Thursday, March 15, 2012
Why Did Romney Lose the South?
As stated earlier Romney lost both souther primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. A possible theory for this loss it Mitt Romney's Mormon affiliations. Alabama and Mississippi both have strong Christian backgrounds, and thus rejected Romney as their candidate. Baptist and other religious leaders also endorsed Santorum as their candidate. Could Romney's Mormon background have cost him the south? Why do you think Romney lost the south?
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2 comments:
I believe Jon Stewart said it best:
"Rick Santorum won Alabama and Mississippi, and Mitt Romney won Hawaii and American Samoa. Here's a little mnemonic device to help you remember. Places you can get to in a Winnebago, go to Santorum. Places that require a jet or a yacht, go to Romney. Romney, of course, always does well with islands, that's where his money lives."
While Romney has emerged as the most popular GOP candidate across the broad spectrum of America, his character does not target the largely blue-collar vote of the deep South. Romney has always isolated some citizens due to his frequented while unintended references to his own wealth (i.e. the $20,000 bet, "I know several Nascar owners," & "My wife drives two Cadillacs"). Furthermore, Santorum's extremely conservative social views parallel exactly what a majority of voters in the South want to see reflected in America's social agenda. While Romney has been the "tabula rasa" GOP nominee, saying what he thinks voters want to hear to win the nomination, Santorum has proved himself the golden boy of the GOP in that he has ideals and values, and, gosh darn it, he stands for them. Romney's loss originates less from his faith and more from Santorum's inspiring persona to the people of the South.
I feel like Romney is trying so hard to be one of the Southern natives. They would probably appreciate him more if he just came out as himself and stop pretending. He claimed that he eats “cheesy grits” and catfish during his tours in Mississippi and Alabama. Gingrich commented that it is cheese grits and not cheesy grits. He added that people, who do not understand grits, do not understand the south. The people could see through fake motives. The Southeners will just feel offended by his comments. He is better off saying that he is not like them, but he is willing to listen/ learn, and that he will appreciate their votes. Besides, southern voters focus more on social issues. In that case, his mormon faith is a problem. Santorum, who really emphasized his Catholicism, can win many religious conservatives. However, I think that his religion affects only the primaries, and not the general election because states can have a concentration of conservative voters. Romney should have just kept his economic message and he might have a chance of winning them over.
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