We know now that Willard Mitt Romney was convinced that he would be the winner of the 2012 presidential election -- so convinced that he did not even consider writing a concession speech. Romney's misguided confidence was based on some seriously flawed internal polls. The fundamentalist christian right-wing was also convinced that Romney could not lose the election, but their belief was not based on polls. Instead , it was based on arguments they had constructed --arguments that we now know were just myths waiting to be busted by the voters.The good folks over at Alternet, who have a penchant for making good lists, has composed a list of the 5 delusions of the religious right that had them convinced their GOP "warriors" would be victorious on election day. Here is their list:
Myth #1: Americans want a ‘True Conservative’
This is obviously untrue, since their conservative candidate lost both the popular and electoral vote. Of course, they are now saying that Romney just wasn't conservative enough -- and a "real" conservative would have won. That's just silly -- to think that voters preferred a moderately liberal Democrat because the Republican candidate wasn't conservative enough. If the voters had wanted a conservative, they would have voted for one.
Myth #2: Blacks will Defect from Obama over Gay Rights
Either the African-American voters believed in equal rights for everyone, or they thought there were more important issues than denying gays/lesbians equal rights. More than 90% of African-American votes went to the Democrats. If the right ever wants to make inroads into the African-American community, they need to abandon their message of hate. Having been the victims of bigotry for far too long, African-Americans can smell hate from a mile away -- and they don't like it.
Myth #3: Hispanics are ‘Natural Allies’ of the Religious Right
The idea here is that Hispanics are against women's rights (especially abortion rights) and equal rights for gays/lesbians. That is just not true. Hispanics have also been on the wrong end of bigoted hate, and the hate argument is as wasted on them as it is other minority groups. And Hispanic voters are not stupid. They know which party (and candidates) have supported and tried to help them, and which ones have not (and the GOP fails miserably here). Romney got only 27% of the Hispanic vote, even worse than the paltry 31% that McCain got in 2008.
Myth #4: Catholics Abandoning Obama for ‘Declaring War’ on the Church
This one was also just not true. While a few catholic leaders may have disliked the president, that was not the feeling of catholic voters in general. A majority of catholic voters voted for President Obama, just like they did in 2008. And this was in spite of the fact that one of the GOP candidates (Ryan) was a catholic.
Myth #5: Evangelical Wave Waiting in the Wings
Many on the religious right thought there was a huge wave of protestant evangelical voters just waiting to vote against the president. While evangelical voters did vote heavily for Romney, they did so in about the same numbers that had voted for McCain in 2008. And it wasn't nearly enough to counter the votes of liberal and moderate whites, minorities, young people, and the non-religious voters (who are growing much faster than any fundamentalist religious group).
