Romney: Mormons and Evangelicals, unite!

The Democratic Strategist summarizes some of the post-speech commentary, with a particular nod to Ezra Klein at the American Prospect, who opined:

For those keeping track: Believers in "religious freedom" are now "people who have knelt in prayer to the Almighty." In other words, "religious freedom" is the "freedom to be religious." Those who are not religious, who do not want to see religion in the public square, do not have a friend in Mitt Romney. "They are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism," he says. "They are wrong."

What Romney's speech today seeks to do is construct a new "us versus them." Where Huckabee was having some success making the us equal "Christians" and the them equal "Mormons," Romney is making the us equal "believers" and the them equal "atheists." The bet is that voters hate "secularists" more than they're unsettled by Mormons, and that if Romney can set himself up as the foremost opponent of atheists in public life, that will be more important than precisely which version of Jesus he believes in, or how many planets he'll be given to rule after his death. It's a speech calling for tolerance, that hinges on a public display of intolerance. It's classic Romney, and totally disgusting.

This is clever strategy--by referring to a "common enemy" (secularism), Romney creates a linkage in identity between his own faith and the Christian right he's courting these days. People can stop asking questions about whether Mormonism is a cult and sigh to themselves, "Thank God he's a believer." Would they say the same if he were Muslim? We all know the answer to that.

Joe Conanson, over at Salon, attacks Romney--and Huckabee--head on:

Phonies like Huckabee and Romney complain constantly about the supposed religious intolerance of secular liberals. But the truth is that liberals -- including agnostics and atheists -- have long been far more tolerant of religious believers in office than the other way around. They helped elect a Southern Baptist named Jimmy Carter to the presidency in 1976, and today they support a Mormon named Harry Reid who is the Senate majority leader -- which makes him the highest-ranking Mormon officeholder in American history. Nobody in the Democratic Party has displayed the slightest prejudice about Reid's religion.

Liberals and progressives have no apologies to make, or at least no more than libertarians and conservatives do. Cherishing the freedoms protected by a secular society need not imply any disrespect for religion. But when candidates like Romney and Huckabee press the boundaries of the Constitution to promote themselves as candidates of faith, it is time to push back.