From BoingBoing today, referencing a political ad in the Boston Globe from 1915 :
From BoingBoing, “It warns that extending the vote to women is a joint plot of the anarchist Industrial Workers of the World, socialists, and Mormons.”
I was amused by the accusation against Mormons, and their placement among socialists and organized labor, considering now how terribly conservative they are thought to be in the modern world. But they were thought to be a substantial threat at the time, because in 1915, the idea that people of such bizarre religious convictions would effectively double their voting population was more than most political figures could bear. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had been invented less than 100 years prior to this, so it’s understandable why politicians would still be treating it as a cult, and with such disregard. Which makes me wonder… at what point did the Mormons stop being such pariah in the eyes of American Conservatism? Perhaps when they started contributing to the coffers of the Republican National Committee? Or perhaps when they began to realize that they had common enemies like homosexuals and atheists?
Such is the nation of political rhetoric – a nugget of truth, clothed in layers and layers of political opinion. Over the next several days, I’ll be exploring the history of rhetoric, how it became a bad word, and why it needs a little rehabilitation.
-Les
