The Left Is Already Starting Its Mormon Punching

Gee what would we do for amusement without the Angry Left's hypocrisy?

Lefty site Buzzfeed has a nifty article about a new 'study' claiming that anti-Mormon hatred is spiking among people the study described as 'liberals':

Americans' aversion to voting for Mormons has spiked since Mitt Romney's first presidential bid in 2007 — and that the people most wary of Mormon candidates are not Evangelicals, but rather political liberals and non-religious voters, according to new research from a leading scholar of anti-Mormon attitudes.

The overall increase in anti-Mormon attitudes among liberals may be an unanticipated consequence of the "the continuing candidacy of Mitt Romney and Mormon activism against same-sex marriage," the study suggests. And its findings may be alarming to the Romney campaign because among the study's other findings is that voters' perceptions of Mormonism are closely tied to whether they'll vote for him.

According to American National Election Studies, nearly 35 percent of national respondents said in February they were "less likely" to vote for a Mormon. That's up nine points from 2007, when Pew found 26 percent of voters expressing concern about pulling the lever for a Latter-day Saint.

The uptick in anti-Mormon voter attitudes may come as a surprise to those who predicted Romney's candidacy would have a mainstreaming effect on his faith. But as University of Sydney scholar David Smith, the paper's author, writes, just as President Obama's successful candidacy didn't put an end to tense race relations in America, Romney's political assent hasn't cured the country of anti-Mormonism. In fact, as the data shows, Romney's rise may have lead to increased anxiety about his religion among his natural political opponents.

"Aversion to Mormons is still an important foce in American public opinion, and one that seriously affects Romney's chances even if he ultimately overcomes it," Smith writes in his paper.

Don't you just love this? Even if Romney wins, he loses according to this 'conventional wisdom'! And from someone who appears to have made something of a career writing about the supposed evils or Mormons.

Buzzfeed also gives itself plenty of wiggle room, saying there's an important caveat: 'the survey data was collected in late February and early March — in the heat of the Republican primaries.'

Which of course doesn't answer the main question - why did Buzz feed find this dated survey whose results they're qualifying with all their might so worthy of attention? I mean, is it really newsworthy that a lot of secular leftists have very little good to say about any religion...except maybe Islam?

Three guesses.

Once again, if Mitt Romney's religion is fair game, so is Barack Obama's 20 year attendance in Reverend Wright church and his embrace of Black Liberation theology.

If there's going to be a mud fight, let's all play.

Is that what the left really wants?