Despite both media and personal FOTM eye-witness reports of very long lines in many polling places yesterday, we are told that voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election was 13 million fewer than in 2008.
Mitt Romney won 3 million votes less than John McCain in 2008, while Obama lost 10 million votes of his own from 2008.
Kevin DuJan of HillBuzz asks “So where did those 3 million McCain voters go?”
They surely didn’t vote for Obama yesterday.
DuJan writes, “The only thing I can think of is this.” Either Ron Paul supporters sat the election out because of what happened in the Republican National Convention between Romney’s people and Paul’s delegates, and/or Evangelicals went through with their threat to sit home because Romney is a Mormon.
Certainly Ron Paul never gave Mitt Romney his endorsement. In fact, on election day yesterday, Paul’s website actively sought to discourage Paulists from voting by publishing his essay, “Ron Paul: No Difference Between Obama and Romney“.
As for the Evangelicals, did many stay home in spite of Christian evangelist Bill Graham’s full-page ad in the New York Times endorsing Romney?
DuJan is incredulous: “And these two groups thought allowing Obama to have a second term was worth sitting home. Is that what happened? I never thought that was a realistic possibility because I can’t imagine ever allowing the Left to not just maintain power but actually expand their reach…but that’s what happened last night.”
What I do know is that I haven’t seen “dan,” a Ron Paul supporter and longtime regular FOTM commenter, come on FOTM for many weeks now. His last comment was on October 9, 2012, nearly a month ago. And as late as yesterday morning, a commenter who calls himself Joe had voiced his misgivings about voting for Romney because of the latter’s Mormon “polytheism.”
UPDATE (Nov. 8, 2012):
What some commenters to this post wrote, as well as an essay by self-described Ron Paul follower, financial consultant Ron Holland of The Daily Bell, make clear that indeed Paul cultists should be partly held responsible for “our side” losing this election. Here’s what Holland wrote:
“…the GOP leadership antagonized the 10 percent of the Republican Party electorate who supported Ron Paul for President. Of course, the establishment is still deathly scared of the Ron Paul movement and their harsh treatment and the subsequent blowback on November 6 guarantees any discussion here will be verboten and seldom mentioned for obvious reasons. While some voted for Romney, a few – as the returns show – voted third-party and many like me just sat home on election day disgusted at the entire political charade. Romney lost because he needed a majority of this 10 percent to win yet those controlling his campaign simply threw this voting block away because it threatened powerful central banking, neocon and moneyed interests supporting the GOP.”
As if all that was at stake in this election is central banking. You Ron Paul cultists make me sick. By staying home on election day, you helped reelect the devil — the most pro-abortion president in the history of U.S.A.
~Eowyn
