Are Democrats more likely to be anti-Mormon?

"Between now and Election Day," writes Peter Beinart, "anti-Mormonism is going to be the Democratic Party’s constant temptation for one simple reason: there are votes in it." I'm not sure I'd call it the party's "constant temptation," but Beinart is certainly right that bigotry against Mormons remains a politically potent force in the U.S., and that the Democrats aren't above exploiting it.

But is Beinart right that the Democrats have a bigger religious bigotry problem here than the Republicans do? The Gallup data he highlights is startling: more Democrats than Republicans say they wouldn't vote for a Mormon. Of course, it's hard to imagine that these results aren't at least partly a reflection of our political moment, at which a) partisanship continues unabated and b) one of the two parties is about to nominate a prominent Mormon for president. (When the poll was taken last summer, Romney already wore the mantle of presumptive nominee.) Most Democrats aren't willing to vote for Mitt Romney, and naturally that's who they think of when a pollster asks them about Mormons.

Meanwhile, a whole lot of Republicans have for many months been resigning themselves to the possibility of voting unenthusiastically for Romney, and for some of them his religion is a prime hangup. For these folks, the pollster's question is anything but hypothetical. It's been keeping them up at night.