Best hope for Iowa’s religious right is Mormon

By David Hudson

----

The conservative Republican approach to American politics is driven by the persuasion that everything wrong in America can be fixed at once if only the right ideologue can be found to mount the assault.

I know what it's like to be swooned by ideologues. The prospect for American rebirth dimmed during the Bush and Clinton eras, but when 1999 dawned, my hope rose as lots of conservative game-changers emerged to run for president, including Elizabeth Dole, Gary Bauer, Patrick Buchanan, Alan Keyes, and Dan Quayle. I hitched on to Quayle, thinking he was the most electable one in the group. He soon tanked.

Since then we've had a rightward Republican and a leftward Democrat in the White House but their impacts on the policies and superstructures of government have not been much different.

So it's not surprising this year that lots of die-hard conservatives have gone shopping for the truest, bluest conservative candidate they can find.

For a while, Michelle Bachman led the charge, but her tirade against ObamaCare has turned her into a one-hit wonder. I've turned her off.

Next up was Rick Perry. I left him mired in “oops”. Then Herman Cain came along peddling 9-9-9. I couldn't see buying anything from him, not even a hug.

Rick Santorum has never had his day in the sun but perhaps that will change if he can only find Ward and June Cleaver to endorse him.

So the choice for conservatives has come down to Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul.

I am in love with Paul because I have embraced the libertarian way of thinking and living. Nothing on earth is more invigorating than human freedom, and when it's applied to everything people thrive and whole nations flourish.

But Paul is not going to be the next president. America is far from ready for the full-blown liberty Paul talks about.

I also love Newt Gingrich, the best brawler in the country, with a warp-speed intellect that can confound a Democrat faster than you can make a strawberry smoothie.

Of course, Newt is intellectually pompous, inflated with his own self-worth, but he's also really angry, which is his appeal to me. I'm mad as hell about where this country is going.

But Newt can't attract moderates and independents who are chilled by his proclivity for academic grandiloquence.

And finally there's Mitt Romney. OMG - a Mormon! Rigid conservatives recoil at the thought we could have a “non-Christian” sitting in the Oval Office. Yes, he's been faithful to his marriage vows, he seems to be a good and decent man, he has lots of business savvy, and in my view has all the markings of a Christian, but he's a Mormon. I need a man who can get rid of the most socialist president we've had since LBJ. And Romney's the only one who can do that next November.

The religious right might think more of the chance to fight (Gingrich) than of the chance to win and govern (Romney). It doesn't make any sense unless you really believe the answer to America's problems is electing an ideologue with ideas most of the country will not support.

Romney is the only Republican candidate who can beat Barack Obama and keep this country from a fiscal and economic derailment. He has the demeanor and skill to work effectively with people from all walks of life. If Iowa's religious right can get past the infatuation of making another ideological statement (aka Mike Huckabee in 2004) and instead focus only on positioning the candidate best able to beat Obama, then maybe they'd start thanking God for Romney.

David Hudson, of Windsor Heights, is a former senior aide to Gov. Terry Branstad and was the director of Vice President Dan Quayle's Iowa campaign in 1999. This year, Branstad appointed Hudson, the father of a child with a brain injury, to the Iowa Mental Health and Disability Services Commission and the Mental Health Redesign Initiative. Comments: dsmboy@hotmail.com