This morning's "Not a JFK Speech" from Mitt Romney was all-out terrifying.
"Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom ... Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."
Let's be clear: Romney's speech was unlike JFK's in that while Kennedy sought to downplay his Catholicism by reinforcing this country's separation of church and state, Romney is saying that as long as he has faith there is an obvious place for him to lead the country. In other words, as long as he's a believer rather than a doubter or non-believer, he's fit to be president.
Really, think about that for a moment... "Freedom requires religion." JFK would be appalled. Here's an excerpt from Kennedy's 1960 speech addressing his then-controversial religion:
"I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."
With those words preceding him on the issue, Romney instead gave us an "at least I have faith" reasoning for why it's safe to vote for him. Not to attend church, which was once a plausible option for Americans, now equates terrorism. I'm sure this kind of appeal is good enough for the subset of voters and opinion-shapers who like to call themselves the "values voters." Me? My values are doing just fine without Mitt and his uber-political pandering.
|