The 'Evangelicals Won't Turn Out For a Mormon' Narrative Is Done, Spent, Over

So, who still wants to expose theevil secret teachingsof the Mormons, because Mitt Romney is one of them and he is running for president? This wishy-washy Beltway Wonkette hack author doesn't and can't imagine that any of the millions of liberals who've said "A candidate's religious beliefs shouldn't matter" or "Even if he was a Muslim, it wouldn't matter" would suddenly find Mitt Romney's religionin need of serious journalistic investigation.Oh, and the Evangelicals don't care, actually, as this sorta-desperate and thin Washington Post   report shows. Back in 1857, see, while the Mormons were on the move after being killed and expelled everywhere they went for being in the wrong religion, a rag-tag Mormon Militia ended up "turning the tables" and killing 120 people in Arkansas. The dead Arkansas people's descendants still talk about it from time to time. So will the Republicans there vote for Romney, after he killed all of those people? Of course they will, because that was 150 years ago and Mitt Romney didn't do it and they hate Barack Obama more than anything.

There goes the narrative, right? We've been hearing for years now about how Mitt Romney could never win a national election because the Evangelicals wouldn't vote for a Mormon.It would be an insurmountable task for the Mormon, Mitt Romney, to reach the nation's highest office,and so forth. But this seems to have ignored the fact that Romney would be running against a black person whom many believe is Muslim. Suddenly, Mormonism doesn't seem so disqualifying to old Southern evangelicals.

ThePostsent a reporter down to Carrollton, Arkansas, near the site of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, to retell the story of the Mormons' most violent clash. And then somewhere in the second half of the story, after blood has soaked the computer screen, thePostnotes, "The massacre was an anomaly for the church, because it was Mormons who were more likely to be targeted in the early days of their religion, which was founded in the 1830s and 1840s." But the people in this one rural place in Arkansas, they must really hate Mitt Romney, right? Won't turn up to vote for him, right? "There aren’t many places in America more likely to be suspicious of Mormonism," thePostwrites, setting up the narrative, "and potentially more problematic for Mitt Romney, who is seeking to become the country’s first Mormon president."

And yet, there is scant evidence that Romney’s religion is making much difference in how voters here are thinking about the presidential election and whether they are willing to back the former Massachusetts governor.

“I think the situation right now is more anti-Obama than any other situation,” said Dave Hoover, chairman of the Carroll County Republicans.

[...]

Indeed, many here say their political values will be more important to their vote than religion or history. A rural and deeply religious community, many cite the cultural issues of abortion and gun rights as foremost on their minds. The weak economy has deepened their dislike of President Obama, who received less than 40 percent of the vote in Arkansas in 2008.

[...]

Some here also are skeptical of the president’s faith, believing their choice this fall is between a Mormon and a Muslim (Obama has repeatedly affirmed his Christian faith).

None of that history, though, including the massacre, may make much of a difference at the polls.

“That was 200 years ago,” Doug Steele, 45, a Republican insurance agent related to some of the massacre victims, said over a chicken sandwich at Granny’s Kitchen in Huntsville. “It’s been a long time. You can’t hate forever.”

You can't hate forever. How sweet. You've got to put your prejudices aside, indeed. Doug Steele has grown.

Now go get the Kenyan Muslim terrorist who kills white people for fun, Mitt!

[ WP ]