were the words of Mitt Romney in his JFK speech this morning. His reasoning was that people are so corrupt, cruel and evil, that without religion, you can't trust them with liberty.

In Psych 101 they call that "projection".

I will take Romney at his word that the only thing standing between him and a 25-to-life sentence for strangling his wife with the severed arm of Tagg is his Mormon faith, but for most of us, it just doesn't work that way. This speech fit perfectly in the tradition of clueless bigots proudly giving speeches which they think cast them in a good light. (What? I called him articulate! It's a compliment to them!)

His exclusion of people without faith even surpasses W's speechwriters who have gone to great lengths to include the faithful and faithless, at least on paper. I can only assume that the evangelical focus groups who lump Mormons in with Satanists didn't appreciate being grouped with people like me.

There was a lot to dislike in the speech, and a whole lot of harmless, empty, patriotic rhetoric.

“A person should not be elected because of his faith, nor should he be rejected because of his faith.”

"His"? And I assume from the context that a lack of faith is... different?

“Nativity scenes and Menorahs should be welcome in our public places.”

Pentagrams? Upside-down crucifixes? Flying Spaghetti Monster monuments? I'm guessing that Mitt's tolerance for religion does have limits, and that's the point. He respects people of all faiths, as long as he gets to define what faith means, and they don't get chicken blood on him.

Speaking of the founding principles of this country, Mitt said, “They’re not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common. They are the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet and stand as a nation united.”

No mention of the faithless. None. Would this be a bad time to point out that the people who are killing each other in Iraq are quite religious, and full of faith? They are not killing despite their faith, but because of it. The leaders in this country who are quite content to kill indiscriminately in Iraq are equally faithful, although I suspect they kill for reasons completely unrelated to faith. Mitt, who thinks he knows who Jesus would bomb, and who would double GITMO also claims faith. Less religion, more liberty, please.

The real howler to me was the standard rightie construction on where liberty originates. “Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of god, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America’s sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world.”

Nice gift. When Mrs. TheDon gives me a gift, I normally don't have to go kill for it. Conversely, when I work my ass off, and spend thousands of dollars on something, I don't consider it a gift from anyone. Liberty is, and always has been, taken from the government by force, and guarded fiercely by people who want it badly enough.

So... nice speech, Mitt. There's not a chance that you convinced a single evangelical that you are a Christian, and there's no chance that they will come out and vote for you. They would rather vote for a corrupt autocrat who's on his third marriage, supports abortion rights and gun laws. At least he's Christian!