The Romney End Game?

Willard "Mitt" Romney's apparent downhill roll to the 2012 GOP presidential nomination seems to be tearing at the fabric of the American conservative culture. The pitiful field of candidates is made up of Willard"Mitt" Romney, an odd looking gentleman whose platform includes starting a colony on the moon, and a former U.S. Senator whose platform would be very appropriate for an election if it were being held in 1812.

So what's the real problem? Actually there are two related problems with no solution that will will create a political environment stable enough for the GOP to present a serious unified threat in the general election. Both problems are centered around Mitt's religion. Mitt Romney is a Mormon and the conservative base is made up of protestant, mostly Southern, evangelical Christians. Though it is rarely discussed, a significant portion of that base views Mormonism as a cult. That group will be loathe to support Mitt under any circumstances because of their religious views. The second problem is related to both religion and the basic difference between right wing and left wing ideology. Right wing ideology, particularly in America, is grounded in the beliefs of radical individualism. They use the term "LIBERTY," which, in the context of American politics, refers to the individuals rights to do as he or she pleases . Whereas the left tends to utilize the term "FREEDOM" which, in the American political context, refers to group rights. At it's core, the separation of ideologies lies in the arguments surrounding the competing social theories of individualism and collectivism. Is this a country of 300 million individuals or is it a mosaic of cultures blending together to make a single group? The Mormon faith is a somewhat secretive religion and the hardcore GOP individualists fear that it's a community (group rights) based group. Lets face it, the Mormons restrict access to their church and even seem to have their own state. To make matters worse, Mitt's record of supporting left wing positions serves to strengthen those fears.

Regardless of Mitt's platform, I predict that he will never overcome the ideological and religion based reservations of the Southern White Anglo Saxon protestant(WASP) base. If, as I suspect, Mitt Romney wins the delegate race I would expect a brokered convention and the Tea Party caucus will walk out,protest, run their own WASP candidate, or some combination of the three.