Political Identity

Blog 5 LDS Political Identity

Is there a political identity amongst LDS church members? If there is, is it significant enough to be noticeable in voting patterns for these members? First we must define what an identity is and more specifically what a political identity is to be able to come to a conclusion of these questions. Once we do, we will find that for the majority of the LDS members, there is one political party that they vote for.

Identity is the human capacity to form groups amongst themselves based on a common race, language, religion, etc. Thus political identity is when a certain identity that we group ourselves to influences our political decisions (Hawkins). To say that there is a political identity within the LDS community, one must look at both Utah and the nation as a whole. And throughout the church across the nation, it is well known that the average LDS member votes republican and is conservative. However, this isn’t true for all but is true for the majority. The reason that this is true is that much of the doctrine the LDS members receive on government and philosophical views comes from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. These books tell many stories that have to do with how government should work, and what happened in certain countries (Mos 29, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants 134). The LDS members for the most part, interpret these in the conservative or Republican way because these ideas are portrayed this way more obviously.

 And because of the lack of influence from the church’s leaders to vote for specific nominees or policy, the members are left to research the topic in the Book of Mormon, and also with their own beliefs and their experiences from their lives (Mormon News Room). Thus these elements include both the primordialist and contructivist arguments. Primordialism is the idea that childhood experiences and family influence identities. Constructivism is the idea that one’s political identity can be malleable (Samuels) However, these are more constructivist theory when looking at the research side in the Book of Mormon. But when children are raised with this idea from their parents, it turns to influence the children, which is a primordialist idea. Thus this contains both theories.

Although, the reason why the political identity exists here is because the children are raised with the conservative ideas already from their parents who molded their beliefs from the earliest generations of the church because of the ideas of the Book of Mormon conforming to a specific political party, i.e. the Republican. This idea is evident when looking at polls. “A higher proportion of Utah Democrats have a favorable impression of Mitt Romney (23%) than the approval of Utah Republicans of Barack Obama’s job performance (5%). 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 (Monson).” This is striking evidence for the idea that there is an identity because 42% of Mormon Democrats favor Romney, which is almost double that of non-Mormon Democrats. This is because the LDS members who are Democrats trust Romney because they are part of his identity as an LDS member, and further, they know what he believes and how he carries himself because he belongs to this identity. Therefore the LDS identity has had political ramifications and influenced the way people think of the candidates. This confirms the idea of a soft political identity existing within the LDS community. This is significant when looking at just Utah and we will find that nearly the same holds true for the nation as a whole.

Overall, the political identity exists in the LDS community because of the primordialist view that parents, who have already interpreted the ideas, influence their children’s thoughts on politics. There is also a common trust within people of the same identity, which can be seen in the Mormon Democrats’ view of Romney. These ideas reveal that there is a political identity in LDS community and there will be as long as the primordialist idea prevails in this identity.

Work Cited

Professor Hawkins, Political Science 150, 10/10/12, Brigham Young University

The Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants.

Mormon News Room. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/official-statement/political-neutrality

Utah Data Points. Quin Monson “Do LDS Dems Like Romney?” August 22, 2012

David J. Samuels, Comparative Politics. Pg 153