It appears as though MSNBC's Martin Bashir is bent on painting Republicans as anti-Mormom bigots who are terrified of their own presumptive presidential nominee's faith. In a completely ridiculous and extreme statement on his program Tuesday, Bashir claimed that, “he [Mitt Romney] won't talk about his Mormonism because many Republicans see that religion as a cult.”
While there certainly are some folks who happen to be Republicans who believe this, Bashir wants his gullible audience to believe this sentiment is widespread among the GOP. Apparently Bashir doesn’t know that anti-Mormonism is more common among Democrats not Republicans.
According to a Gallup poll released on June 21, 24 percent of Democrats would not vote for a well-qualified Mormon who was nominated by their party versus 18 percent of Republicans expressing such opposition.
Bashir’s attempts to paint Republicans as evangelical bigots is patently false as prominent Southern Baptist leader Richard Land expressed, “most evangelicals already know what Mormonism believes and most of them are prepared to vote for Mitt Romney in a general election against Barack Obama in spite of his Mormonism.”
If Martin wants to talk about the fears people have towards Mormons he should talk to the nearly 1 in 4 Democrats who wouldn’t vote for one instead of denouncing the religious bigotry that doesn’t exist among rank-and-file Republicans.
