Birth and Encouragement

    Utah has long been well known for being an extremely red, Republican state.  However, the question is, at least in part, whether this is due to the large Mormon population in Utah.  If so, why would the fact that there are Mormons in Utah change the political swing of the state?

            Utah is largely Republican due to the large Mormon population, and this is because Mormons have a largely Republican political identity.  Or if a Mormon does not consider themselves Republican, they are much more likely to have a favorable opinion of Republicans than a non-Mormon democrat.  Utah Data Points states this through statistical data.

It is probably shared religious experience that best explains Democrats’ affinity for Romney.  While 23% of all Utah Democrats view Governor Romney favorably, that proportion goes up to 42% when looking only at Mormon Democrats. Only 16% of Democrats from other faiths and 19% of non-religious Democrats say the same. The comparison is even more striking when comparing the proportion of respondents who indicated that they have a “strongly favorable” view of Romney. 19% of Mormon Democrats have a strongly favorable view of the former Massachusetts governor while 4% of Democrats from other religious faiths and 6% of non-religious Democrats said the same.[1]

            This gives clear evidence that Utah Mormons do, in fact, have a political identity that is very favorable of Republicans.

            However, the question that is still unanswered is why this Mormon political identity came about in the first place.  We will look at the two main explanations and arguments for why a political identity comes about: the primordialist explanation and the constructivist argument.

            Using the primordial argument, this political identity must have been something that Mormons are inherently born with and it will never change and so therefore the Mormon political identity will always be Republican-favoring.  It is true that many Mormons are born to Republican families with values that tend to more closely align with the Republican platform.  Therefore, this could be one explanation for this identity.  However, what happens when someone converts to the church?  If they then become Republican, the primordial argument does not explain this phenomenon.

            Therefore, we will now look at the constructivist argument, which says that political identities are malleable and instead of them being fixed they are more viewed as an evolving political process.[2]  This argument explains how people who convert to Mormonism can take up the political identity of favoring Republicans even if they didn’t before because, since political identities are malleable, when one joins the Mormon Church, their political identity is shaped to align more with the Mormon political identity.  One can also argue that, since Mormon leaders want their church members to adhere to traditional family values, be anti-abortion and gay marriage, etc., Mormon leaders encourage this politicization of the Mormon identity because it will help give credence and support to their views when church members support a large, national organization whose platform includes these views.  This, in turn, will give leaders a influential advantage because then church members will be more likely to adhere to these views when they are passionate about them in not just the religious but also political sector of their lives.

            Overall, Mormons do, in fact, have a political identity, which is Republican/Republican-favoring and it can be explained in part by these values being engrained since birth. It can also be explained by church leaders encouraging this political identity due to it helping make members more passionate and accepting of the views Mormon leaders want their members to adhere to so the church will be stronger.

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[1] Monson, Quin. "Utah Data Points." Utah Data Points. Utah Data Points, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. <http://utahdatapoints.com/>.

[2] Samuels, David. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.