I’m happy to report that the US federal gov’t isn’t in the business of “classifying Jews”, so I don’t think its an issue.
Who gives a shit? Unless you think that somehow Native Americans would be “reclassified” in such a way that they were denied the benefits or protections they normally receive, Romney’s personal opinion of their origins wouldn’t matter - and the idea that he’d mess with that is kind of absurd.
Barack Obama Sr. was a bigamist if not a polygamist - he did not tell President Obama’s mother that he still had a wife in Kenya. Also, President Obama’s half-brother Malik, a polygamist, just got married to his third wife.
This is not an issue that the Obama campaign is going to be bringing up.
I agree this is not going something the Obama campaign is going to bring up, although not because there is also polygamy among the family members Obama hardly ever saw: most people would see it as a distasteful attack on Romney over his religion, and the few people who might approve of that attack are people who wouldn’t vote for Obama in the first place.
Coach to Detroit, middle seat, sandwiched between Richard Dawkins and the resurrected corpse of Christopher Hitchens?
Native Americans? I think they prefer to be called Lamanite Americans.
Lamanites, eh? Anyone else get the feeling ol’ Joe glanced around the room and noticed the floorboards just before that name was “revealed” to him?
No offense to the OP, but it’s kind of a stupid question. Does anyone ask a Catholic candidate to renounce the Spanish Inquisition?
The analogy doesn’t hold. Here’s a better one:
A Catholic presidential candidate says that he supports pre-emptive war in order to combat evil. Someone asks him if he’s willing to condemn Jesus because of Matthew 5:39.
Or to ask Christian (or, for that matter, Jewish) candidates to renounce Biblical figures such as Abraham (fathered a child with his wife’s servant) or Jacob (had two wives simultaneously)?
Jesus. Wrong on taxes, wrong on defense, wrong for America.
No, of course not. Nobody expects that.
Well that’s a relief. But will Native Americans somehow get tangled up in US-Israel policy under a Romney administration? Would doing otherwise expose that Romney doesn’t really believe that Native Americans are Jews?
I give a shit. They’d be denied the ‘protections’ of not being identified as one of the most persecuted groups in history. Ok, nevermind… still, I don’t think the leader of the free world gets to put his ‘opinion’ ahead of reality. Why is his opinion so grossly wrong on such a simple and established fact? It raises the question, “What is Mitt Romney’s major malfunction?” I don’t know if ‘Mormon’ is the answer, and anyway that wouldn’t be a DQ, but neither will I accept the hand-waving away of questions by someone demonstrating an inability to reason from established A → B.
How much higher can the stakes be than the presidential election? Obama doesn’t display this weakness.
Their persecuted status has nothing to do with their origins, only with their treatment after 1492. So Romney’s opinion on Indians is irrelevant.
No. Why and how would they?
Do you think a Romney administration would eliminate Native Americans as a protected class or something? You haven’t explained this - nevermind explaining your view that it might happen. (It won’t.) The idea Native Americans are a lost tribe of Jews is absurd, but Romney isn’t going to rewrite government policy regarding Native Americans based on that belief.
I really don’t know how that would work. Frankly I do have some mild concerns about whether there are any policy implications to a Mormon president. When it gets down to business, will he base decisions on these beliefs or on established reality?
As far as specific examples, so far the Native American thing is the only one I come up with. I admit it is a pretty fuzzy scenario in which a decision is changed for the worse because Romney needs to appear to regard the natives as the lost tribe of Israel. I’d hate for anti-semites to start picking on Natives because of some false information from the POTUS. And I have some mild apprehension of a nastier surprise I can’t anticipate arising from basing decisions on Mormon beliefs I am not familiar with.
Overall I feel like Mormons (qua Mormons) don’t make a nuisance of themselves in the public realm in this way, but the guy is running for President, and the OP’s question gets right to it: are there situations in which Romney will have to choose between Mormonism and reality? So far this is all I got. You say he’ll stick with reality, but others say he’ll go to Mormon hell if he crosses the line. I know the Mormon community can be very hard on people who question the beliefs/leave the group. So how do we know what he’ll do?
Frankly I find it more worrisome that he is on the GOP ticket- we know he’ll adhere to a whole list of crazy bs because of that. But- besides ‘it won’t’, what do we have to go on to reassure us that Mormon beliefs won’t derail his decision making?
I don’t know why anyone thinks Romney would start legislating for Mormons. That kind of assumes he has a moral compass. If the campaign has taught us anything, it’s that he doesn’t. It’s very clear he will say anything and contradict and past statements he’s ever made for the sake of political expediency.
IMHO, for a Republican, that’s a good thing. He’d me a much less scary president than, say, Santorum.
Isn’t this a question that could be raised regarding any of a number of creeds along the whole religious spectrum? Catholics about reproductive rights/health; most forms of conservative Judeo/Christian/Islamic groups about gay rights; Christian Scientists about health care; Fundamentalists about nearly everything regarding education, science, gender issues; etc., etc.? It sort of harkens back to JFK having to loudly state that as POTUS he would decide according to the Constitution and laws, and to pursue the interests, of the USA and not be taking orders from the Vatican. Why was that even a question?
IMO the sort of person who would be trumped from fulfilling his duties according to the Laws of the Land, by fear of Hell or excommunication, WILL NOT seek the office under our current system. Too much sinning and compromising is required up front to even try.