Here’s the most excellent thing I’ve seen on the Herald’s website in quite some time – from Kim Atkins, of course.
You can’t choose your family
But you can forget they were a part of American society. In urging the legislature to put a ballot question to ban gay marriage to voters, Gov. Mitt Romney said yesterday that marriage between one man and one woman is the foundation upon which all civilized society, in America and elsewhere, is based:
âThe ideal setting of society overall, is a setting where thereâs a mother and a father. And society therefore, every society that I know of in the history of the earth, has said the right kind of setting that we are encouraging (is marriage between) a mother and a father.â
Perhaps Romney forgot about his great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, who had five wives. Romneyâs father, former Michigan Governor George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Miles Park Romney, his grandfather, settled after fleeing the United States when polygamy was banned by Congress. The family later resettled in Utah.
I have nothing to add. Well said, Kim.
According to Atkins’ own account, Great-Grandaddy Romney was indeed not “part of American society:” he lived in Mexico. So I suppose Willard hasn’t forgotten anything. But maybe that is a quibble. In any event, is is surprising that at this point he will say anything to try to get himself elected President? His office must be in a fever of excitement as they manage a hectic travel schedule, convince themselves that the polls look promising, and raise money. Voters, however, will figure out that our Governor has embraced the Idol of Expediency and is saying whatever he thinks sounds best on every wedge issue that pops up from marriage to abortion to global warming. It is not a winning long-term strategy.
Miles Park Romney did live in America, until anti-polygamy laws forced him to move. Furthermore, Romney’s words are “every society that I know of in the history of the earth, has said the right kind of setting that we are encouraging (is marriage between) a mother and a father.” No limitation to the US there – every society in the history of the earth, except of course for my own religion and my own family. Good Lord, what a hypocrite.
The Mormons actually left the US when they moved to what became the state of Utah: that territory was part of Mexico when they made their trek west (although you wouldn’t know it from the State of Utah’s history of the trek). The founding Mormons were all, in this sense, Mexican immigrants.
What a perfect takedown of Mitt – polygamy, insincerity, with a twist of immigration inconsistency. That’s a tough cocktail to drink.
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Atkins also skewered Deval when he claimed he sent his kids to private schools so they wouldn’t be only “black kids in the classroom.” Atkins’ analysis: Deval pulled his kids from Milton, about 20% black, and sent to prep schools which were 10% black. His true reason, she surmised, was that, like her parents, he and his wife simply thought Milton schools were bad – but didn’t want to say so.
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She also noted that Gabs paid 82k for signature gathering thus far…and that Deval effectively parried Tom R’s Taj Mahal crack so far as the debate audience was concerned.
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Good eye.
what the elder Romney had to do to become a US citizen….born in Mexico……………hmmmm
A very interesting question, especially considering that George Romney was in the running for US President in 1968. Wouldn’t he have been excluded from that if he were born in Mexico if his grandparents had renounced their citizenship?
Didn’t even a polygamous family have a father married to a mother?
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BTW – what was YOUR great-grandfather up to?
They’ve all had mothers, that’s one thing everyone can probably agree about.
hypocrite and a failure. Given the last six years, I think he’d make a fine President.