Mormons Democrats?

Blog 5: Political Identity

Constructivism

            The LDS identity within the United States is very prevalent where Mormons are found. In comparing Utah to California, both states have many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Utah has more members per capita. The increase in Mormons per capita in Utah compared to California strengthens the political identity of Mormons in Utah. A political identity that is more prevalent in any given group gains momentum from all that is happening around them. This provides correlative support for the primordialist theory, but it has a major flaw; no one is forced to continue living in accordance to the norms of a particular group.

With this said, Utah Data Points has polled Non-Mormon Utah democrats to find whether or not religion matters in voting for a presidential candidate. When polling these democrats, twenty three percent supported Mitt Romney, a Mormon candidate. These statistics follow typical trends until religion is introduced when polling Mormon democrats. The effect is an increase to forty two percent from twenty three percent showing a correlation between Mitt Romney and Mormon supporters. Even though The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will never intervene in political matters, unless faced opposition to their beliefs, Mormons support Mitt Romney. It would be a different case if Mormons of the church would have announced all shall vote for Romney, but it is not so and he is still leading in the polls among Mormon voters.

Why would Mormons vote for Mitt Romney if their church is not endorsing Romney? “Primordialism also ignores the possibility that individuals can and do choose and sometimes change their own identities. While it is true that individuals develop powerful emotional and psychological attachments to identity groups early in life, they may also adopt new and different forms of identity later on” (Samuels 114). The primordialistic approach seems to count for much of the behavior within the life of a normal everyday Mormon, but that would be an ecological fallacy to assume all Mormons are the same. The group classified as Mormons as a whole is known for being conservative Republicans; this does not mean that all Mormons politically vote the same way way. The constructivist approach clearly is more accurate because it takes into account the effect of a future change in your identity. The variable more influential is possibly where you live and not where, when or how you were born.  Even though your childhood and youth affects your future, the groups you associate with tend to influence you more than your favorite super hero as a child.

According to the in-class lecture, a comparison can be drawn to show the major influences on individuals’ political identities. Using the example of the Mormon identity in the United States, it can be said that an individual who is Mormon is first influenced by his religion, then political party, and favorite sports team. Because his religion is most influential, his political identity will be influenced to a greater extent by being Mormon. On the other hand, because these identities can change, the theory of constructivism is more credible. While the primordialistic theory does point to a few specific cases of credibility, it cannot give cause for a political identity because of how often influences change.

References

Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.

Monson, Quin. Do LDS dems like Mitt Romney. Utah Data Points. August 22, 2012. http://utahdatapoints.com (accessed October 11, 2012).