Oh, I think a Unitarian actually could be elected
POTUS today - well not today. Perhaps in 2012.
Could you float the names of any conservative Unitarians
who are so inclined?
Did your Unitarian comment have a connection to the
discussion we were having? If so, forgive me. I don’t
remember it on this thread, but I tend to get them
all confused.
best,
ampu
From the Unitarian Website
.............
December 15th, 2008 - David Hume
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I just realized something strange the other day. Here are the American presidents who were affiliated officially as Unitarians:
* John Adams * John Quincy Adams * Millard Fillmore * William Howard Taft
The first Adams, Fillmore and Taft were undeniably conservatives in their time. John Adams’ faction was much more hostile to French Jacobinism than those who supported Thomas Jefferson. Fillmore was a conservative Whig who later ran unsuccessfully as a Know Nothing. And Taft’s conservatism later prompted a third party challenge from Teddy Roosevelt. Whether John Quincy Adams is a conservative or not is more confused, and depends on whether you paint the Jacksonian populism which he opposed as Right or Left. Thomas Jefferson had personal Unitarian sympathies, but he was never an official member of the church.
This is strange because the modern Unitarian-Universalist Association is arguably more a body which brings together people of Left-Liberal politics, than a religious fellowship. And of course historically there were many radical Unitarians, such as the abolitionist Theodore Parker. But during this period Unitarian didn’t have such a strong factional valence in politics; besides Fillmore, Daniel Webster was another conservative Whig Unitarian, while John C. Calhoun was arguably the intellectual godfather of the Confederacy.
Well, Republican UUs are not unknown even in our time. Bob Packwood, William Cohen and Nancy Johnson come to mind.