tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7592841981416728347.post2399347965725296894..comments2023-05-25T03:08:18.166-06:00Comments on Montana Headlines: Interesting stuff over at National ReviewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7592841981416728347.post-40139851171597814782007-12-16T20:28:00.000-07:002007-12-16T20:28:00.000-07:00Actually, any individual voter can ask any questio...Actually, any individual voter can ask any question he wants and place any "test" he wants onto any candidate when deciding how to vote.<BR/><BR/>Look at all of the stupid reasons that people give for voting for this or that candidate (or for voting against this or that candidate,) and that much is painfully clear.<BR/><BR/>A "religious test" would be something in the Constitution that says that a member of a certain religion cannot hold office (as was the case in Britain vis a vis Catholics for a long time.)<BR/><BR/>There is no law in America that prevents anyone from holding office on the basis of religion.<BR/><BR/>But there are Mormons who will vote for a Mormon candidate in preference to a non-Mormon candidate, there are evangelicals who will vote for someone who shares their faith over someone who doesn't, and there are those who dislike evangelicals or Mormons or both who will vote against a candidate just because they don't like their religiosity.<BR/><BR/>That's not a "religious test" in the Constitutional sense. It's just people exercising their right to vote for whomever they want, for whatever reason they choose, and under the right of the secret ballot, they aren't obligated to tell anyone who they voted for, or why.<BR/><BR/>It's not just the elder Romney. Mitt Romney is the 4th or 5th Mormon to run for President. What is different this time is that Romney the younger made a specific play for the religious conservative vote, and has used evangelical religious language in doing so.<BR/><BR/>He has clearly modeled his approach on that of George W. Bush -- the first Republican candidate to so explicitly play the religion card (Jimmy Carter did it on the Dem side in '76.) The difference was that Bush could invite evangelicals to dig as deeply as they liked into his religion -- Romney can't.<BR/><BR/>As my post makes clear, we were better off when religious expression in public life was kept on a generic level. Thompson, McCain, and Giuliani have all kept their pitch to religious voters on that level -- so no-one is questioning them on that.<BR/><BR/>Obama perhaps uses even more explicit religious language and imagery than any Republican -- he, too, will find that if he wants to play that card, the specifics of his religion are going to be scrutinized by those he is playing to.Montana Headlineshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16149094528547382638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7592841981416728347.post-85813660007938036532007-12-15T11:36:00.000-07:002007-12-15T11:36:00.000-07:00Neither question is acceptable under the constitui...Neither question is acceptable under the constituional prohibition against religious tests. <BR/><BR/>I don't recall anyone's undies in a bunch about George's religion--George Romney,that is.<BR/><BR/>What you see in the intervening decades is the establishmentarians from the christian right insinuating their religious tests into the election process. <BR/><BR/>Hence the interest in the younger Romney's religion. It's not coming from those who don't have religious tests; it's coming from those who do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com