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The Vanishing WASP

One of the few interesting things I heard while watching election coverage last night was the observation that this was the first presidential election in our country’s history where none of the main contenders for president and vice-president were white protestants.

Obama is the only protestant, but is not white.
Romney is white, but a member of the LDS church.
Biden and Ryan are both Roman Catholics (in fact, Biden was our first Catholic VP).

Not so long ago, all four were pretty much guaranteed to be white protestants, with few exceptions.

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5 Comments

  1. drew wrote:

    Andrew Tanenbaum at electoral-vote.com pointed out a little while back that it goes a lot further than the presidential race. None of the current Supreme Court justices are WASPs (6 Catholics and 3 Jews), and out of the top leadership in Congress, only Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is. Reid is a Mormon, Pelosi and Boehner are Catholic, and Cantor is Jewish.

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 12:22 pm | Permalink
  2. Arthanyel wrote:

    And this was also the first time that a Republican candidate lost on an election held November 6th.

    Bottom line is that superstition doesn’t matter, including what religion you are, except to a small percentage. The vast majority make their decisions based on more pragmatic concerns.

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 1:49 pm | Permalink
  3. just me wrote:

    So Mitch McConnell is the only “”true Christian”” {(read; Protestant) & of course, Obama is a Muslim} among those at the top? That is true irony.
    I’m sure Christ is proud of Mitch for representing him & his values so well.

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 3:22 pm | Permalink
  4. ebdoug wrote:

    http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/How-the-Faithful-Voted-2012-Preliminary-Exit-Poll-Analysis.aspx

    I find this fascinating. The more you are white protestant and the more you go to chuch, the less you vote for the candidate of the people. I.E. “holier than Thou” do not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 6:05 pm | Permalink
  5. Don wrote:

    Interesting numbers, EBDoug. Exit polling? I like that it’s the PEW folks that did this. “>D

    Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 2:18 pm | Permalink