so the individuals and their beliefs I will have to yield to you.
Turnout went from 2004 330,000 to 2008 960,000 (aprox.) Where did those 600,000 extra voting Democrats come
from in the primary? The mistake a winning party often makes is to convince themselves that all of the votes for their candidate represents a mandate for every policy which had previously been rejected by the majority of people. The additional voters are mostly swing/Independent voters and some newly energized voters. Most of them are voting against the opposition not necessarily for the policies of the party. As quickly as they arrived they can and will depart if they are crossed. Gun control isn't a democratic nor a progressive belief, it is mainly an urban/white collar vs. rural/blue collar issue. The urban/white collar/self proclaimed intellectual Democrats cannot win elections without the rural/blue collar Democrats. Gun control has proven over and over to be a huge looser for Dems, to start back down that road now is suicide for the party.
I just looked at VA election results here
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/Election_Information/Election_Results/Index.htmlThe site is seriously lacking, infact almost to the point of being unbelievable. The stats are there for both parties for the 2008 Presidential primaries, the 2004 presidential primaries are only showing the Democratic numbers for some reason?? Without the Republican numbers for 2004 it is impossible to determine the answer to your question. I suspect that the numbers would shed some light on the issue...keeping in mind that 2008 voter turnout across the country was better than for many years.
Bottom line..want to loose in the next cycle? Just revert back to the same loosing strategy used before, one of the biggest being gun control.