I don’t see how anything that’s been talked about has to do with religion. Ethics, yes, not religion.

> So Romney believes in evolution?

I wonder which GOP contender will outdo the others and spend Sunday morning on a big-time evangelistic TV show, front and center, on his knees begging for foregiveness and everyone’s vote.

If you were a politician, I’d say you just intruded into my life by asking me a question about abortion

The governement assaults my religious views constantly by shrouding everything in theirs.

It’s a braoder caucus than normal, and the leadership is having trouble getting them to all vote together because, just being Democrat hasn’t meant they’ve all shared the same ideals.

A nice solution would be multiple parties expressing multiple ideologies making coalitions based on pressing needs, but that just isn’t our system.

“I think candidates like Romney do a great disservice to the GOP.
By all signing up to the same positions, they help make GOP a narrower and narrower party, and this narrows the attractiveness of the party to only voters of the same exact, in every particular, mold.”

Of course, this is the same problem with the Dems. Remember when their used to be pro-life, conservative Democrats? They were run out of the party by those who couldn’t allow for diversity. A Lloyd Bensen couldn’t be on the national ticket for the Democrats anymore, yet he was pro-life and conservative. Al Gore’s another who was pro-life, but had to jettison that position in order to be Bill Clinton’s running mate in ’92. There are no “Big Tent” parties anymore.

Ever pause to think maybe because it just plain is flip flopping/ trolling for partyline votes? Instantly reaching for RNC deflection words/quotes don’t make the obvious go away anymore. Kind of like trying to eradicate mosquitos with a chop stick after the last 27 years, its played out.

You call it “evolving” or “changing his mind” when you think that both the previous belief and the current belief were sincerely held. You call it “flip-flopping” when either the previous or current belief are thought to be opportunistic. If the public decides you have “flip-flopped” you’re in trouble. Liberals will decide you were always anti-choice and anti-gay and just played the part to cheat them, and will be angry. Conservatives will think it just too convenient that you suddenly have conservative beliefs and will think that you actually are pro-choice, and just giving lip-service to them for votes.

It is not necessarily a bad thing for one to change his/her mind on an issue if he/she has carefully considered the issue and determined that his/her prior belief was flawed or inaccurate. Indeed, the Scientific Method is based upon forming a hypothesis about a something, and then either confirming or denying that hypothesis based upon the available evidence. And indeed throughout history, old theories and beliefs that were well- accepted in earlier times, have been altered or discarded based upon new evidence that surfaces.

But in politics, if one is to change one’s mind on an issue, there are some key things he/she need to do:

1) Acknowledge that you’ve changed your mind. Don’t insult our intelligence by pretending that you’ve always held the view that you hold now, when this is clearly not the case.

2) Make a convincing argument why you believe your current beliefs are correct. Connect your current view on this issue with your underlying philosophy, and be prepared to given several real world examples to back up your argument.

3) Make a convincing argument why you previous beliefs were wrong. Point out the arguments you used to bolster your prior belief, and give evidence to show that these prior arguments were either flawed or incorrect.

4) This one can’t always be helped, but try not to have your “conversion” coincide with your newest campaign for political office such that your previous position conveniently coincided with the majority view of the previous electorate you faced while your new position just happens to coincide with the majority view of the new electorate you are facing.

5) Don’t accuse you opponent (or other politicians) of “flip-flopping” when you, yourself, or guilty are guilty of the same thing. Because that not only makes you a flip-flopper–it makes you a hypocrite.

Remember some of Chimpy’s pledges in 2000:

A humble foreign policy
absolutely no nation-building
pledge to be a uniter