conservatism

Perhaps the oldest and most unanswerable question of the Bloggernacle is why do Mormons vote so overwhelmingly Republican.

I’ll try to avoid that directly, but the SL Tribune’s weekly provocateur of the dominant Utah culture, Rebecca Walsh, joins Sen. Reid’s latest lament that misguided Utah LDS so overwhelmingly align themselves with the GOP.

Democrats have been scratching their heads for years, trying to make sense of the paradox that has Reid so flummoxed: It seems counterintuitive that a state largely populated by compassionate, peaceful, faithful people who are admonished by their religious leaders to volunteer, give to the poor and live modestly and within their means should hang on the coattails of a political party that does not.

This makes no sense. Of course Mormons (and Utahns) believe in virtues such as service, charity, and sacrifice. But Walsh seems to mistakenly think that they are synonymous with supporting government action: unless the government does it, it isn’t charity.

Except she has it exactly backwards. We are taught to not wait for the government to tax and act in our place. In fact we are not performing our charitable duty unless we give and do of our own time and talents.

So where’s the disconnect? It’s in fact with Ms. Walsh. Conservative Mormons are very similar to other religious conservatives who are suspect of the government accomplishing charity and instead rely on themselves. Arthur C. Brooks has studied the poltical and religious influences on charitable giving and found that:

religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.

So putting aside social issues and other sundry reasons why Mormons vote Republican, there’s no inconsistency that a people which believes in service and charity support a party that doesn’t want to outsource them to bureaucrats.