Mormon Political Identity - Blog 5

Meghan Maddock

Blog 5 – Political Identity

            “I’m a white, middle class Republican. And I’m a Mormon,” reads a satirical article title in Brigham Young University’s political newspaper, lifting its structure from the now famous “I’m a Mormon” commercials. Mormons and those familiar with them may find such parodies amusing, but only because they have a ring of truth. Are American Mormons not, for the most part, Republicans, or so the stereotype says? Do Mormons even have a political identity? 

A political identity is defined here as an identity that significantly shapes the political decisions of those with that identity (Hawkins). Upon examination of statistics, it becomes clear that American Mormons do, in fact, have a strong political identity. Nationwide, fifty-nine percent of Mormons identify themselves as Republicans, while only twenty-seven percent of Americans who are not LDS do the same. Only fourteen percent of Mormons identify as Democrats, while thirty seven percent of those who aren’t LDS do the same. In Utah, LDS political identity is even stronger, with Mormons more than nine times as likely to be Republicans than they are to be Democrats (Gehrke). According to surveys, Mormons consistently have the highest percentage of self-identified Republicans of any religion (Rolly). The stereotypes are true; American Mormons are very likely to identify as Republicans and very unlikely to identify as Democrats, especially when compared with the rest of the country’s population.

It must be true that American Mormons have a political identity, but how was this identity created? How was it that being LDS began to affect the way Mormons vote? There are two approaches to explaining the politicization of identity. One is primordialism, which assumes that political identities are relatively unchanging. Primordialists believe that political identity is either possessed at birth or formed during early childhood. Constructivism, on the other hand, assumes that political identities are “constructed” by humans, and thus evolve (Samuels 153).

If primordialism is the more correct theory, American Mormons must have had the same political identity since the restoration of the Church. At the very least, there should be evidence that Mormons have shared a political identity for some time. However, data shows that the politicization of Mormonism is a recently occurring phenomenon. In 1974, President, then Elder, Ezra Taft Benson made a statement in an interview that he believed it would be very difficult for a righteous Mormon who understood the Gospel to be a liberal Democrat. Before this statement was made, Utahans, and Mormons by extension, were remarkably politically diverse. Approximately one-third identified as Republican, one-third as Democrats, and one-third as Independents (Rolly).  It is clear that LDS political identity in America has changed over the past several decades, and thus it cannot be an innate characteristic of the religion.

What has caused the change? It is difficult to say. Some believe that the polarization of American politics in recent decades has led many moderate Mormons to choose a side, and that they usually pick the Republican camp. The Church has also taken typically Republican stances on abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, and same-sex marriage, which might have caused those who disagree, usually liberal Democrats, to leave the Church (Gehrke). Whatever the cause, it is clear that the Church, or at least its membership, is not truly politically neutral and the Mormon political identity is a fairly new phenomenon, not an inherent trait of the religion (Rolly).    

Works Cited

Gehrke, Robert. "Survey: Mormons Embrace GOP, Shun Democrats." The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.

Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Identity." PL SC 150. Joseph F Smith Building, Provo. 10 Oct. 2012. Lecture.

Rolly, Paul. "Rolly: Hatch and the Mormon Card." The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Apr. 2012. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.

Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.