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I hope this topic hasn’t been beat to death (feel free to ignore) but I had a conversation with my father the other day that was somewhat illuminating. We were discussing the recent election (big surprise) and my father declared that he had voted for Trump. This surprised me a bit. My father is certainly very traditionally conservative in many of his opinions (“keep government out of my life”) but more liberal in others (he’s okay with things like taxes, progressive educational policies and gun control). So it didn’t shock me that he didn’t vote for Clinton. I thought my dad would vote for McMullin or some other conservative candidate or maybe even write in Romney.
But I found that there was one single reason my dad voted for Trump: the empty seat on the Supreme Court. I think I’ve underestimated how frightening that decision was for individuals from my father’s generation (and even my own). Both my wife and I have noticed and commented on this undercurrent of fear running through the casual conversations with our friends and acquaintances.
It would be easy to blame it on the spin the LDS Church put on it (you have to admit…couching this significant setback for the Church as a “religious liberties” issues, whether you agree or not, is pretty brilliant). However, I suggest that people from my and my parents’ generation were fed a regular diet of “religious persecution stories” from Mormon history. I recall one story (fictional I’m sure) where a young man was burned at the stake because he wouldn’t renounce his religious beliefs. It terrified me as a child. My more nuanced approach to the Church has allayed many of those concerns but for the hardcore Mormon who fervently believes that prediction that the last days will be filled with more persecution of the Church…Obergefell v. Hodges may seem like the beginning of the end.
So despite some of Trump’s detestable qualities, they voted for him…not out of admiration…not even in support of political ideology…but purely out of fear. I wondered if that squares with anyone else’s observations.
From what I’ve observed, fear was a factor. But, anger was the biggest factor. Anger at Obama. Anger at Clinton. Anger over the economy. Anger over special interests. Anger over taxes.
The next 4 years are going to be very interesting.
I heard the same main concern over “possible multiple Supreme Court seats”. I reminded one of these folks that trump is ok with gay marriage and I could tell I made them mad. So I stopped pointing that out. I know my parents almost voted for McMullin but then they heard that news (fake or real, idk. I think I heard it was fake) that said McMullin was only running to take votes away from Trump so Hillary could win. That turned them off to him quite quickly and they went for Trump. They are strong republican so I was surprised they even thought about voting third party. But they really didn’t like Trump, it was just that news that made them go back to him. My guess is most vote republican party lines, even when they don’t like the candidate…it is better than the alternative for them. From there…there are likely a myriad of reasons different people had for voting. Trump may even have had more of the mormon vote if Romney didn’t speak out. I wonder if that is even scarier…just because a mormon (Romney) speaks…mormons let that trusted person do their thinking for them.
On a policy standpoint…I align with Trump more than other candidates, but couldn’t bring myself to vote for him. Character lost my vote.
I think Mormons are like many other conservatives when it comes to politics. This is the best explanation I’ve read, from the HBR. https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class?referral=00134 [Admin Note]: Let’s be careful, everyone, to avoid sweeping generalizations that are insults at heart – even if they probably are true to an extent and contributing factors. Personally, I think concern over the Supreme Court was a major factor. I also think concern is a better word for a larger group of people than fear, although I know fear certainly applies to plenty of people, based solely on personal conversations and things I read from friends on Facebook.
Ray, You’re probably right. “Fear” may be overstating some people’s reactions a bit. I should also state that “one policy voting” is not unique to Mormons. Many people make their decisions based on one single factor rather than looking at the candidate’s character, philosophy, and policy plans as a whole.
I have a lot of friends who are Catholic and voted for Trump, ultimately, based almost solely on their concern about abortion. It is ironic that abortion rates decrease when scientific sex education is combined with access to birth control, which means the Democratic Party’s platform tends to reduce abortion more than that of the Republican Party, but mybfriends above simply are unable to understand that fact due to the opposing rhetoric with which they were raised.
I don’t blame them, really. They are doing what they believe. I don’t blame their parents. They taught what they believed. I don’t blame their religious leaders. They sincerely taught what they believed. All I can do is explain, over and over and over again, whenever I have a chance, and hope it sticks with some of them.
The same is true of SO many things relative to my fellow Mormons. We live in an age of easy outrage, and that outrage doesn’t help a bit. Rather it hinders educational dialogue – the only solution possible – and is a major contributing factor, I believe, in hearts growing cold.
Lots of diversity of reasons people voted….for Trump Here were mine:
1. Single Issue — the aggressive way the FTC, Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Veteran’s Affairs task force prosecuted ITT. I thought Trump’s government would be softer.
2. I saw America turning the way of Canada, my home country. Clinton’s policies would have entrenched that. And it was so frustrating when I lived there to be constantly taxed all the time, to see religion marginalized even more and more. To see government get bigger and bigger, and more involved in every aspect of my life. To always need the government to serve my needs for various services, in an often slow, indifferent, and rule-laden way, often for their own convenience rather than mine.
3. I generally am pro-business. And I thought Trump would create an environment that was conducive to economic growth, job creation, etcetera than Clinton’s government would.
I will say that I was actually a bit remorseful after he got elected because I didn’t think he would win. And he seems to unbound by convention and sometimes diplomacy, I wondered what he would do next. We shall see..
Strange, someone with less statesmanship and in my view academic brains than Romney was able to win an election when Romney couldn’t…it seems ironic to me.
I have to say, I am VERY impressed with the way our founding fathers designed the political system. I read that if CA and NY didn’t have the electoral college working against them, they would essentially determine the election year after year. The electoral college has created a balance of pendulum swings from socialism to capitalism for years that I think is healthy. And the system as a whole, has given us stability.
I wish I knew more about it– whether they took something that already existed and just adapted it to America, but it has stood the test of time for now. Makes me want to get a picture of the founding fathers for my office out of respect for what they did.
SilentDawning wrote:Lots of diversity of reasons people voted….for Trump Here were mine:
I can respect your reasons. I do agree with some of them, but the main reason I couldn’t put a check mark by Trump was
SilentDawning wrote:I wondered what he would do next.
That is my biggest fear. It is odd that some political candidates have been accused of flip-flopping (usually while in office). But it seems other than a few “crowd pleaser planks” he shifted all over the place – and even since the election has continued to do so.
SilentDawning wrote:Strange, someone with less statesmanship and in my view academic brains than Romney was able to win an election when Romney couldn’t…it seems ironic to me.
Oh so true. Many people said Romney lost because of the recorded comment making him sound elitist. Then Trump comes along and recordings of him make Romney look oh so tame and mainstream – and he still gets elected – and from a lot of conservatives.
SilentDawning wrote:I have to say, I am VERY impressed with the way our founding fathers designed the political system. I read that if CA and NY didn’t have the electoral college working against them, they would essentially determine the election year after year. The electoral college has created a balance of pendulum swings from socialism to capitalism for years that I think is healthy. And the system as a whole, has given us stability.
I wish I knew more about it– whether they took something that already existed and just adapted it to America, but it has stood the test of time for now. Makes me want to get a picture of the founding fathers for my office out of respect for what they did.
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know if they were inspired, but they really set up a good system. I have heard they were trying to setup something that human nature would fight to keep in balance rather than change human nature. I said to many people that have freaked out (on both sides) even before the election that, “This country and it’s checks and balances will endure this.” Go read why Billy Joel wrote “we didn’t start the fire.” I feel as long as the press is able to keep Trump’s feet to the fire we will be OK. I WILL be very scared if he is somehow able to silence the press.Number one rule when trying to understand other people: Assume their viewpoint makes perfectly logical sense from their perspective. Rule number two: try to understand why they have their viewpoint, but in a way that doesn’t rely on an assumption that they are less-than. Since the election, I’ve noticed a very strong tendency to reject people who voted for Trump as being somehow intellectually deficient… as in… the only explanation is mass fear or hysteria, or general racism and white supremacy. Yikes. Maybe it was just good old-fashioned, “I had to choose between two candidates that don’t represent me and I chose the one I feel will do the least damage to my view of what is important”.
I voted for someone not Trump or Clinton. But ultimately, I believe it is self-crushing to categorize those who voted differently than I did as being lacking or motivated by questionable emotions. The world will be a very lonely place if I can only understand people who think just like me.
PS. Mormons were among the most divided of coherent groups when it came to this election. As I’ve pointed out before, Trump won Utah by the lowest percentage of vote of any red state in the Union.
This table by the Pew Research Center shows how Mormons voted compared to other religious groups. It seems we Mormons voted similarly to white Catholics and Protestants, perhaps even slightly more supportive of Trump. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/ In talking with other members of our local church I can’t identify a specific issue why Mormons voted for Trump. I’ve heard gun control and abortion mentioned but it seems to be a distrust of Clinton and the Democratic Party as much as anything.
The table is fine, but we need to be careful about how we read it. “Mormon” is a group, “White Catholic” is a demographic. “Protestant/other” is not what I would consider a group. When you go to your local ward, look around and realize that one out of every three Mormon voters voted for someone other than Trump. One member of each presidency on average. I live in a blue state, not everyone here voted for Clinton… not even close. We get these labels that we stick onto everything, but in doing so, we generalize. A majority of Mormons voted for Trump, but not all. 61% is hardly landslide acceptance of a republican candidate from our “group”.
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