Could it be that there are many Republicans who didn’t vote for Romney because he is Mormon?
I saw someone on another thread post up “www. vote for jesus .com.” There were 2.3 million people that signed up on that site swearing that they would not vote for a “Satanic Mormon!” Not in line with my faith buddy! Fools! I don’t believe in Mormonism. It is a cult because they don’t believe that Jesus is Lord, but It didn’t sway my vote for a business man over a puppet! I don’t want a theocracy - I want a free country!!
I think that was a factor. Mormonism is seen as a fringe religion by most evangelicals. They are taught about this in Sunday School as they grow up. I hate to use the term "cult" about such a relatively significant number of Americans, but, being raised as a conservative Christian, whose Holy Book is the King James Bible, that's what I was taught.
It doesn't really matter that Mormons are generally moral and conservative people, and I don't even think the polygamy thing is that big of a deal. After all, polygamy was practiced by Old Testament patriarchs.
However, once you examine the history and teachings of the LDS church, the word "cult" does retain some validity. Combine that with some rather strident Protestant indoctrination during one's formative years, and there's probably many evangelicals who had a problem with it. Heck, Cathoholics (sorry, I couldn't resist) have had issues attracting votes from a Protestant electorate, so why wouldn't we expect a Mormon to have an even tougher go of it?
So I think that represents a portion of these 3 million voters who didn't show up, but probably not the majority of them. Also, given that that still would only have meant a 180,000 vote advantage in the popular vote, even that probably wouldn't have been enough, which is disturbing.
I think that the real solution for the future is to do a better job articulating libertarian/conservative/classical liberal principles to our fellow citizens, especially minorities, and to get them to join with us. Make them understand what being on the plantation really does: creates dependency, erodes their freedoms, destroys their prosperity, and ultimately imposes Tyranny on all Americans. We can't just preach to the choir, we have to convert more to the cause of Freedom. We have to show people that Santa Claus will eventually go broke and only be able to give everyone a lump of coal, not a cell phone.