“Most ex-Mormons who I know will not vote for Romney under any circumstance, including Obama seeking re-election.”
Why? The religion, the liberalism or the man? Just curious.
>> Most ex-Mormons who I know will not vote for Romney under any circumstance, including Obama seeking re-election.
> Why? The religion, the liberalism or the man? Just curious.
The religion first and foremost, and secondly the fact Mitt cannot be divorced from it. Mormonism is Romney’s core. This is in contrast to Huntsman, who some ex-Mormons give a pass to, arguing Huntsman is Mormon in the same way Nancy Pelosi is Catholic.
Of course the ex-Mormons who are now Christian (many are atheist or agnostic) also will not vote for Romney because of his liberalism, whereas those who became atheist/agnostic tend to be Democrat and won’t vote for Romney because of his perceived social conservatism.
This race reminds me an aweful lot of a Canadian election that took place in the province of Ontario about five years ago. Ontario had been run by a real conservative (Mike Harris) who went soft in his last few years (like GW Bush), and left office early during his second term to be replaced by Ernie Eves, a CINO whose reputation among grass-roots conservatives was not unlike McCain’s. Of course Eves lost the election to an Obama-esque liberal with a Nancy Pelosi personality named Dalton McGuinty, who proceeded to destroy the province in much the same way that Obama has done the U.S.
McGuinty was extremely unpopular come election time.
Yet the Red Tories (aka Rich Establishment Republicans) seized the Conservative Party machinery to run John Tory - an extremely wealthy, anti-social conservative and anti-gun rights, big business patsy from the province’s most liberal area. The guy was completely out of touch with the middle class, as well as the conservative base, gun owners, and Christians. He had worked hard to marginalize and diminish their influence in the party. His thinking and that of the party establishment was as follows: McGuinty was so far to the left and so unpopular that come the election, conservatives would have no choice but to swallow hard and vote for John Tory as the only alternative to McGuinty. Of course the Red Tory establishment put John Tory forward as the only candidate that was “electable”, “moderate” - and cited heavily his corporate experience as proof he could manage the province.
What actually happened during the election is that most conservatives stayed home, or voted fourth party. McGuinty was re-elected, but grass-roots conservatives were then able to take the party back from the Red Tory establishment.