{"id":7837,"date":"2006-07-03T12:27:21","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T16:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/7837.html"},"modified":"2006-07-03T12:27:21","modified_gmt":"2006-07-03T16:27:21","slug":"religious-prejudices-and-presidential-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/religious-prejudices-and-presidential-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious prejudices and presidential politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s frustrating to see evidence that [tag]religious[\/tag] [tag]prejudices[\/tag] linger<\/a> in such large numbers. The traditional [tag]bigotry[\/tag] is fading — but has been replaced with newer animus towards other minority [tag]faiths[\/tag].<\/p>\n

Most traditional barriers to religion in presidential elections have toppled, a new Los Angeles Times\/Bloomberg poll has found. In particular, the survey released today shows that [tag]anti-Semitism[\/tag] and [tag]anti-Catholicism[\/tag] are fading among voters.<\/p>\n

But uneasiness about some religions persists. Thirty-seven percent of those questioned said they would not vote for a [tag]Mormon[\/tag] presidential candidate, and 54% said no to the prospect of a Muslim in the White House.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In all, 21% said they would not vote for an [tag]evangelical[\/tag] Christian, 15% said no to a Jewish presidential candidate, and 10% said they wouldn’t back a Catholic candidate.<\/p>\n

The ill will towards Mormons is of particular interest now in light of Massachusetts Gov. [tag]Mitt Romney[\/tag]’s likely campaign. It’s going to be an issue — as Amy Sullivan recently explained<\/a>, the GOP’s religious-right base tends to look at Mormanism as “a [tag]cult[\/tag].” (The Constitution insists there can be no “religious test of public office,” but there’s nothing stopping Republican primary voters from imposing one of their own.)<\/p>\n

Then again, to see the most intense theological fireworks, imagine the reaction if a [tag]non-believer<\/em>[\/tag] ever ran for president. According to one recent study, [tag]atheist[\/tag]s are the only ones to finish worse<\/a> than Muslims, gays, and immigrants among the general public.<\/p>\n

I’m afraid it’s only possible<\/a> on the West Wing TV show for a non-believer to make traction in presidential politics, at least for the forseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s frustrating to see evidence that [tag]religious[\/tag] [tag]prejudices[\/tag] linger in such large numbers. The traditional [tag]bigotry[\/tag] is fading — but has been replaced with newer animus towards other minority [tag]faiths[\/tag]. Most traditional barriers to religion in presidential elections have toppled, a new Los Angeles Times\/Bloomberg poll has found. In particular, the survey released today shows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}