The Whines of Unity and the Danger of Losing Some Objectivity

Yesterday, I pointed out that Mitt Romney’s campaign continues to show a tin ear toward evangelicals.The majority of people reading the post understood what I meant and most agreed. But there is a large minority of vocal party unity types who feel compelled to attack me instead of dealing with the points raised.The attacks are typically a combination of these four:

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  • I’m an anti-Mormon bigot.
  • I work for CNN and therefore hate the GOP.
  • I intend to nitpick the candidate to death to undermine him.
  • I intend to hold the candidate to a desperately high and unfair standard.

To be honest, the more the whiners yell, the more I am emboldened to keep highlighting these sorts of issues.The issue — Romney’s unsteady standing with evangelicals — is objectively legitimate and legitimately a problem. In a race where Barack Obama expects to turn out black voters at the same high turnout rate as 2008 and where he presumes to get 90% of those votes, MItt Romney will need every evangelical he can get.Some of you seem to think that with the primary over we’re to turn ourselves to rainbows and unicorns in a sea of unity.I am well aware Mitt Romney will be the nominee. I intend to vote for him. We will not tolerate advocacy of a third party campaign or a “sit it out” campaign here at RedState. RedState has, with all candidates in all races, covered those races with a affirmed bias for the Republican nominee, but without a fear of holding the nominee accountable. We’ll show the nominee grace, but we’re also not going to shy away from highlighting those areas on which he needs to improve. While we are mindful of “do not harm” and agree with the maxim, pointing out areas of needed improvement is not harmful. One of those areas is evangelical turnout.RedState is not a water carrier for any candidate or the GOP. We saw how well that went in 2006 for conservatives who remained silent on Harriet Miers, immigration reform, and big spending, many of whom are happy now to revert back to that destructive behavior.We, and I in particular, know the team we’re on and the game we’re playing — to beat Barack Obama — but we’re not afraid to suggest a different play on the field. Right now, Romney needs to do more to solidify evangelicals. Presumptions that they’ll show up to vote just to boot Barack Obama misunderstand the core evangelical voter.By the way, if you can’t deal with it, you are not obligated to read RedState.

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