The West is not the South: Religion Edition Arizona, Colorado, Congress, Demographics, Idaho, New Mexico, The Big Strategy, Utah

If you accept the premise of MassInc in their setup between Western Republicans and Southern Conservatives, you see it somewhat bases along the lines of religion:

...Sagebrush has had to compete with Southern Comfort for the soul of the Republican Party. One difference between the two regions is that Sagebrush seems more ambivalent toward religious conservatism. Goldwater himself expressed disdain for Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority during his last Senate term, and another senator from Arizona, John McCain, pretty much burned his bridges to fundamentalist groups during his 2000 presidential run.

But, the math problem isn't simply a libertarianism lacking religion in the West and a religious based conservatism in the South. The Sagebrush region, where that quote is taken, is only one of three political regions in the West (the other two being El Norte and the Coasts). If you take into consideration the entire West, most importantly, Idaho and Utah, and New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, you see some very real divisions between the South and the West. Namely, Catholics and Mormons see politics differently than evangelical Protestants.

A little while back I wrote about how a Latter Day Saint like Massatuchets Governor Mitt Romney, would have problems making it through the Republican primaries, because Southern Christians don't consider him a real Christian:

The Southern Baptist Convention website categorizes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a "cult" that is "radically" different from historic, biblical Christianity. A faith guide issued by the influential Christian right group Focus on the Family declares that "God cannot be identified . . . with the Mormon religion's notion of god." The Focus on the Family website features a guide for teaching Christianity to children that lumps Mormons in with pagan worship. And each year, evangelical organizers behind the National Day of Prayer bar Mormons from speaking at their proceedings.

Colorado Luis also points to a rif between James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Catholic Senator Ken Salazar:

The last time Salazar went toe to toe with James Dobson and FoF, he pointed out anti-Catholic remarks that had been made by a member of the FoF board, and I observed at the time that Salazar was driving a wedge between Protestant fundies and the Catholics they are trying to unite under a right wing Christian banner. Today's "Eighth Commandment" reference -- which had to be explained by the Rocky's reporter for the Protestant readers -- is a return to that theme. Salazar is sending a message to his fellow Catholics that his attackers are a bunch of Protestant fundies. This won't help Focus one bit, and it probably will help give Salazar a little political cover the next time the archbishop goes after him.

I can't speak for Mormons, but I assume the one uniting political theme that brings most people of these three general faiths together is abortion. If you move beyond that, though, you see some real room to move for Democrats. In the Catholic sphere you've seen in the last couple of weeks real splits with Southern based Christian ideas of what politics is all about.

For example Catholic priest recently stood up against Bill O'Reilly on his War on Christmas theme, calling it a "very minor issue" and going on to bemoan the holiday has been hijacked by commercialization. On the immigration issue, the catholic bishops called on congress to ignore enforcement only solutions.

Emmett O'Connell | December 18, 2005 | Comment on This Post (2 so far) Permalink: The West is not the South: Religion Edition Arizona, Colorado, Congress, Demographics, Idaho, New Mexico, The Big Strategy, Utah

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