24 September 2014

Politics is the New Religion

Vox reports that there's been a stunning rise in the number of people who say they'd be displeased if their child married someone of the opposite party.

Nearly half of Republicans would be upset at having to include a Democrat around the table at Thanksgiving. (Of course if you want to avoid that, it's probably best not to reproduce.) Even a third of the more tolerant Democrats are likely to be unhappy about such cross-ideological breeding.





Meanwhile, Pew reports on marriage (a record number of Americans have never been married), showing that similar ideas about how to raise a child and having a steady job are more important than shared moral and religious beliefs. Religion is less important to the average unmarried man or woman when finding a spouse than politics is to the average Republican when it comes to finding a daughter or son-in-law.

Politics might be the new religion. For Republicans, in any case, a litmus test of belief in the workings of the invisible hand of the market seem nearly as important as faith in the invisible workings of more traditional spirits.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I linked to this post from my blog, so if you get three more hits than normal, you'll know where they came from!

Big Mark 243 said...

... I came here because of the link in Thomas' blog..! I just watch a Chomsky documentary that talks about how the Military-Industrial Complex is running things... and another on the TV Guide channel that indicated how politicized the American urge to war has become... and I think that this ties in to what the polls here show... Republicans, who believe in forcing things unto people, are more for war in spite of anything else, particulary if it is draped in values that appeal to them, which, IMO, do not include the freedom to live without the threat of being bombed...