The French Revolution
Two elections ago, I was a part of “Evangelicals for Mitt” which dealt with the “religion issue” that came with promoting a Mormon candidate. We talked about how Christians could — in good conscience — support Gov. Romney, by dissecting every imaginable theological implication. We used the Bible. We used history. We prayed. We had discussions at church with people who thought we were theologically misguided for supporting Mitt over more evangelical options.
Back in the day when I was talking to southern evangelicals about whether they could support a Mormon candidate back in 2006, I never thought I’d see a day like this. In Slate, a Reihan Salam says that disgruntled Republicans should look to a third party to stop Trump. He writes:
In the new issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru argues that Trump’s conservative opponents must at least consider backing a third-party conservative. “[T]he most important reason to back a conservative third-party run is not to affect the outcome of the November elections,” writes Ponnuru. “It’s to demonstrate that conservatism stands for something better than Trump.” But who would be willing to take on the thankless task of mounting a third-party challenge? I am increasingly convinced that Mitt Romney, Trump’s most scathing Republican critic, is the man for that particular job.
Of course, rumors about this have been swirling ever since Mitt Romney made THIS SPEECH encouraging America to Dump Trump. The reason why Salam believes Romney is the right man for the job was what I found intriguing:
Then there is Romney’s potential appeal to devoutly religious voters. The GOP primaries have illustrated an underappreciated divide: Though Trump has fared well among voters who don’t go to church regularly, he has won relatively little support among those who do. It could be that more observant Christians see Trump’s professions of faith as insincere in light of the colorful life he’s led and that they recoil from his arrogance and chauvinism. Regardless of why these voters have rejected Trump so far, Romney’s squeaky-clean image may prove more appealing in a three-way race…. It is also easy to imagine Romney winning states in the mountain West and the Great Plains, which have thus far proven resistant to Trump’s charms.
Though Mitt ultimately didn’t prevail against Barack Obama, Salam points out that exit polls revealed he actually won 79 percent of the evangelical vote. That’s a higher percentage than John McCain received in 2008 and the same amount of support as George W. Bush in ’04.
Several years ago, I never would’ve imagined a political climate when Mitt Romney’s Mormon would be a selling point to evangelicals, but here we are.
It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out.
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