Where have the 2004 voters gone?

I don't remember any Republican in 2004 telling me that it would be the end of America if John Kerry won the election.  2012 was another story... it seemed like I was being told every single day that it was the most important election in our nation's history.  Yet Mitt Romney still fell short of Bush's vote tally by about two million votes, despite the stakes being much higher this time than they were back in 2004.  Where the heck did all those Republican voters go?  How on earth does someone show up to vote against John Kerry but stays home when a president with a record worse than Jimmy Carter's is asking for a mulligan?

Republicans already have enough of an uphill battle winning over all the stupid and/or crazy voters out there... why make it any harder?  If you watched Romney wiping the floor with Obama in that first debate and came out of it thinking there was no difference between those two men, then you need to get your head examined (preferably by someone other than Dr. Ron Paul).

Conservatives need to stop letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, or we'll be out of power for the next 40 years.  I'm not saying we should nominate nothing but squishy moderates, I'm just saying we shouldn't be so quick to tar everyone with the RINO brush.  We can't let ourselves get as hysterical as some of the freaks on the other side, and then let that hysteria turn into apathy if we don't get our way on everything... we can't afford apathy in the face of political zealots who are quite happy to destroy the country so long as the GOP gets blamed for it.

Update:  Hmmm... Ramesh Ponnuru has an interesting take on the so-called "purge of conservatives" from committees in the House that has so many people calling for John Boehner's head.