What's in a vote?

Well, the political season here in the good ole US of A is heating up... already.  Is it me or does this 'season' seem to be starting earlier and earlier every cycle?

While Sarah and I haven't yet recorded our next show, we've been kicking around some ideas and with the flurry of Presidential bids being announced, I thought I'd throw out my two cents and see what all of you out there are thinking… 

As you obviously gathered by the title of this posting and the graphic, I'm going to share some thoughts on the Presidential campaign of Mitt Romney (www.mittromney.com) which he announced today, February 13, 2007.  I don’t think it’s a big surprise that Mitt is LDS, right?  You knew that…  or did you?  I actually started writing this blog post prior to his formal announcement and speculated as to how (or if, for that matter) the media would make a big deal about his LDS faith.  Well, Mitt beat me to the posting and USA Today newspaper has already answered my question to some degree.  I’m actually writing this post from snowed in St. Louis… and wondering if I’m going to be able to get home to Cleveland tomorrow relatively on time - one can only hope!  This morning, I was very surprised to see a picture of Mitt and his Mormon faith on the cover page of the newspaper as I rolled out of bed and grabbed the paper that had been slid under my hotel door during the night. 

Now granted, I didn’t have any time today to watch the news on tv or gather any other sources, but that one event said to me that this will be 'an issue’ that will be discussed in the media.  Let’s face it, ‘news’ has become more about sensationalism than facts (at least in my opinion) and to that end, I’m fairly certain there will not be any shortage of ‘sensational’ stories should they decide to dig into Mitt’s family history and faith.  The big question is, how will Mitt address this and will this attention be a good thing or a bad thing for the LDS church?  How will exaggerations or misrepresentations be addressed by church leadership?  Should they be addressed by Church leadership?

Now, as a voter I’m going to share some thoughts with you in the hope of generating a good and open discussion on what’s in a vote.  As a general political philosophy, Sarah and I tend to side more often with Republicans than Democrats – So, I guess that makes us conservatives in nature and superseding all of that, we’re Catholics who make decisions based on principles.  No, we didn’t vote for John Kerry because he’s Catholic, actually, we didn’t vote for him at all.  In our opinion, he lacked personal ethics and consistency toward his faith given some of his political positions – not the lease of which is his stance on abortion!  I’m sorry, but I couldn’t buy the idea that I’m Catholic, but will choose to live my (political) life in a manner inconsistent with my Catholic faith.  You are the sum of all your parts – mind, body, history, faith, goals, blab la bla.  Are Sarah and I the only ones who see this as a MAJOR issue of personal integrity that should carry over to one’s political career?

OK, so now we have Mitt Romney in the race for the White House.  True that his values are much more in line with those of Sarah and I in terms of the value  of life, economic policy and the role of individuals verses ‘big government’.  Great.  But…  there is that religion issue.  Clearly Mitt would disagree with Sarah and I on the issue of who’s faith is established by God.  Technically, we don’t disagree a little – we disagree a lot!  Our faiths in the bluntest of terms are mutually exclusive – there is no shade of one in the other.  It’s either Catholic 100% right or LDS 100% right.  Either Our Lord’s Church has had an unbroken line of succession and the keys of God’s kingdom have been passed down through the Chair of Peter OR God took the keys away shortly after the death of the last of the twelve original Apostles and restored His Church through Joseph Smith…  black   or    white   …period. 

As a voter, I’m now presented with the question of how much I should value the personal religion of a political candidate.  True, I like what he stands for on the political issues.  I’m sure he’s a good, well intentioned, honest man.  I’m not questioning that at all.  However, after having studied and experienced the LDS religion, I have formed opinions which (if I am to be consistent in my overall principles for living my life in an integrated fashion with my religion) should also be considered with casting my support for one man.  Call it what you want, I’m not bashing on Mitt or the LDS religion, but I will probably be looking for another candidate to vote for during this election season should he get the Republican nomination.  I simply cannot bring myself to vote for a person who holds such different views of who God is and holds very different opinions on Christianity.

I suspect this will be a major MAJOR issue has his political opponents trickle information to the media.  It’s going to be interesting to see what the media picks up on and how he responds, but one thing is now clear to me – this will come up.

What are your thoughts – is this a big deal to you?  Do you think it will be a big deal in the media?  Do you think it’s even fair for us to consider the faith of a man when choosing a leader…