Pass The Accusation: A rebuttal of today's Washington Times hit job on Huckabee supporters

Do you want to play a game?

Here are the rules. Find somebody that you do not think is being honest with you about their opinions on issues that are really important to you. This person has to be somebody whose actions over the years has made you feel uneasy about either their judgment or their values. What's more, this has to be a person who you feel you're really being pressured to like - almost as if they were being "sold" to you. Then this person asks you to put them in charge of your future and the future of your children. You say no.

Oh - I forgot a very important point. This person whose values you are unsure of, whose actions over time make you doubtful and who you feel like you're being told to like, belongs to either another ethnic group, another religious group, or is of the opposite gender than you. And when you say that you won't put them in charge because of those reasons, their supporters accuse you of bigotry. And then it's somebody else's turn to be rejected and to accuse. I call this little game "Pass the accusation." We'll play it in a few minutes. It's not that much fun to play this game, but it is very educational.

But let's first have a little one on one talk ...

I am one of those Huckabee supporters who is an Evangelical Christian and who has a problem with the candidacy of Mitt Romney. But you need to know more.

A number of people in the media and in the LDS community are of the opinion that fact that many Huckabee supporters have a problem with Mitt Romney is a clear example of anti-Mormon bigotry. The Washington Times article "Evangelicals warn against McCain-Romney ticket" is the clearest evidence of this to date. In it, the writer makes the claim that "Mr. Huckabee's supporters tend to be 'rabid' in their views against Mr. Romney because of his faith." This unsupported claim has sent a devastating shockwave though the support communities of Hukabee and Romney alike. I don't believe that this is the case with most people who have a problem with Mitt Romney and I know it's not the case with me.

Let's make this personal for a moment. I know what it's like to have others form outrageous opinions of you on the simple basis of your demographic identity. I know what it's like to have to deal with stupid presumptions  - made by people who don't know you at all. I know this both from the perspective of racial prejudice as well as religious bigotry. It hurts. It's universally wrong. And I wouldn't do that to anybody else.

In fact, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When the 2008 election season began last year, I was seriously considering supporting Mitt Romney. Long after I knew he was of the Mormon faith. I never really cared. He was clearly a pretty smart guy. He had a nice presence and seemed self-deprecating in his humor. I had been of the impression that he held socially conservative views and - based on that belief - was impressed that he could win in a place like Massachusetts. He initially had a pretty good shot of getting my vote.

I remember hearing a talk show on a local news radio station one day during which the question of the hour was "would you be willing to vote for a Mormon?" I assumed that most callers would call in and reply "Yawn! Of course. Dumb question. Let's talk about the surge in Iraq." But a number of callers called in stating that they wouldn't ever vote for a Mormon. Which got me mad. I tried to call in but never got on. But I kept thinking to myself that because we're voting for the President of the United States and not choosing a personal church leader, that the whole question should have been irrelevant. It didn't seem right. I was angry about the tone of some of the callers.

Over the course of last year, though, I began to learn more about Romney and found myself less and less interested in him as a candidate the more I learned. But it had nothing to do with his religion. I learned how much he had shifted - more than once - on the issue of abortion, which is extremely important to me. And then learned that he had also been a supporter of gay marriage. I started to wonder if he really meant the things that he said on the stump. Then I really was turned off by the way he seemed to be aggressively attacking his rivals. First Giuliani, then Huckabee, then McCain. It was like whoever polled closest to him was going to go down. And then I picked up what seemed to be desperation on his part - as if "please like me" was written all over his face. It was Hillary-like. He gave me the strongest impression that he was willing to say whatever it was that I needed to hear in order to get my vote. Any level of trust I had ever had in his sincerity evaporated.

If my feelings toward Romney had turned negative, they only became worse the more I saw the conservative media bashing my favorite candidate and continually plugging him. I began to also distrust some of the conservative media, which seemed determined to push candidates whose positions on abortion were either ambiguous or liberal. And then I was amazed when statements he had made repeatedly - about him seeing his dad marching with MLK and him being endorsed by the NRA - turned out to not be true. I simply didn't trust him. At all. And the more I heard people in the media tell me that all of my instincts were wrong, the more determined I became that I would never vote for him.

I've never disliked people of the Mormon faith. I've never even known that much about the Mormon faith. I never was particularly concerned about Romney's religious affiliation. But I've always disliked people of all persuasions whom I thought were lying to me about who they were.

Okay, so I promised a game. Let's pretend that a Romney supporter, an Obama supporter, a Clinton supporter and a Huckabee supporter are all sitting in a circle. You're the Huckabee supporter and you have to explain why you don't like the candidate whose supporter is sitting next to you. You're up first.

You don't like Romney as a candidate. The reasons for your rejection of his candidacy have nothing to do with his religion. However, because there are some people in the country who disapprove of him because of his religion, his supporter sitting next to you calls you a bigot. Now it's his turn and he has to tell the Obama supporter sitting next to him why he won't support Obama.

The Romney supporter has what seems to him to be valid reasons to not support Obama. He doesn't think Obama is being honest about the issues that are important to him. He doesn't trust Obama's judgment and values because of his words and actions over the years. And he doesn't like the fact that it seems like the media is trying to force Obama on everyone. He politely explains to the Obama supporter why he could never vote for Obama. But the Obama supporter, aware that there are some people who won't vote for his candidate because of race, assumes that the opposition is because Obama is black. He supporter accuses the Romney supporter of being a racist. To him, it's an open and shut case.

Now the Obama supporter has to explain to the Clinton supporter sitting next to him why he won't support Clinton. He explains that he doesn't think she honestly cares about the issues that he's passionate about. He says that he doesn't trust her because of things that she's done over the years. And he doesn't like the fact that he's been feeling pressured to vote for her and that she was considered the "inevitable" candidate with deep establishment support. The Clinton supporter blasts him and accuses him of sexism. What other reason is there for him to be opposed to such a great candidate?

The Clinton supporter doesn't feel that Huckabee shares her values on issues that she cares about. She has been uncomfortable with some of the positions he's taken over the years. And she has been turned off by his constant media presence. The Huckabee supporter accuses her of being an anti-Christian who opposes people of faith.

And it goes on and on. This is obviously a game in which everybody loses. Because no matter what color, religion, or gender you are, other people may dislike or distrust you for reasons that have nothing to do with your ethnic, gender, or faith identity. And for every accusatory finger you point at somebody else, others can use the same logic to point one right back at you.

Prejudice is cruel. And there are prejudiced people who live in this world and in this country. There are people who would never vote for a person of the LDS faith. Or a black person. Or a woman. And, yes, there are people who would never vote for a self-proclaiming born-again Christian. None of it's fair. But it's out there. But I strongly believe that in this great country today, these people are in the minority. Most people of all persuasions are willing to be fair. And to make decisions about other people not because of what "groups" they belong to but because of what they do.

I wish I could give more comfort to those who believe that most people who have a problem with Romney oppose him because of his faith. I know that it's horrible to believe that people are opposed to you for reasons unrelated to your character. But I will offer them my strongest belief that for the most part, it's not true -  just like I don't think that most people who oppose Obama oppose him because he's black or that most people who opposed Hillary opposed her because of her gender. I think that most people make decisions about who they want to vote for because of what candidates do. There certainly are exceptions. But most people want this country's problems solved and don't care how the person who solves them identifies themselves.

I've learned to live with the fact that everybody who dislikes me doesn't dislike me because of the color of my skin. And that everybody hates being accused of things that they're not guilty of. And the fact that when people dislike an individual from our "group" it may for the same reasons that we dislike an individual from another "group." Honestly, we all need to learn to give each other a bit more credit.