What Political Issues Divide Latter-day Saints By Generation?
Israel, Immigration & Police Force Top The List
Introduction
Previously, we discussed while most religions moved towards the Republican party the past 20 years, Latter-day Saints actually moved away from it. Also, we saw this change was driven by the youngest generation.
Today, let’s talk about the specific political/economic issues where Latter-day Saints are most divided by generation and how it compares the generational divide in the US overall. Perhaps it can give us some insight into what is driving this change.
We’ll use data from the Cooperative Election Study where ~ 60 issues were asked about. I just have one break in these charts under 45 and over 45 to consolidate the sample (for most questions, under 45 had 252 respondents and over 45 had 370).
Charts
For this first chart, I categorized the issues into different topics and as you can see the biggest generational issue differences were in the topic of immigration. For context, I also have a link to the largest category issue differences in the US overall.1 The issue gaps are similar between Mormons and US Overall. Interestingly, the Mormon generation gap is slightly larger than the gap for the US overall generation for every category except Economic & Welfare issues. So, it’s safe to say that Mormon generation gap isn’t likely due to that category.
In the chart below, I try and paint a bit of color into these categories by revealing the top 3 issue gaps by category.
Here are a few things that stick out to me from this chart…
There are definite themes. Most immediately, the largest gaps in individual issues are related to public safety/police. Older Mormons think we should increase spending on law enforcement (73% vs. 40%) and increase the police force (75% vs. 39%) while younger Mormons are more likely to want to decrease the police force (30% vs. 10%).
The next largest gaps are in attitudes toward Israel. Older Mormons are more likely to support providing arms to Israel (43% to 14%) and sending US troops to the Israel/Gaza region (34% to 14%) and Younger Mormons are more skeptical. Because the combined 17 item category for Foreign Policy & Military does not show as many differences as some of the others. It suggests that Older and Younger Mormons may not agree on Israel, but do agree on other foreign policy issues (such as “using the military to protect allies” 75% older Mormons to 78% younger Mormons)
The last one I’ll point out is immigration. There are only 5 questions in the CES about immigration and there is a sizable generation gap for all of them.
“Deny Asylum at the border” 81% of older Mormons support while only 57% of younger Mormons do.
“Increase Border Patrols” 93% of older vs. 69% of younger
“Build wall on US Mexico border” 71% of older support vs. 56% of younger
“Citizenship pathway for dreamers” 78% of younger support vs. 58% of older.
What About Social Issues? Gay Rights? Racial Discrimination?
When you look at the average for social issues, it is about a 10 point gap across all issues asked about which is the second lowest category gap. But, this doesn’t mean the generations agree on everything. The results are mixed.
Here are a few issues with the largest differences:
“Require federal same-sex marriage recognition” A majority of young Mormons support (61%), but only 44% of older Mormons do. A 17 point gap.
“White people have racial advantages” 45% of younger Mormons agree, and only 26% of older Mormons agree. A 19 point gap.
“Minorities overcame prejudice without special favors” A strong majority of older Mormons agree (72%), but not so for younger Mormons (49%). A 23 point gap.
And here are few issues with the smaller differences:
“Prevent gender transition surgery for minors” 74% of younger LDS agree and 81% of older cohorts (7pts)
“Prohibit mailing abortion inducing drugs” 53% of younger LDS agree and 56% of older cohorts (3pts) and most other abortion questions don’t show much difference by age.
“Age verification for online adult content” 89% of younger LDS agree and 95% of older cohorts (6pts)
Younger Mormons are more likely to lean left on LGBTQ and Racial social issues compared to older Mormons with some sizable gaps (20pt+), but both groups share similar views on other ones such as gender transition surgeries, abortion, and pornography.
Below I included the full list of issues across all categories for LDS and in the footnotes included the full list of issues for the US overall so you can compare and contrast for those who might be interested.2
The Top Generational Issues Are Similar Comparing The US Overall & Mormons
Looking at the top issues overall, across each category the generational gaps are similar which suggests that the national forces are likely acting upon Mormons and Non-Mormon youth in a similar way.
One notable difference is in attitudes towards Israel. There is a larger generational gap among Mormons than the US overall in providing arms to Israel (29pt difference for Mormons to 23pts difference for US Overall) and sending troops the Israel/Gaza region(20pt difference for Mormons to 8pt difference for US Overall).
Conclusion
The largest generational political differences among Mormons are Immigration, Public Safety/Police Force, and the US Relation to Israel. These are largely the same as the generational difference to the US overall with some nuance in attitudes toward Israel.
What do you think of the post this week? Are these the issues you expected? Why are Mormons divided by generation on issues over Israel and more so than the US Overall?
As a caveat, we looked at 60 issues, but this is not an exhaustive list of political issues. There may be other issues that show interesting gaps, but we just don’t have the data for. For example, I think drilling in more to LGBTQ issues would yield some interesting findings. Do younger Mormons think its wrong at the same rate as older mormons?
As always the code is available here.
Numbers for US overall
Numbers for US Overall
