mo votes

[WARNING: The following is a rant. It is in no way meant as an indictment of a whole religeon. It's a rant. If you want to have a serious discussion regarding the virtues of any particular belief system, I'm your man, I'll argue till the Jesus comes home...so to speak. But this is a rant. Deal with it.]



90%


Mit Romney got 90% of the votes in the republican primary here in Utah. 90%.

That's more than he won anywhere else, by far.

Perhaps it's because the republican voters in Utah, in their infinite conservative wisdom, saw something in Mit that few voters elsewhere saw. Perhaps Utahns are the most convinced that Mit's flip-flopping from the positions he held as governor of Massachusets to the much more conservative positions he claims to hold now, as a candidate reaching for the republican nomination, are sincere, and he's not just pandering...saying what it takes to get to the base. Perhaps Utahns see Mit's success with the Olympics here in 2002 as translating somehow to success as the most powerful executive in the world. Perhaps Utahns just like a nice haircut.

I don't think so. I think Mit wins Utah because Mit's Mormon. Hands down. No questions asked. It's just assumed and it just plays out. Not being mormon myself, I hve no idea if they are really, as rumor has it, told or at least hinted strongly from the LDS equivelant to a pulpit, who to vote for. All I know is from my experience (not in this election, 2006) twice as a poll manager for both a primary election and general election, I heard repeatedly in my polling place comments such as, "who did Bishop [so and so] say we should vote for, again?" I'm not making this up, either. I wish I was.

Now, the biggest problem I have with this is not, as you may be thinking, something against the LDS church...not any more than I have with any organized religion. If people want to believe stupid things to make them feel better about thier lives by holding to an illusion that so what if this life sucks, it'll all be better after I die...so be it. But I digress...

My biggest problem with this is the blatent hipocracy. You have no idea how many letters to the editor I've read, how many conversations I've had and overheard in which the main point is how unfair it is to hold being a mormon against poor Mit. How a person's religeon shouldn't play into your thinking at all when it comes to elections. How he won't be controlled or influence by the "Prophet" or the "Quarum of Twelve".

Well, it only works if it works both ways. And the lock-step, non-thinking, follow the leader voting patterns that I see here in Utah (not just with this primary, but with this whole fucking excuse of a theocracy masked as democracy we call the Utah legislature) doesn't speak well for independence from the "church." If 90% of republican Utahs think the same way, I don't hold much hope that ol' Mit will be in that other 10%. The odds are just against it.


Now, I know that I've oversimplifies this. I know that I've posted no facts regarding the percentage of voters identified as mormon, etc. And I know that there are plenty of mormons out there that don't follow the stereotype. I know this because I know them. But 90%, really? I just can't see a more reasonable explaination.

Flame away.