Road trip reveals divisions over Mitt Romney
While Democrats are bathing in glee about Mitt Romney’s remarks about the nearly half of all Americans who paid no income taxes in 2011, I have a cautionary tale to share with them.
I took a road trip this week with two close female friends. I adore them both because they are as rock solid and generous to the core as any two people could be. They have also been there for me in times of great need.
I value the friendships, too, because they offer me a glimpse into the kind of political thinking that is a world apart from my own. These women help me understand the worldviews that explain our divided nation.
My two friends never went beyond high school. I’m not even sure one of them completed high school. I have two graduate degrees. They have pink-collar jobs. I am lucky to write for a living. One is married to a construction worker. The other is divorced from a ne’er-do-well small businessman. My husband is a lawyer. They barely listen to the news and certainly are not circadian consumers of online journalism
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE and the nation’s major newspapers, as am I. They are bornand-raised Republicans and I am disillusioned by both parties. Lastly, they are evangelical Christians. I am not.
On our road trip, we discussed everything but politics, because we knew from past experience we would disagree on most, but not all, points. We finally reached that topic during the last hour of our journey.
Romney’s remarks about the “47 percent” of Americans who hadn’t paid income taxes— the correct figure is 46 percent—were captured in a video recorded in May that had just broken on the news Monday. I had been following the story closely and my friends had not yet heard about it.
When I asked the better raconteur of the two whom she plans to vote for, much to my surprise she said she was still undecided. I asked if Romney’s remarks would make a difference in her choice at the polls, and she said probably not.
A more significant issue, she explained, is that she does not view Romney as a Christian.
I recalled that earlier this year I wrote a column about a poll of evangelicals, many of whom said they would never vote for a Mormon. I remember all the coverage of that issue during the primary season. I also considered the fact that since Romney became the GOP nominee talk of his “religion problem” has dwindled to less than a whisper. It’s a factor Republicans want to evanesce and the factor Democrats keep forgetting.
I raise this in the context of our divided nation, because some liberals and progressives are thrilled about the potential impact of Romney’s remarks on his campaign. But in being thrilled, they fail to recognize how the other half will react.
This is similar to what happened when Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for a Senate seat representing Missouri, told an interviewer that women’s bodies were somehow programmed to shut down after “legitimate” rape and thereby could prevent conception. The whole world, it seemed, thought this would assure Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s re-election. But a Missouri political science professor interviewed on the radio said he believed few if any Akin supporters would be dissuaded by his comments and would vote for McCaskill. She is just too liberal for his Christian supporters. At best, the professor explained, a small percentage might decide not to cast a vote in the Senate race.
Similarly, Romney’s 47 percent remark may persuade a few undecided voters to vote for Obama. But Romney has much bigger problems in the eyes of voters who should be part of his base. And to understand that gives the observer much greater insight into what is likely to happen at the polls in November.