I don't mean this to be offensive, but our local publisher is Mormon

the editor of our newspaper, and he's one of those "I'm scared for my country" types. Member of the Constitution Party, lots of wacky, ultra right ideas (like about the Bilderbergers and the Tri-Lateral Commission, etc). Glenn Beck is Mormon, too. Is there something about Mormonism that lends itself to these ideas?

Again, I don't mean to offend any LDS DUers. I'm just wondering if there's a connection.

TIA. :hi:

It's a way to create an atmosphere of obedience.

The sheep believe they're "standing up to the man," but they're really just doing "the man's" bidding.

Mormons here are generally fairly conservative and many here belong to the Libertarian Party. However, I find most non-Utah Mormons are fairly moderate.

Glenn Beck converted to Mormonism, by the way.

Our local legislatures are almost all Mormon and from the Libertarian wing of the Republican party. It's grim. The Mormons here are ultra conservative -- although I used to work with a woman who was a librul Mormon. She took a lot of flak from her fellow churchmembers.

But outside of the city, especially central and southern Utah, they're freaks.

It's the same in Idaho, but not nearly as bad in Nevada.

I've been all through out. Vernal, Price, Manti, Saint George. Some of the areas around the National Parks seem almost like Colorado than Utah, Moab and Torrey for instance.

Provo is probably the worst.

There are towns in northern Utah, up by Logan, that are pretty bad (even into the Idaho border). West Utah isn't very nice, either.

As for Salt Lake County, the south-end by Utah County is terrible.

I spent a lot of time with some of the local Mormons when I was in high school, my theory is that it is the lack of caffeine in their diet. I think it must slow down their thought processes, a least a little. When that happens to someone like Glen Beck, who has the I.Q. of a three day old dog turd, well, you see the effects.

and with political conservatism. After all, the Mormons ended up in Utah because they were trying to set up their own government away from everyone else, where they could follow their religious laws without interference. They tend to be libertarians when it comes to Federal powers. Now moral enforcement by the state they're all for, but that's something else entirely.

(Edited to specify the LDS church in the American West, since I haven't noticed any such trends in Mormons outside of the Utah area--which makes sense to me, since they don't have the "Deseret" mentality. It might be that the conservatism is universal, but my experience with Mormons outside of Utah is comparatively limited.)

It's Utah Mormons I can't stand.

Romney was once one of those Mormons who often joked that in Utah, he's a Democrat, but everywhere else, a moderate Republican.

paranoid, hyper-nationalists. And I'm not in Utah.

So they are hardly "suspicious" of the Feds. They are dependable with exemplary language skills, they don't drink or do anything considered "immoral", gambling, prostitutes, etc. so they are hard to turn, plus they are "ultra-patriots", which makes them even harder to turn.

The man is very devout and makes no secret of it. He is also very open about his liberal Democratic politics. My son considers him unusual. Most of the other Mormons around his area seem to be politically conservative.

You do have a good point about the history of the Mormons and why they might have the political views they do.

it might be because they want to get a Mormon like Romney in office. The crazier Mormons in Utah hate the UN, but not the feds. They do whatever the church leaders tell them to do. And right now, the church leaders want acceptance (because it means more money, it is just a big institution like any other that way.)

The conservative mormons here are fundamentalists, but not all mormons are.

They ended up in Utah not because they wanted to withdraw but because they were run out of every other place they tried to settle (in part because they were into counterfeiting money which destroyed the currency of the last couple of places they lived.) And of course the polygamy would not have been too popular (they kept it secret, even from the rank and file Mormons. It was only for the leaders at first.) Early on the church experimented with communal living, very communistic in fact.

I've lived in Utah all my life. I don't see them as hating the feds. Now, they are not fond of dems mind you, but when Bush was in office he had the highest approval ratings in Utah of any state. And he got the highest percentage of votes here. Clinton came in 3rd in Utah.

I think she's pretty much outgrown it now

but she took a summer job acting in Utah, then married a Mormon bot she met there

They both moved to NYC to make it big and were real active in NYC LDS church

Now they're divorced and she's back in Tulsa, running with her HS friends

hoping to move to LA now.

Never mentions LDS anymore

There was a rather interesting and funny book written by Deborah Laake in '94 . . .
It's called "Secret Ceremonies" -- probably at your library.

Sen. Orrin Hatch is a Mormon -- but there wasn't much "Christianity" in his
questioning of Prof. Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings!

And, of course, Robert Maheu who worked for Howard Hughes and the CIA . . .

Maheu was implicated in the plot to assassinate the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. At the request of the CIA, Maheu was to enlist the help of Mafiosi Filippo "Johnny 'Johnny Handsome' Roselli" Sacco and Salvatore "Sam," "Momo," "Mooney" Giancana, who both had connections in Cuba.<5><6> In testimony before the Church Committee, in 1975, Maheu told of his role, saying that he thought the United States "was involved in a just war."<7>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maheu

They're all supposed to wear underclothing which covers them from neck to ankle --
at least that was true at one time.

Let's see . . . you'd probably recall hearing that our government ran Native American
schools where young Native American children -- pretty much kidnapped from their parents --
were sent to steal their dignity and identity from them -- their language, manner of dress,
and taught "white man's ways." They weren't permitted to speak their own language at all.
The Catholic Church and the Mormon Church both ran Native American schools for our government.
The were all notorious but especially the Mormon school.

Children at these schools were brutally abused -- physically, sexually -- there were hangings,
suicides, murders. Russell Means wrote an interesting book which mentioned some of this.
It's called "Where White Men Fear to Tread" -- probably also at your library.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Russell+Means&x=16&y=18

Here's what the Native Americans said of the Christians who invaded --

"When they came, we had the land and they had the book --'
When they left, we had the book and they had the land."