Clinton has a new guest op-ed Wednesday in the Deseret News, the public media organ of the Church of Latter Day Saints. It’s a clear sign of just how much the map has expanded, with polls showing a strangely close and divided race in deep-red Utah. In the piece, Clinton draws on the public criticisms against Trump by the likes of Mitt Romney, Utah Governor Gary Herbert, and former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler. The latter has endorsed her, and has also compared Trump’s Muslim immigrant ban to the infamous “Extermination Order” of 1838 against the early Mormon community in Missouri.
The message here is clear: Demagoguery against one religious minority group can soon be turned against any other. But she also goes further to draw a connection between modern liberalism and Mormonism’s own long tradition of collectivism.
Americans don’t have to agree on everything. We never have. But when it comes to religion, we strive to be accepting of everyone around us. That’s because we need each other. And we know that it so often takes a village—or a ward—working together to build the change we hope to see.
And then there’s this interesting closing, in which a Democrat is now actually able to confidently put the election in religious terms for a red-state audience:
Generations of LDS leaders, from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to Gordon Hinckley and Thomas Monson, have noted the infinite blessings we have received from the Constitution of the United States. The next president will swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend that document for successive generations. And if you give me the honor to serve as your president, I will fight every day to carry out that sacred responsibility.