{"id":1420,"date":"2004-10-05T11:19:39","date_gmt":"2004-10-05T15:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1420"},"modified":"2004-10-05T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2004-10-05T15:36:50","slug":"the-mormon-political-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/10\/the-mormon-political-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for a Mormon Political Party?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a great series of posts at Mirror of Justice about whether Catholics should create, or demand, their own political party — one that incorporates Catholic ideas and rejects the baggage that both major parties bring to the Catholic voter’s table. The discussion starts here with a discussion of Catholic politics <\/a>and kicks into high gear with Mark Sargent’s call for a new party<\/a>. The lengthy follow-up posts include Rick Garnett’s doubts<\/a>; Rob Vischer’s suggestions for clarification<\/a>; Mark’s revised statements<\/a>; and further questions and discussion from Michael Scaperlanda<\/a>, Stephen Bainbridge<\/a>, and Vince Rougeau<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It’s a fascinating idea, and of course one that is easy to translate into terms I’m more familiar with. Let’s ask the question — is it time for a new Mormon political party?
\n
\nMany aspects of both political parties are likely to be deeply unsatisfying to a Mormon voter. (As one voter notes<\/a>, “I can hardly imagine feeling less inspired by a presidential election.”) <\/p>\n

We have a history of political activism. When the major parties were unsatisfactory, Joseph Smith himself ran for president. His platform then was abolitionist, expansionist, and of course Mormon-friendly. <\/p>\n

What would a Mormon political party look like today? Well, there are many areas where church members disagree politically. But in at least a few areas, the basic contours are relatively clear. A Mormon party would:<\/p>\n

-Oppose homosexual marriage, through constitutional amendment.
\n-Oppose elective abortion.
\n-Not oppose stem-cell research at this time.
\n-Support strong associational rights of private groups.
\n-Support strong First Amendment rights.
\n-Probably take a moderate position on immigration.<\/p>\n

Other positions might be:<\/p>\n

-Possible support for school vouchers.
\n-Possible support for the Iraq war.
\n-Possible support for the death penalty.<\/p>\n

But those are merely some issues that are considered important by the current parties in the existing political atmosphere. What might a Mormon party do to advance new ideas in the political debate?<\/p>\n

-Advance legislation allowing expedited visa issuance for missionaries and for temple trips.
\n-Advance legislation that would strengthen families.
\n-Greatly increase humanitarian aid.
\n-Greatly increase resources for education.
\n-And maybe even bring back consecration, in small groups and communities.<\/p>\n

This is a relatively quick list, and I’m sure I’m leaving out a lot. What do others think? Is there a place for a Mormon political party?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a great series of posts at Mirror of Justice about whether Catholics should create, or demand, their own political party — one that incorporates Catholic ideas and rejects the baggage that both major parties bring to the Catholic voter’s table. The discussion starts here with a discussion of Catholic politics and kicks into high gear with Mark Sargent’s call for a new party. The lengthy follow-up posts include Rick Garnett’s doubts; Rob Vischer’s suggestions for clarification; Mark’s revised statements; and further questions and discussion from Michael Scaperlanda, Stephen Bainbridge, and Vince Rougeau. It’s a fascinating idea, and of course one that is easy to translate into terms I’m more familiar with. Let’s ask the question — is it time for a new Mormon political party?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}