Bottom Line:
Soon the media is going to tell you, traditional Christian, that you are voting for Romney because you are too stupid not to do so . . . just as one month ago they were implying that you were too big of a bigot to vote for Romney.
The Old Story:
The major media has spent months talking about how traditional Christians (but not of course them!) will not vote for a Mormon for President (shocking). Of course, they would not bring it up at all (the fact that Mitt Romney is a Mormon) if it were not an issue to traditional Christians (that Mitt Romney is Mormon).
The wonderful thing about this media meme (that Mitt Romney is a Mormon) is that the stories just write themselves! Throw in a little Joseph Smith here, a dash of “unnamed Evangelical leader” quoted here, and you have a story: “Mitt Romney, Known Mormon, and the Religion Right!”
The Problem with the Old Story:
Now it appears that Mitt Romney is leading in Iowa. Ah but there is the rub to this happy media holiday, Iowa is not just any state, it is a place where traditional Christians have real caucus going clout. Traditional Christians don’t seem to be buying the fact that “unnamed sources” amongst them know they will not vote for a non-traditional religious candidate.
Bluntly most of the bigotry is coming from the hard-secular left which dislikes any person who takes their faith more seriously than an American Episcopalian bishop takes the Creed.
What is the major media to do?
A Lesson from Media History:
Following my experience during the fall of Soviet communism, I think we can predict. During that happy time, the same people who told us that “communism was here to stay,” that we would have to get used to it, and that the cowboy Reagan was going to start World War III announced with the fall of the Berlin Wall that they had always been anti-communist, but that the bad behavior of anti-communists on the right had forced them to silence this opposition.
So worried were they by film “blacklists” (dealing with actual Soviet infiltration of Hollywood) some of which harmed MOVIE CAREERS that they had to silence their other (sometimes equal!) worry about the gulag and the 22 million dead Russians. The vast right-wing conspiracy had made them look bad and by softening their ability to say bad words about the Soviets (because it might help those keeping a starlet out of a FILM!) had undoubtedly prolonged the life of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union’s continued existence had been the fault of (drum roll) anti-communists on the right.
Thus we know that the media will do the following:
When shown to be wrong, blame the people who were right for your error.
The New Romney Story (Press Macro Button and it Writes Itself):
Hugh Hewitt wrote a New York Times best selling book arguing that traditional Christians would vote for a Mormon. He and the Article VI lads have done great work explaining why this is possible to anyone who wants to listen.
They have rightly said that traditional Christians might not vote for Romney for political reasons, but will be open to his political pitch and not be closed minded due to his Mormonism. Romney may win or he may lose, but it will not be because traditional Christians were too bigoted to consider him.
Since this looks to be true (based on Iowa polling), the major media needs a new story:
“Leaders Whip Up Troops for Romney”
This story will present traditional Christians as “easily lead” in any direction like some army of orcs given marching orders by Sauron. The major media will find a meeting of “influential Evangelical leaders” who met at such-and-such date whose members now appear to be backing (even silently!) a Romney candidacy. A hitherto unheard of Evangelical will be quoted as “worried” by this development. A critic of the religious right will be saddened by this development, “I knew they had dumb ideas, but I though they believed them.”
Voting for Romney will be described as “pragmatism” and the new M-word would be Machiavellian if the major media types knew this word or Katie Couric could be trust to read it on a teleprompter. Mormon money (!) will be implicated by indirect means in the story.
Bottom Line of the New Major Media Story:
The major media was not wrong that traditional Christians are bigots . . . they just did not realize that the bigot leaders would pull a fast one on the media and order their voters to betray bigotry for political power.
This hitherto unnoticed corruption will be announced as the end of the political power of the religious right.
Best News for Major Media:
This story once developed is good for the rest of the campaign. If traditional Christians decide on any other candidate, then one can return to the old bigot theme. (”Evangelicals, Stupid, but Not Too Stupid To Vote Their Prejudice Despite Leaders Pleas!”) If Romney wins, then traditional Christians (”Christianists”) may be bigots but they are just too stupid not to follow their leaders.
Now the major media does not have to rethink their secular paradigm having enriched it with a philosophically robust choice: bigot or stupid!