For a guy who loves America, Romney has sure spent a lot energy avoiding military service and paying taxes.I don’t know about you, but that seems to me a tad unpatriotic when you get right down to it. There has been a lot of focus on the tax issue — rightly — but I do think a few questions about his conduct during the Vietnam War are worth asking.
I’m sure most of you have read this article (from June) — indeed, I imagine it was linked here and discussed, though I missed it. But anyway, it is worth periodically revisiting I think:
Though an early supporter of the Vietnam War, Romney avoided military service at the height of the fighting after high school by seeking and receiving four draft deferments, according to Selective Service records. They included college deferments and a 31-month stretch as a “minister of religion” in France, a classification for Mormon missionaries that the church at the time feared was being overused. The country was cutting troop levels by the time he became eligible for the draft, and his lottery number was not called.
I’m not a Mormon, and I never quite trust online sources about this sort of thing… but anyway, my understanding is that a mission is usually a year or two at the most for young men — though retired Mormons often go on longer missions. But 31 months seems to be stretching things. At the risk of seeming particularly nit-picky, I could note that there are not a lot of Mormons in France even today — only 35,000 or so — making the French Mormon community smaller than that in Costa Rica (36k), Tonga (55K), and Ghana (40K). Romney may be great at making money, but maybe not as effective as a missionary.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Romney story if it didn’t include lies, evasions, and weird flip-flops:
As a presidential candidate in 2007, Romney told The Boston Globe he was frustrated, as a Mormon missionary, not to be fighting alongside his countrymen.
“I was supportive of my country,” Romney said. “I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
Indeed, Romney strongly supported the war at first. As a freshman at Stanford University, he protested anti-war activists. In one photo, he’s shown in a small crowd of students, smiling broadly, wearing a sport jacket and holding up a sign that says, “Speak Out, Don’t Sit In.”
But the frustration he recalled in 2007 does not match a sentiment he shared as a Massachusetts Senate candidate in 1994, when he told The Boston Herald, “I was not planning on signing up for the military.”
“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.
But that’s exactly what Romney did, according Selective Service records. He received his first deferment for “activity in study” in October 1965 while at Stanford.
I’m not saying military service is a requirement for public office. I haven’t served. Barack Obama hasn’t served. But then again I don’t often throw around accusation of being un-American — though I have made an exception for Grover Norquist.
Bill Clinton got called a draft dodger by the right for about the same sort of thing as what Romney did. But then again, I also don’t recall Clinton or his campaign ever suggesting that George H.W. Bush or Bob Dole were un-American.
For the right, being patriotic seems to consist of being rich, white, and mouthing empty platitudes about supporting the troops. That’s not a definition I can support.
I’m not accusing Romney of anything illegal in either his tax-avoidance or draft-avoidance. But in both cases, we have a similar pattern of gaming the system for selfish purposes. It speaks to the man’s character and values, no?
David M
The length of time he served was normal. Missions were standardized at two years a while ago, but were typically closer to 3 years back in the 60s and 70s.
Jay C
Umm, Bernard: according to Wikipedia, there aren’t “55K” Mormons in Tonga, but just over 17,000: which is still 17% of the whole population there: a heckuva lot more than I’d expect for a distant Pacific island nation, but still…
Vishnu Schist
How dare you call Rmoney unpatriotic!!!! He was doing his duty by staying out of the war so he could become President someday. I’m mean hell what do you want him to do? Join the navy as some bullshit lieutenant and drive some fucking boat around Vietnam? Give us a break. He could have gotten shot or something, then what the hell would all those fat fucking bitches from some midwest shit hole do with all those bandages????????
pseudonymous in nc
I wonder why a religion that foreswears alcohol, caffeine and tobacco might have trouble recruiting new members there?
Actually, it looks as if the choice of destination for foreign missions is a bit like the assignment of ambassadorial posts: Mormon higher-ups get to have doors slammed in their faces in pleasantish surroundings, while the rank and file get sent to the back of beyond.
Thus the Rmoneyspawn: “Tagg went to Bordeaux, France; Matt went to Paris, France; Josh to Leeds, England; Ben to Australia; and Craig to Santiago, Chile.” I think Josh drew the short straw: Leeds is pleasant enough, in its own way, but it’s not Bordeaux. Then again, imagine trying to recruit people to an abstemious sect in St-Emilion.
@Jay C:
Actually, that sounds about right to me, because it reflects a genuine missionary heritage: Samoa is 12.7% Mormon, and there’s a surprisingly high Baha’i minority.
Bernard Finel
@Jay C: I also linked to a wikipedia page that has 55k as the number. Shockingly, Wikipedia has inconsistent information!
russell
in some ways, but not in the way called “enlisting”.
JGabriel
Bernard, first sentence, ambiguous verb. Drop the “paying” before “taxes” so it just reads: avoiding military service and taxes.
Otherwise it reads like he’s paying taxes, which can’t be the intended reading.
.
rdale
Another reason Rmoney might have served a longer mission is that those who are particularly well-connected, or really good suck-ups, are often retained in the “mission field” to serve positions in the mission administration, branch leaders, and so on. Maybe he wanted to wait out the end of the war and make sure he wouldn’t have to soil his patrician fingers with rifle grease and paddy mud.
Soonergrunt
So in his mind combat is like the Olympics? I was ‘representing my country’ in Iraq and Afghanistan?
I got medals, but that’s probably not what he’s thinking of.
Of course, his idea of his sons serving their country is for them to drive around in a Winnebago stumping for his election.
Ben Franklin
test
PZ
Never understood why he didn’t just do ROTC at school, get a cushy desk job at the Pentagon or in Europe (NATO did have offices in Paris till 1967, BTW) and then just say “the Army decided my managerial skills, which made me so successful in business, were needed in places other than Vietnam.” He was a governor’s son-it shouldn’t have been too hard to do…
Ben Franklin
I guess this is a work in progress.
300baud
Unfair! As Grover Norquist will tell you, it’s every American’s patriotic duty to pay as little tax as possible. That obviously includes military service, which just keeps you from being a Galtian job-creating hero. Well, not you personally. He means The Right People. People like Romney and Ryan.
DaddyJ
It’s not the draft dodging; it’s the bald-faced lying that speaks to this candidate’s character.
El Cid
It’s un-American to dodge the draft and oppose the US attack against the Vietnamese; it’s truly American to dodge the draft and advocate for continuing US attacks on Vietnamese civilians.
Soonergrunt
I knew guys in the Army who were Mormons. They might have eventually went on a church mission after ETS, but while they were on active duty, they were living it up with the booze and the cigarettes and the coffee and soda just like the rest of us. A guy I rode around Afghanistan with for half my tour was a Corps of Engineers officer from Utah and couldn’t have possibly been more Mormon.
techno
As someone who locked horns with my local draft board from 1967-72, I share a great deal of frustration that about 97% of those objecting to service did not have exactly lofty motives. And the truth is, because this was all class-based, anyone from lower middle class on up could get out from about 1968 on. The principled guys like David Harris were VERY rare.
While “Mitt and the SSS” show he is ethical sleazeball, it’s hard to imagine making a political issue out of actions that covered most of the men of that age.
Robert Waldmann
“Bill Clinton got called a draft dodger by the right for about the same sort of thing as what Romney did. ” Not really. Bill Clinton was called a draft dodger for considering doing the same sort of thing as what Romney did (but exactly the thing that George W Bush did). He explored the possibility of trying to joint the National Guard. But he didn’t apply.
Instead he studied (took a while what with the Rhodes scholarship and all that) then participated in the draft lottery. His birthday was picked around 330th IIRC (somethine very easy to check but not mentioned much when the question of why he wasn’t drafted was discussed in 1992).
Romney, Bush Jr and Quale dodged the draft. Clinton didn’t. Gore and Kerry served in Vietnam.
(lazy bumb with a so called Rhodes Scholarship (funded by and named after racist imperialist) at some place which has to do with castrated male cattle and a car company)
geg6
He’s a coward. Everything he’s ever done and does points that fact out in bold print. His big adventure in France during that war is just another instance, much like his high school bully career is, of the deep and abiding cowardice of this man. He was born a coward. So sad, especially because his dad was most definitely not.
Wag
I’m getting the “I’m a Mormon” ad on the page.
The wo Rees of google ads.
WereBear
@Jay C: It takes a LOT to not be a Mormon anymore… once you are on the rolls, you aren’t taken off just because you bail out.
Heck, you aren’t safe after you’re dead!
And Another Thing...
@rdale: During the period that Romney was on his mission, English speaking missions were 2 years, non English speaking missions were 2 1/2 years. Missionaries were exempt from the draft, and each congregation was limited to having a maximum of 2 men out at a time.
General Stuck
Back then, as now, I had no problem with folks who didn’t want to get drafted into that ugly tangle of government bloody lies that was Vietnam. Especially by the time I came of age, very late in the war. And double especially, for those who gave up their home to go to Canada, or to prison like Ali.
And When my lottery number was in the low double digits, it did fill me with apprehension in 1971, and since there were no more college deferments, I was not brave enough to leave my home country, and surely not to go to prison. I did let some friends and family talk me into trying ROTC which you could still get a draft deferment, but that lasted about 2 weeks, and shall we say I was not really officer material and they wouldn’t give me a hat big enough hat to tuck up under my shoulder length mane.
So I accepted my fate and showed up to Uncle Sam’s All Stars, even though my GOP connected pappy somehow managed to get me a slot in the Army Reserves, but I said no thanks cause I wasn’t nothing special.
But the thing was, and is, that those folks that dodged the draft by going north, or the National Guard, or however they managed to slip out of that trap, didn’t later go on to say cowardly horseshit like Romney above, and any number of now war loving wingnuts with their own chest thumping of regret for missing the fighting and dieing. Far as I’m concerned, they are vermin to be defeated in the most embarrassing manner possible.
Anyways, I lucked out of going to Vietnam, even though I had volunteered for an MOS of critical shortage that are Riggers, (the peace agreement was signed just before I finished Rigger training) or those who specialize in aerial resupply, which in this case, at the time, would be about all our troops would be doing with Vietnamization under way. And I don’t regret for a nanosecond not participating in that meat grinder that never should have happened, nor gone on as long as it did. Neither did Romney, as he is lying through his teeth, once again, about everything.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
What’s particularly offensive in Robot-Chicken’s case, is that he WENT OUT OF HIS WAY, by protesting in support of the war, while at the same time HE WENT OUT OF HIS WAY to avoid serving in it.
That isn’t just standard fare chicken-hawk. That’s some grade-A fuck you. While he was out protesting, exactly who did he figure would do the bleeding to support his cause?
What a scumbag.
jl
OT, but the Ryan/Romney ticket explaining things stuff not off to a good start.
TPM2012
Paul Ryan Can’t Escape Own Budget Package In Debut Solo Interview
Evan McMorris-Santoro- August 14, 2012
…There are two things happening here. First, Ryan is unable to change the conversation away from the House budget, which Democrats, and reportedly some Republicans, are convinced is a guaranteed loser this fall.
Second, for all Ryan’s skill as the GOP’s budget whiz, not even he can say when Romney’s budget will balance, feeding into criticisms that the Romney budget plan is not yet fully formed.
The Romney campaign certainly wants to run on its own plans, not Ryan’s. But that’s increasingly looking like a tough sell.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-cant-escape-own-budget-package-in-debut-solo-interview.php
Edit: I can’t believe it’s not Romney, er, Ryan, er, Romney, er, Ryan…. I give up.
Bernard Finel
@Robert Waldmann: Romney had a similar thing. Ultimately entered the draft and got a high number. Both Clinton and Romney got roughly the same amount of deferments. But again, Clinton didn’t try to call his opponents un-American.
PZ
@techno:
Agreed. A bigger thing though is most people today were never in a position where they have to serve. That is one downside to an all volunteer army-service personal become a lot different from the rest of the country. I remember reading that since 2006, veterans who were candidates underperformed compared to non-vets.
I still think one of the mistakes Gore made in 2000 was not smearing Bush with his draft dodging ways-but those were the dark days when we paid Robert Shrum to run Presidential campaigns. Nowadays veterans have become such a subculture that two rich assholes running for national office who have never served can appear on a decommissioned battleship and generate no controversy.
Smiling Mortician
@russell: No, no, he’s telling the truth. Look:
He doesn’t say he was frustrated about not being there — rather, he was frustrated because he couldn’t feel like he was there. See how that works?
El Cid
Remember, if you served in the U.S. army during that war and were sent to Vietnam and engaged in direct combat with enemy forces coming under fire and saving your comrades, but you later critique the war, you are an anti-American draft-dodger who made up his injuries and ugly mean fat-faced redneck bitches can laugh and sneer and wear purple-heart bandaids to the 2004 Republican convention.
But, you know, both sides do it.
patrick II
Rom@Robert Waldmann:
I will just add that Clinton was against the war. Romney was in favor of the war. Letting others risk their lives in your stead in a war that you say you believe in seems less patriotic to me. Bush, Cheney, Romney were all big warriors as long as someone else is actually doing the fighting.
Soonergrunt
Hey all,
The mod filter is doing weird shit. Just so’s ya’ll know.
El Cid
@Smiling Mortician: I feel frustrated many times that I could not be Batman while I was watching the movie. I’m being oppressed.
Smiling Mortician
@El Cid: It’s interesting. In general, I think that pretty much everything these hypocritical shitbags say and do offends me equally. But then I remember the Swift Boaters and you know, I swear I’m a nonviolent person – I’ve never even hit anyone – but if I saw that purple-heart-bandaid woman (and I’d recognize her because unfortunately I will never forget her face) I’m pretty sure I’d hurt her.
Soonergrunt
@patrick II:
This, about a thousand times over.
vestigial
Does this mean the entire male mormon population is un-draftable until they turn 20?
amk
Draft dodger is not a winner unlike the tax dodger. Thank fsm the obama team sees it that way too.
Cacti
I don’t think a single male in Romney’s direct family tree has worn the uniform of the United States of America.
Not him, not his sons, not his father, grandfather, or great grandfather.
They all made time to serve Mormon missions though.
angelfoot
Talk about word salad. What the hell does this even mean:
The only way I can read that is he was angst ridden because despite his deeply ingrained patriotism he really didn’t support the war or the troops. Freudian slip? That would be an admirable enough admission, lending some depth of character to the man, so no probably not.
Heliopause
Speaks more to the system, frankly. Wanting to horde money and not wanting to get killed pointlessly on the other side of the planet are pretty natural human instincts. I’ll go a step further and say that I wouldn’t expect anybody to act any other way than how Mitt Romney has acted in his life, which is why Romney’s proposed policies need to be opposed, not because of any alleged character deficit on his part.
lamh35
OT, but is it just me or is the Romney camp slowly coming more and more unhinged.
I know there has been a article about Obama personally not liking Mittens, but its with good reason, since ending the primary and even during them, Mittens camp lied and still blatantly lying on the stump, in interviews, and in paid advertising and actually boasting that they are indeed “misquoting” Obama.
Although I never notice any real dislike toward Obama on the surface, Obama unlike Romney tends to actually try to keep his supporters civil and tries to keep is comments above the petty, but Romney of course never does the same.
Mittens now apparent disdain for Obama I just don’t understand the root of it even before Obama got into “campaign mode”. I don’t wanna think it’s anything other than Obama being a Dem, but reading what I’ve read about Mormons and African Americans I’m beginning to think it more nefarious.
Anyway, I don’t recall, yet, Obama making any seeminly personal gibes at Mittens, but I don’t think the same can be said of Mittens.
Here’s his latest:
Romney Personally Slams Obama
“Angry and Desperate” hmm interesting choice of words doncha think?
Valdivia
@lamh35:
the thing is that Romney yells and gets angry so he is the one that will get associated with that, voters don’t see Obama as a hateful person, or angry so all that projection will never stick to Obama.
martha
I want one of the superpacs to run an ad that links Rmoney’s minimal or nonexistent tax payments with a simple fact: by avoiding Federal taxes, he’s not supporting the military! Yes, we should be shouting to the rooftops that this Republican is not doing his patriotic duty and supporting our military by stashing all that money in the Caymans and Switzerland.
Hill Dweller
@Valdivia: Willard’s personal approval ratings are underwater, so he is going to try and drag Obama down by portraying him as an angry, hateful ni-Clang.
It won’t stick.
MikeJ
@Cacti:
How about Mexico?
Cacti
@WereBear:
Yup.
Even if you haven’t darkened the door of a Mormon chapel in decades, they still count you on the membership rolls.
To become an ex-Mormon, you usually have to take the affirmative step of sending correspondence to Salt Lake City, renouncing your membership, and formally requesting that you be removed from the rolls.
The Dangerman
@lamh35:
Mitt’s just pissed because he’s losing (see picking Ryan as a desperate game changing move, etc). His outlook appears to be that it’s HIS turn, dammit! Don’t need no budget, don’t need to release his taxes, he should win on the fact that he’s Mitt. Trust him!
Cacti
@lamh35:
Must be that vaunted high ground that Mitt says he occupies.
Seriously though, Mitt seems like a petulant child, because for the first time in his life, he’s run into a situation where spending money isn’t overcoming a lack of skill on his part.
“You people” need to make him President. He has the White Horse Prophecy, and Obama is “dark and loathsome” damn it!
Caz
You’re not accusing him of anything illegal??? The title to you bullshit post is Tax Dodger, Draft Dodger. Sounds like you started right off with an implication of illegal conduct. And you go on and on about how he dodged the draft and evaded taxes, and then you think you can throw in a token sentence at the end to rehabilitate your post as a non-accusational one??
Obama’s plan for re-election seems to be: “Romney is a murdered, a felon tax evader, a draft dodger, and a racist who wants to put blacks back in chains.” Not to mention that all of those are untrue, what happened to all those ideas that were going to cut the debt in half by the end of his first term? Or how about how he was going to balance the budget, cut spending, fix medicare and social security, work with the other side, work with Congress rather than go around them, etc.?
Wake up. Both sides are conspiring to turn this nation into an Orwellian nightmare for we the people.
Valdivia
@Hill Dweller:
I agree it won’t, I was a little nervous earlier thinking all the Ryan hoopla and his ads would get a lot of play, but now he once again has stepped all over his own narrative and the dems were quick out of the gate calling him out. First he was exhausted yesterday, today he is talking about Obama being hateful and not deserving the office of the president (sullying it!) so yeah, that will be the story tomorrow.
MikeJ
@Caz: There’s a Cavuto mark on the end of the post title.
GregB
PPP just released polling in NH and it gives President Obama a 6% point lead.
It also has both Democrats leading both GOPers in the Congressional races.
Romney is going to lose all three of his home states.
MikeJ
@GregB:
Have you seen how much Sununu has been in front of the cameras? Of course New Hampshire is going Obama.
Len
On the length of Mormon missions…. Prior to 1970, a young man or woman “called” to a foreign mission where another language had to be learned would serve 30 months. This was intended to allow time for the missionary to become somewhat fluent in the new language. Missionaries who were not required to learn a new language, such as those from the United States who served in the United States, would serve missions only 24 months in length. Policy was changed in 1970 so every missionary, no matter their country of destination, served only 24 months.
So Romney most likely did serve 30 months in France. Presumably, he would still maintain at least a passing familiarity with the French language. I find this kind of ironic given the grief the Republicans gave John Kerry in 2004 because he spoke French.
Mike in NC
@MikeJ: I had no idea that fucking Sununu was even still alive. What a scumbag. I have family in NH and its amazing how far the anti-tax bullshit will play out. The Last Resort for the GOP when the rest of their shitty ideas won’t catch.
Hill Dweller
@MikeJ:
The interview with Soledad O’Brien was gold.
Cacti
@Len:
Romney’s length of missionary service was not unusual for the era in which he was a mishie.
What set Romney apart from the hoi polloi was that he was made an Assistant to the President. AP is the ultimate privileged position within a mission, and is often lavished upon the children of the Mormon upper class. One of the AP’s in my own mission was the grandson of the #3 guy in the whole church.
It’s a good way for a social climbing Mission President to ingratiate himself with his superiors.
Steve
@Caz: Hee hee. The minions are coming a little unhinged too, it seems.
Cacti
@Caz:
Now hold up a second there, hoss. How is the racist part untrue?
Until he was 31 years old, Romney had no problem belonging to a Church that taught that persons of African ancestry were cursed by God and unworthy of his priesthood. Not only that, but he was willing to share that message door to door in France, in lieu of service in Vietnam.
Not only was Mittens a racist, he dodged the draft in service of theological racism.
CW in LA
@Cacti: And as for the felon tax evader part, well, how does anyone know that’s not true?
Cacti
Also too, does anyone else think it doesn’t help Willard’s “wimp” problem, having a running mate that looks like he might burst into tears at any moment?
GxB
@Steve: What can ya say? He likes his pie.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Caz:
You know the trolls are desperate when they start shouting that both sides do it.
Steve
@GxB: I’ll say this: there’s something very weird about a person who hears the word “chains” – in the middle of a sentence talking about deregulating Wall Street, no less – and immediately thinks of slavery. It’s disturbing, this Republican mindset.
Villago Delenda Est
Here’s the thing about Clinton:
He was opposed to the war. If you’re opposed to it, and you take deferments, then that’s unpatriotic.
Rmoney and Dick Cheney, for example, supported the war, yet took deferments. That’s patriotic.
Also, volunteering to go to Vietnam, like Al Gore and John Kerry did, is unpatriotic.
Are we clear on what constitutes actual patriotism now? Avoiding fighting in a war you support is good, actually fighting in a war that you don’t support, or came not to support because you saw what a clusterfuck it was up close and personal with fucking combat wounds is unpatriotic, and very very bad. Practically treason.
Just to be perfectly clear on the logic here.
GxB
@Steve: Personally I think this persona is a big put on. Some people get their jollies off on the strangest things. Therefore, I see little reason to pay them any mind.
On the off chance (s)he actually holds these views dear and isn’t a paid shill, well, it’s about as sad as your going to get. This is indeed the modern conservative mindset and it is doomed to fail spectacularly – question being will they bring the rest of us along for the ride?
A Ghost To Most
@Caz:
You forgot to include “sheeple”. How you gonna get paid if you don’t include the code words?
suzanne
@Cacti: Should also note that women still can’t have the priesthood or be in leadership position. Not a stretch to say that Romney hates women.
dead existentialist
@Caz: VICTORY! RON PAUL 2012!
Zzzzzzzzzz
ETA: Don’t you have school tomorrow?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Caz: A dodge does not implicate a crime. Also, the body of the post makes it abundantly clear.
Judging by your posting history, I sincerely hope you are getting paid to write this nonsense.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@PZ:
and a Romney taker orders from a pleb, like the ones he gave forced hair cuts to in prep school?
(great, something else GW Bush seems more human on.)
SRW1
… a 31-month stretch as a “minister of religion” in France …
I have heard Romney speak French in videos. His vocabulary seems OK, but his accent is quite pronounced. It always cracks me up imagining him as a twenty something guy in suit and tie knocking on doors and trying to proselytize some French guy who wonders what kind of a crackpot that dude is. And the thing is that this picture is quite funny independent of whether one imagines the conversation to take place in English or in French. A comedian probably could have a field day with that set up.
I suspect there was a lot of Olala! and not much field work during Romney’s days in France.
bob h
Nevertheless, veterans seem to be going for him, inexplicably.
Triassic Sands
To the Wingers, it is paying taxes that is unpatriotic, at least for the ruling class. Clearly the Framers meant for us to have a government with a half dozen employees and an all-volunteer army (where the voluntary part is serving without pay). And the Framers never expected the ruling elite to serve time in the military — that’s for the serfs.
NonyNony
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Caz made a screeching turn at some point recently from Republican triumphalism to WAKE UP SHEEPLE BOTH SIDES DO IT.
I think the Paul Ryan pick might have made Caz’s brain throw a spring or something.
Jay C
@Villago Delenda Est:
IOKIYAR
That’s the only “logic formula that need apply….
ThresherK
I knew he “supported the Vietnam war” at some point, and took a religious deferment.
But his words five years ago I didn’t know of.* And they’re just… icky:
“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”
That’s the kind of I imagine one writes in a card with a dozen roses to one’s wife. “I’m sorry I slept with that woman I met at the bar.”
(*Additional edited by author.)
Matt McIrvin
@bob h:
Because there hasn’t been a draft for decades, the veteran population skews older than the general US population. It is also an overwhelmingly male group, and, because of changing demographics, whiter than the US as a whole. It’s not surprising that a group consisting largely of older, whiter men would be strongly Republican.
Pat
If the draft were reinstalled, Mormon women would in theory be draftable.
If Romney wins, he would be the only U.S. President sending men into war when he, himself, and all his Mormon religious peers, were exempt from draft.
That is enough for a second look at the Mormon religion that claims every male is a minister, and in fact, the only religion where every male is a minister.
This is not a church typical of the Christianity, Judaism, Protestant, or any church common to America.
If all Mormon males are draft exempt because they are ministers, are they also tax exempt as ministers?