Did I mention that religious bigotry I encounter in my daily life is usually found in the press - and on on the Internet on the Left? Attacks on Christians is the most common but Mormons are fair game.
The press corps following presidential candidate Mitt Romney frequently displayed anti-Mormon bigotry through the election season, according to fellow reporter and BuzzFeed Politics author McKay Coppins.Coppins, who is also a Mormon, offers several interesting bits of information and even makes Mitt out to be the John Kennedy of Mormonism; like Kennedy did for Catholics, Romney's candidacy brought his religion out from under the shadows of suspicion and into the mainstream in politics.Most importantly, the piece reveals the stark and casual anti-Mormon bigotry of fellow members of the Old Media establishment.Coppins recalls that other reporters following Romney constantly sniggered about his "Mormon underwear" and often made jokes about his religion in the privacy of the press plane or on their many bus trips.
I'm not Mormon, but the Mormons I have known are among the nicest, kindest, cleanest living people I know.
Here's part of the article by Coppins
On the night of the South Carolina Republican primary in January, I sat near the front of a dark campaign press bus and listened to reporters talk about Mitt Romney's underwear.Earlier in the day, one of them had happened upon the candidate and his wife doing laundry in the basement of our Columbia, South Carolina, hotel, and a small cluster of colleagues had now gathered to listen to him relate the anecdote, lapping up every mundane detail of this rare interaction with the closed-off couple.Finally, another reporter interrupted."Did you see their underwear?" she asked, grinning mischievously as though she had just said something naughty."What do you think it looks like?" inquired another."I think you can see pictures online," someone chimed in.The exchange prompted giggles from the group — some nervous, others indulgent — as I slid down in my seat and pretended to look at my phone, hoping it wouldn't occur to any of them I might be wearing the strange, exotic garment they were all gossiping about. It wasn't that their tone was antagonistic or insensitive; just uncontrollably curious — like virginal adolescents talking about sex during a sleepover. And as a lifelong Mormon, I had grown fairly used to hearing my religion talked about that way.
The press, ever ready to find fault with any politically incorrect phrase made or imagined by others, considers its perversions to be "the new normal," it's casual bigotry to be fully acceptable.
They manged to pull their candidate over the finish line one last time, and after this bruising battle they people they defeated are disorganized. But one thing this campaign has done is create a network of The Right that is more influential than ever, and more committed than ever. The political operatives for whom campaigns are not about ideas may be talking to each other and to cameras and microphones about how the Right needs to become more like the Left. They are totally missing the point. The future IS about ideology, now more than ever. And the alternative media - the largely volunteer media - is growing in power and reach while the MSM - totally dependent on shrinking revenue for its power - is dying a slow, agonizing death.
That talk of secession is symptomatic of a very deep gulf that this election represents. The Left is not talking about uniting the country. In past elections there has been talk on both sides of uniting to meet the challenges we face. Not this time. The first assembly that Obama faced were his partisans, a campaign rally in the White House. This election was an unarmed civil war and the winner is demanding unconditional surrender. "I won" is not the voice of someone who wants to get along in compromise. It's the phrase of someone who wants his boot on your neck. Here are the winners at the Virginian Pilot and their attitude toward their fellow citizens. Can you feel the love?
No comments:
Post a Comment