Maren Peterson

Professor Hawkins

11 October 2012

Blog Five

There are two main thoughts on the idea of political identity and how it is constructed. The first thought is primordalist, which argues that you are born with your identity, or it is given to you in a very early age. This is a valid argument, your family and situation in life when you are young can give you a very solid grounding in your identity. It is not, your entire identity, which leads us into the idea co Constructivism. Constructivism is the idea that your political identity is changeable, and that your identity is something which you learn to discover. This theory suggests that your identity can be shaped by what you go through and how you come to perceive yourself. This is more likely, as peoples political views do change over time.

There is a Mormon identity right now, but it is not as strong as some would think. There is a strong consensus that Mitt Romney’s campaign is good for the Mormon faith, in that we will get a lot more coverage on news. However, about 20 % of Mormon Democrats in the state of Utah look favorably on Romney and his campaign, with another 19% at somewhat favorably.

These statistics are not strong enough to suggest that the Mormon identity overcomes political identity. In fact, it seems to suggest the opposite, at a total of 39% looking somewhat favorably on Romney, that leaves over half of Mormons not quite liking what they see in his campaign. The majority of Mormons are Republicans. It allows them to believe in their religion while also applying it to politics, arguing that government should stop spending so much money and protecting the moral standing of the country. Democrats, on the other hand believe that moral freedom should be allowed. Consequently, the majority of those belonging to devout Christian faiths are Republicans- a majority, not all. Simply because a person subscribes to a certain faith doesn’t mean that they must also subscribe to the political beliefs that the majority of those of that faith share. 

This argument leans towards the idea of constructivism. While a fair amount of those who don’t care for Romney could possibly be converts, there also has to be an amount that were born into the church. Those who were born to the church would have had to fight the idea of the those that were teaching them from a young age and possibly their parents views. 

While many of the Mormons are Republican, there is a growing number of Mormons who are identify as Democrats and Libertarians. The political identity connecting Mormons is weak at best, they connect primarily to the political party that they identify with, not their religion. The interesting thing about this is that religion is supposed to be one of the core factors of civilization, it has inspired many wars and expansion through the world. The fact that people are separating church and state in their heads is fascinating. It speaks of a changing world, one where religion is not necessarily the basis of all out opinions, or at least, we can differing personal opinions on what is right and what is law.

Work Cited

Frei, Matthew. "Do LDS Dems like Mitt Romney?" Utah Data Points. N.p., 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://utahdatapoints.com/2012/08/do-lds-dems-like-mitt-romney/>.

Patterson, Kelly. "What Do Mormons Think about Governor Romney’s Candidacy?" Utah Data Points. N.p., 25 June 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://utahdatapoints.com/2012/06/what-do-mormons-think-about-governor-romneys-candidacy/>.