Blog 5

            The Mormon religion has spread to many parts of the globe. With that have come people of many different backgrounds and previous faiths, joining together as one. But not really. Even in the church, people are allowed to have differences of opinion on personal matters. One such matter is a person’s political identity. But could even a person’s political identity be influenced by the Mormon culture?

            First, lets look at what it means to have a political identity. A political identity is “the ways that individuals categorize themselves and others…” (Samuels). Since a political identity looks at how people categorize themselves, it would be easy to then see that Mormons, having identified themselves as Mormon, would then feel some pressure to conform to a norm that has occurred within the group, as a way to further make themselves blend into and be accepted by the rest of the group. So, could this willingness to remain a part of the group that a person identifies with be able to influence how a person views their political identity?

            From my association with Mormons here in the United States, it has become apparent to me that there is a definite trend in a Mormons willingness to join a certain political party. Generally speaking, the Mormon view is that it is the norm to be a republican, this coming from conversations with many Mormons, at home in Michigan and here in Utah. From this, I have come to see that most Mormons would identify themselves as Republican. Contributing to my personal findings, in my Comparative Politics class at BYU, there was an impromptu poll taken of who identifies as being Democratic versus Republican, and most students said that they would identify themselves as being Republican (Hawkins). To add to this, I will talk personally about conversations and perceptions that I have had as a Mormon.

            While growing up, I have repeatedly been told, and had the impression, that being a Mormon also meant to be Republican. While in church, and hearing people talk when election time drew near and it suddenly became alright to talk about political topics openly, it seemed as though everyone associated with the Republican party, and that they expected everyone else at church to feel the same way. While people would debate different points in government, it always seemed end up with everyone saying that they would side with the Republican views and that that was the way to go. I also remember hearing jokes made about the Democratic party, and from repeatedly hearing how everyone aligned with the Republican party, I too came to think that having a Mormon that also was a Democrat was a very strange thing to have happen. Growing up, I honestly didn't think that there were any Mormons that were Democrats.

            Looking back at this, I have come to realize that what happened was that my views of politics were influenced since I was young, along with my view of how a Mormon was supposed to vote. Taken from the book Comparative Politics, it says that what happened with me was that my thoughts were shaped in a primordialist way, that I was influenced since childhood to think that Mormons were Republican. While there are some Mormons who are Democrats, I also think that this culture to be Republican does rub off of them as well. From a poll taken in Utah, 42% of Mormons who are Democrats have a favorable view of Mitt Romney, while 5% of Mormon Republicans in Utah actually approve of President Obama. I think that these numbers are influenced from the fact that Mormon Democrats have the feeling that at least Mitt is a Mormon, like themselves, while Mormon Republicans don’t have much to any connection to President Obama (Monson). From my person experiences, and this and other data, I do think that there is a political identity that Mormons in the U.S. feel that they have to be a part of.

Works Cited

Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. N.p.: Pearson Education, 2012.

Professor Hawkins, Professor at BYU, Comparative Politics Teacher

Monson, Quin. "Do LDS Dems like Mitt Romney." Utah Data Points. http://utahdatapoints.com/.