As an update on the resounding defeat of the religious right, here we get some first hand info on how breaking the law and spreading long-debunked lies worked for them:
New polling data from the Faith and Freedom Coalition, headed by pro-life advocate Ralph Reed, shows that the evangelical turnout was up in 2012 for Mitt Romney compared to the 2008 numbers for John McCain.
A national post-election survey commissioned by the Faith and Freedom Coalition last night found that the evangelical vote increased in 2012 to a record 27% of the electorate and that white evangelicals voted roughly 78% for Mitt Romney to 21% for Barack Obama. This was the highest share of the vote in modern political history for evangelicals, Reed said.
Catholic voters who regularly attend Mass broke 67% for Romney to 32% for Obama. This represented a swing of 35% in the direction of the GOP since 2008. Romney also won white Catholics by a margin of 59% to 40%, a margin of 19 points among a group that historically has voted for the winner. Nevertheless, Obama narrowly won the Catholic vote driven largely by over-performing among Hispanic Catholics.
“Virtually the entire increase in Mitt Romney’s vote compared to John McCain’s in 2008 came because of higher turnout and higher support from evangelical voters,” said Glen Bolger, the pollster who conducted the survey.
Of course, all of that did not come without a lot of planning.
Reed’s group predicted the heavy evangelical turnout before the election. The group made over 122 million voter contacts to evangelicals, faithful Catholics, and other voters of faith in key states. It had a voter education effort that included 23 million pieces of mail, 21 million get-out-the-vote calls, 18 million text messages and emails, and 30 million voter guides distributed in 117,000 churches.
I do not wish to fall into the trap of wishful thinking. But if having the highest numbers in their history, along with the least independence of opinion in their ranks, wasn’t enough to pull a win, doesn’t it mean that as a movement, they are past their zenith?
Reed added: “If the Republican Party wants to be competitive in national elections, it will have to nominate candidates who can appeal to young voters, women, Hispanics and other minorities. Otherwise, they will likely see more elections similar to the 2012 outcome. The good news for the GOP is many of those voters are conservative and are people of faith.”
Here is an idea, Ralph. Keep spewing your homophobic bile, even though this seems to be precisely why young people are turning against you. Keep trying to deny women access to reproductive choices and birth control coverage. And say nothing as others in your party continue to stereotype minorities and the poor as the parasitic “47%”.
You do all that, and I promise, in four years, I will be laughing at you even harder.
