“You mean the integrity of flip flopping on every issue he needs in order to get elected?”
I’ve already told you that I am not a Mitt supporter — I have turned down requests for support from people I know and respect who are Mitt supporters — because of his previous positions on some issues. I haven’t taken the time to sift through his previous positions and his current positions to see if they are really inconsistent. I know that anti-Mitt people have embellished the flip-flopping charge.
I can see where a man who is fundamentally conservative, running in a liberal state, would avoid the conservative positions, and try to emphasize points of agreement, without sacrificing integrity. You have to be somewhat pragmatic. But my memory of Mitt’s previous positions is that he went further than that in the 90’s and it bothers me.
Maybe he did “convert” on issues like anti-abortion laws, but I haven’t accepted that. I know otherwise good men who have taken a kind of “hands off” position on the law, but I don’t agree with them. There is no question that Mitt has been pro-life in his own life, and when he has counseled LDS woman as a church official. You can be personally pro-life, yet refrain from wanting to impose that on others by law. Just like I don’t smoke on moral and religious grounds, but I oppose most anti-smoking laws, because it infringes on the freedom of others.
What bothers me more, I think, is his supposed previous embrace of gay “pride,” and a lack of clarity as to how far he believes that gay “rights” extend. Although I think those who are trying to blame him for what the judges did on gay marriage are up in the night. There’s no question that he has always opposed that.
Having said all that, I don’t think there’s any question that Fred has also changed his positions on some issues. All the candidates have.
Yup thats called a lack of integrity.
You have to be somewhat pragmatic
Thats called clintonesq
You can be personally pro-life, yet refrain from wanting to impose that on others by law.
Thats spineless, either you are for protecting the unborn from murder or youre not..
but I oppose most anti-smoking laws, because it infringes on the freedom of others.
Not the same..
Having said all that, I don’t think there’s any question that Fred has also changed his positions on some issues. All the candidates have.
Its not the shift in Mitts beliefs that bother me so much as the *timing* He ran and won as governor as a center left (center center *at best*) but between that election and announcing his race for the presidency he became a convert on Gay issues, abortion, and gun control.