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“I don’t care how moral or immoral our President is.”
“I’m not voting for someone because he’s a saint…I want someone who can run the country.”
“It’s the economy that’s most important now.”
For many voters, having a sound moral code and being “decent” is not important when considering who should be our next president.
While the arguments that “a president’s personal behavior is not incredibly important” is somewhat valid in some cases, in other cases the arguments are simply not valid at all, but rather reflect character traits that should give us pause. After Bill Clinton’s affair and the Monica Lewinsky scandal that followed, many people undoubtedly lost respect for the president and rightly so. They saw him as dishonest and disloyal to his wife and family. But his dalliances with other women reflected poor personal judgment rather than a trait that suggests a fatally flawed presidential
character.
Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has shown time and time again that his morality is suspect, especially for a man running for a major political position.
He claims that as a boy in high school he “did lots of stupid things”, and while one may call what he did stupid, they were also cruel and hateful.
The bullying incident that’s been in the news recently, which he and a few of his friend held down a boy and cut of his hair because the boy was thought to be gay—is probably the best example of his intolerance of human differences.
While some people think everyone should get a free pass for behaviors in high school, this incident reveals a huge personality
flaw.
In fact what Romney did to this teenage boy could be considered a hate crime. It also sends a message to all members of the LGBT community—that they can be targets for abuse, and that the abuser can be unpunished and, indeed, become a candidate for political office.
Gays and lesbians have higher rates of depression, suicidal thoughts and other emotional problems than their straight counterparts. More than 70 percent of lesbians and 60 percent of gays have sought or considered mental health counseling.
Discriminatory messages communicated through incidents like Romney’s reinforces prejudice and hatred that can hinder men and women from coming out, being accepted and feeling comfortable and confident in their own
skin.
Romney’s actions against a harmless high school student are not humorous in the least bit, but crude and cruel. Here, morality matters.
After the event had been publicized and Romney had been questioned, he conveniently “forgot” what had happened, saying that he did a lot of stupid things in high school. Others who participated in the bullying came forward and confessed shame for their actions. Romney, on the other hand, is entirely unapologetic.
According to studies on people’s personalities, by the time most people are in the first grade, their personalities are largely fixed. It follows across time and context.
Romney’s intolerant mindset in high school towards people he finds unworthy or threatening is who he is today. And who he is today is someone not worthy of the office of president of the United
States.
A version of this article appeared in the Jul 26 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Oh my, this is shocking.
"has shown time and time again that his morality is suspect"
-This is a particularly incredulous statement because you claim time and time again, yet the whole article is based on one example.
"According to studies on people’s personalities"
-A tip on writing: when claiming something such as this, it helps to cite the "study", or in this case studies, so that it actually seems legitimate.
Stylistically, there are so many issues, but perhaps your misuse of "fatally flawed" sums up more than just Mitt Romney.
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His belief in a prophet with magic plates (mysteriously missing!) that can interpret them with a magic hat is enough for me. Magic plates with a magic hat, good stuff!
Now, if only his tax returns would magically appear.
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Don't forget the magic underwear!
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another partisan hack writes again!
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Mormonism is blasphemy to God, it perverts the teaching of Jesus Christ. Romney is no better than the Samaritans that thought it was okay to use golden idols to worship God. God has shown us the way to Him and Mormonism flies in the face of that. Can we really be surprised then that he has morality issues, as humans we all suffer temptations but I couldn't imagine going through that without a proper relationship with God. We can't be too harsh on him for his indiscretions but he is the one that chose to follow pagan beliefs. So don't vote for him because he's a Mormon, that's the real issue here.
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And he's a hypocritical Mormon. His favorite candy is Kit-Kat, and that contains caffeine, a substance forbidden by Mormon church doctrine.
He has so many problems I'd sooner vote for Palin. At least she doesn't try to hide her crazy.
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and yet as the president admitted in his memoir that he used weed and occasionally blow you seem to be more concerned with somebody eating a kit-kat because of its caffeine content. sheesh you liberals are nuts!
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Did you happen to read about Obama,s Coil of Rage? I guess Obama going to Jeremiah Wrights church does affect him. Another biased article by an uninformed liberal college student.
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I can't believe you spent so much copy on what Romney did as a teenager. I'm sure you have done something as a teenager that could be considered highly shameful. Do you honestly think he's the same person now 30 something years later he was as a teenager???? Just because somebody's personality is fixed doesn't mean that they're maturity is fixed or that their beliefs are fixed.
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Your tone is unnecessarily condescending offering no real substance or insight. I'm not sure what prompts people to create such inane comments but I'm guessing an inflated sense of worth has something to do with it.
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Jhoel: I'm not sure I agree with you. How is the writer's tone condescending in the least bit? Silly talk from an obvious right wing. As for substance and insight, it had tons of it. It doesn't seem like your comment offered any better insight..."inflated sense of self worth". It's almost like you're picking random words from the dictionary and plopping them on to the page.
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My comment was intended as a reply to the comment at the top. Somehow it wound up as its own and thus making it look like I was attacking the writer. Really, I enjoyed the article.
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It's about honesty. You admit that Obama is truthful, and Romney, claiming to be a devout Mormon, is a liar.
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do you really think consuming caffeine is so central to Mormonism? And no I
Never said Romney was a liar, because he didn't lie about it. Your initial comment was about hypocrisy not honesty. And sorry, but honesty doesn't make it okay that you did coke unremorsefully. Let me put it this way: we have laws and the law should be respected, but speeding is against the law and everybody does it regardless. Speeding though it shouldn't happen because it's against the law is not really a big deal and law abiding citizens speed in the same way consuming caffeine may be frowned upon in the Mormon faith yet Mormons may consume caffeine. It's not hypocritical at all. And in fact he may not believe consuming caffeine is against his religious beliefs. I think you'reoatly ignorant as to what the religion holds as their values. Might it be the consumption of caffeine in an impure way such as abusing it to maintain continuous alertness that is frowned upon as opposed to its general consumption. People don't consume kit-Kara for the caffeine, they consume them because they enjoy a piece of chocolate. People consume coke to use it and abuse it as a drug so 'gimme a break'
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Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of expressing feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not hold or possess. In other words, to claim to be devout but then break church tenets, is "a lie." One who claims to be pious but isn't, is lying. He does the same thing, daily. He flip-flops on everything. He apparently can't help himself from lying. It's part of his character, and that is the troubling aspect of his candidacy.
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Well the Mormon faith itself is pagan nonsense so you really can blame the commentor's ignorance of it. You might as well be taking about Romney following witch doctor protocols.
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As ooposed to being a Muslim...really??? Also one who admits to using weed and cocaine?????
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Hahahahaha, who's the Muslim candidate?
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Except consuming caffeine ISN'T a central tenet of Mormonism. So the only person lying is you. Secondly, there's nothing lacking in devotion to God if you eat a kit-kat. I think you misunderstand Christianity altogether. Nobody said failure to follow rules of the church means you lack devotion and you're therefore a hypocrite. THE central tenet is that as humans we sin and that Christ died so that you are forgiven of sins. Therefore, if you are a devout Mormon you are forgiven and are no less devout especially if you willingly repent. I hope you have learned something valuable today and are less ignorant and don't read so far into somebody eating a kit-kat of all things
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Christianity =/= mormonism, there is a very important difference between the two. One group follows the teachings of Jesus Christ and are saved from their sins and given life eternal through Him. The other group are mormons and they follow golden plates and reject Christ. While they may fool themselves into thinking they can have it both ways do not let them deceive you. There is one way to Christ and that is the way He laid out for us, anything else leads to ruin and not God. Mormonism is a path to ruination and a blasphemy to God.
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More left-wing talking points under the guise of unbiased journalistic observation. I will grow quite old waiting for this newspapers allowance of a Conservative counterpoint to this weak argument.
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Our current Liar in Chief
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Ms. Seymour, have you written a retraction to the farce of an article now that we all know this event never happened? Your blind loyalty to the idiot in chief is rediculous. You are an embarassment to the Hokie Nation.
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We have a corrupt and immoral president who has spent more money in four years than anyone in the history of the planet and you want to talk about Romney and Mormons ? Give me a break. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones when Obama has spent millions of dollars hiding his past from the voters. If I were Romney, I'd offer a year of my tax returns for each of the following: Who paid for Obama's college education, who paid for Obama's house in Chicago and what they expected in return, and why he went to Pakistan after he graduated and who he saw and what he did while he was there. It would be interesting to read any of the papers he wrote while in college and even more interesting to find out how he got the social security number of a dead person.
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Are we seriously distinguishing these beliefs from more prevalent fairy tales?
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Are we seriously distinguishing these particular fantastical ideas and other, more prevalent, fairy tales?
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Am I misunderstanding how this works? I would think that clicking on "Reply to this" would insert my comment directly beneath and indented from the comment to which I'm replying; not at the bottom, as if it's a comment on the article in general. Not that big of a deal, really, but it caused me to repost when I didn't see my comment where I would intuitively think it should be.
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I think they changed the commenting system during the gun debate article to discourage massive flame wars. You can see how that would be effective right now because no one knows who your comments are intended for.
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