The American people have long claimed to be free thinkers. A freethinker is someone who forms opinions and makes decisions based on independent reasoning, without being influenced by any authority or group, particularly those who oppose political leaders and religious dogma. Freethinking and secularism have always played an important role in American politics and culture. However, it can be argued that the American people may not truly be the free thinkers they claim to be since their thoughts are often influenced by religion and political divisions.
The issue of free thinking can be traced back to the history of the United States. For instance, during John F. Kennedy’s campaign in 1960, his Catholic faith became a topic of discussion. Some people feared that if he became president, he would be greatly influenced by the church and its leadership in Rome. To address this concern, Kennedy shifted his focus from his religious beliefs to promoting American values such as tolerance and fairness for all faiths and those with no faith at all.
The influence of religion on politics was also evident in the 2004 elections when candidates emphasized the importance of prayer and faith in their lives. This highlights how religion plays a significant role as followers tend to vote for someone who shares their beliefs with hopes that they will favor them in some way.
Religion has also impacted education movements aimed at Americanizing” Catholic immigrants arriving in urban areas during the 19th century. Additionally, it is believed that religion influenced women’s protests against political and civil degradation during this time period as they turned to the Bible for answers and support.
There was widespread surprise and consternation regarding the impact of religion on the 2004 presidential election results, but this should not have come as a shock given the intensity and closeness of the results. Analysts say that faith and religion have played a vital role in American elections since the United States became an independent state. Comparing the role of religion in past elections to that of 2004, analysts note that its effect has reduced. In earlier days, there used to be strong political differences among religious communities, but these have been replaced by political groups based on religion and faith.
The outcomes of American elections are affected by three different areas of religion: religious belonging, religious behavior, and religious believing. Religious belonging makes people vote for candidates who belong to their same religion based on support and togetherness as people of the same faith according to religious books such as the Bible. Religious behavior affects election outcomes because people believe that voting for a candidate who belongs to their same religious group will advocate for behaviors aligned with their own beliefs, making their religion stronger in America. Religious believing also affects election outcomes because Americans believe that voting for a person from a certain religious group will greatly influence others’ beliefs leading to candidates with more followers winning elections.
Each aspect discussed above affects how people vote and their opinions on political matters, ideology, and partisanship. A candidate’s moral values play an important role in major party coalitions while religious appeals made during presidential campaigns also significantly impact election outcomes (John, 2007). Statistics show that eight out of every ten Americans believe in God while evangelical Christians helped President George W. Bush win his second term into office due to his shared beliefs with them.
In 2008 elections much interest was put into economic issues leading both presidential candidates focusing less on social issues such as gay marriage or abortion which had previously divided Americans into two. Protestants have the majority followers in America with a percentage of 51.3 while Catholics represent 23.9% of the population. Evangelical Protestants formed a coalition that helped Bush win his second term in 2004 and although not as strong in 2008, they still supported Senator McCain especially after he chose Sarah Palin, a devout and conservative Christian, as his running mate.
Mainline Protestants were evenly divided between both candidates in the 2008 presidential elections as they were in 2000 and 2004. Barrack Obama had a significant support from black Protestants (96%) and Catholic Hispanics while McCain gained support from moderate Catholics. Jews showed skepticism but still supported Barrack Obama (John, 2008).
Gender is a factor that has affected free thinkers in American polls. Many people discriminate against candidates based on their gender. Most Americans focus on the gender of a candidate for party identification and congressional voting. At the aggregate level, gender issues are considered to be the most powerful force in shaping party identification. There have been efforts to explain the increased gender gap in American political persuasion, but context and setting greatly influence people’s decision to participate.
A study suggested that the presence of women mostly changes the nature of political discourse, leading to alienation from politics by women. In 1992, more women were persuaded to vote in a certain direction due to an increase of women candidates. The psychological engagement of women in politics was also increased by having more female candidates than previous elections (Fulton, 2007).
Although gender plays an important role in influencing American polls, many believe that if women were given equal funding for political campaigns as men there would be more female participation in politics than currently seen. Compared to earlier times, there has been an increase of female participation in politics though most Americans prefer a male president (Susan and Richard, 2006).
Income is another important factor that influences the way Americans think. The choice of a candidate in America is often affected by the fact that people will vote for someone whose policies aim to increase their own economic welfare and benefits. In most cases, a person’s economic status in America is related to their education, income, occupation, and family background. People who are in similar socioeconomic statuses are likely to vote on one side because they have similar preferences regarding public facilities and neighborhood environments. This group of people also tends to share similar values, opinions, and expectations regarding government welfare and economic issues. On the other hand, people with different economic conditions are likely to vote differently or have contrasting opinions on government policies relating to socioeconomic issues such as unemployment and taxes (Lisa 2009).
Race is an issue that prevents Americans from being considered free-thinking individuals. In the 2004 presidential election, President Bush won the popular vote by 3.5 million, but had a nationwide margin of 14 million among white voters while John Kerry had a margin of 11 million among non-white voters. These margins remain unexplained and may be due to racism. Republicans have used racial fears to create a strong white majority, mainly from the south, over the past forty years.
Racial issues were also evident in previous presidential campaigns. In 1968, Richard Nixon promised to be tough on crime which portrayed blacks as criminals and immoral to whites. In 1980, Ronald Reagan used the phrase state rights” which reminded people of when states had more freedom including freedom for racial discrimination.
Unless all Americans are willing to address race issues, the racial gap will continue to widen (Tony, 2006). Recently in the 2008 campaigns McCain referred to Joe -the boss of a small company in Ohio- as someone who would suffer because of taxes that Barrack Obama was planning on introducing. However, Joe represents blue-collar white males who wouldn’t vote for Obama because of his skin color rather than his policies.
America does not openly address race issues during campaigns but it is still present in people’s minds and most Americans do not vote freely but favor candidates based on their skin color instead. The Democratic Party nominating Barack Obama as their presidential candidate seemed like progress towards ending racial discrimination; however this was not seen during campaigns where McCain publicly announced his fear that if Obama won then Blacks may take over America and added that he believed Obama and his wife were anti-white.
This clearly shows how Americans are influenced by race when they vote for candidates (Tony, 2006). A recent poll carried out by Washington post-ABC news shows that out of 10, 3 Americans admit to being racially biased. However, this is seen as inaccurate because most Americans will not admit to having hang-ups about racial matters.
Age is a significant factor that greatly affects the so-called free thinker in American polls. It determines the information an individual gains regarding a certain election exercise. Older people tend to believe everything they hear on the media, which might make them vote in a particular direction. Additionally, older people perceive young candidates as not fully matured and end up voting for an older candidate instead.
Furthermore, most aged people seek religion for consolation and psychological support. This means that their religious leaders highly influence their decision-making when it comes to polls.
In conclusion, it is clear that the American people are not as free-thinking as they claim to be in polls. This is evident in their tendency to be biased in certain directions. Religion plays a significant role in shaping our thoughts, as many of us tend to believe what our religious leaders tell us. Gender also affects our thinking, as people of different genders tend to think and influence each other’s thoughts within their group. Similarly, people within the same income bracket often share similar ways of thinking. Race is another important factor that influences the way Americans think; for example, a white American may perceive a black American as dangerous. Finally, age plays a crucial role in shaping our thoughts and reasoning abilities at different stages of life.
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2,118 words.
Reference List
Fulton, Sarah (2007) presented a paper titled Lifting the Veil: Revealing the Hidden Influence of Gender on Congressional Election Outcomes” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, held at Hyatt Regency Chicago and Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago, IL on August 30th, 2007. The paper is available online at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p211222_index.html and was retrieved on June 26th, 2009 at 12:18. The paper spans pages 6-8.
John Clifford Green’s book, The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections,” was published in 2007. The edition is illustrated and annotated, and it was published by the Greenwood Publishing Group in Santa Barbara. The book contains 108-117 pages.
According to John Green, religion is playing a lesser role in US elections than it has in the past. This information was reported by Washington (AFP) on October 12, 2008 and is available online at the following URL: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJox4Qsb42fdfFek9omP90xs5HEQ. The article was retrieved on June 26, 2009 at 11:52 and is located on page one.
Lisa Bells discusses the race and gender issues that were present in the 2008 US presidential election. The article can be found on Helium periodicals at the following URL: http://www.helium.com/items/869631-us-elections-2008-race-and-gender-issues-in-the-presidential-election. It was retrieved on June 26, 2009, at 12:52 and spans from pages one to two.
Susan J. Carroll and Richard Logan’s book Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics” (2006) is an illustrated edition published by Cambridge University Press in the UK. It spans 128-132 pages.
Tony Favro (2008) wrote an article for City Mayors about the true colors of US elections. According to him, it’s not red and blue but black and white that matter. The article is available online at http://www.citymayors.com/politics/usa_elections_race.html and was retrieved on June 26th, 2009 at 10:23.
