The Mormon case against Romney

I’m LDS, and I fully realize that the Mormon vote is going for Romney. He’s going to take Utah. And Arizona. Pardon me for not joining.

I know the thinking. When that LDS tag is attached, members of the Church all understand that the person is honest, loving, trustworthy, etc., and all the others are questionable. I don’t buy that. I’ve seen too much of life to just accept that premise without any question. The rough approximations of the assumption of the character of LDS people are true, but in specific instances, you can’t count on that as a perfectly reliable way to judge individuals.

Here’s what I’m getting at: The Romney campaign is fundamentally deceptive. And I think deep inside, most of the supporters know it. I heard a caller last night to the Mark Levin radio show who wanted to defend Romney. Mark gave him a few minutes to present his case to his audience, and as he spoke, Mark threw in questions to focus his comments and try to get down to the real reasons. When it was all boiled down, the caller realized Romney was a moderate, but felt that made him more electable. That was big reason #1. And big reason #2 was his business résumé.

If Romney were so honest, he would portray himself as a moderate. But he’s not. He’s trying to portray himself as the most conservative. We know that’s phony. How do you justify that, you character defenders of Romney? It’s a compromise of his ethics, and you know that.

So we see that Mitt Romney has figured out his line of attack against Rick Santorum. Santorum is a Washington insider and Romney is an outsider. So Romney is the anti-establishment guy who is going to come in to Washington and shake things up. Is that what we’re to understand?

Which is perplexing. Why then, is the Republican establishment rooting for Romney? Is the Republican establishment house divided against itself? Are they promoting their own undoing? Explain this to me, you Romney supporters. But you all know the answer. Romney is the establishment candidate who is trying to deceptively portray himself as the outsider.

It’s a character flaw. We can argue about how serious a character flaw it is. Maybe it’s not a fatal character flaw, but even you LDS people really know, deep down inside, that it’s a character flaw nonetheless. You know you would expect a higher level of integrity from the prophet. You have to know that.

Read my follow-up posting, Is Mitt Romney honest? An LDS perspective.

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