New Survey Dispels Myths About 'God and Guns' Americans

September 20, 2012

2:08 PM

Photo Courtesy of ReligionLink.com

God and Guns

WASHINGTON — Less than two months before Americans go to the polls to elect their president, a new national survey released today upends commonly held beliefs about white working-class Americans. The report, “Beyond God and Guns: Understanding the Complexities of the White Working Class in America,” highlights the significant divides among white working-class Americans along the lines of region, religion, gender, and age.

“Both the right and the left operate with stereotypes about white working-class Americans,” noted Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the survey. “The left has argued that white working-class Americans vote entirely on the basis of religion and traditional values and ignore their own economic interests, while more recently the right has argued that their problems are rooted in a lack of religious engagement and a weak work ethic. Neither side is right.”

The survey dispels five commonly held myths about the white working class. Contrary to popular belief, white working-class Americans do not have a strong affinity with the Tea Party movement, nor are they politically animated by culture wars issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. Rather, white working-class Americans are no more likely than white college-educated Americans to say they consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement (13 percent vs. 10 percent). And only 1-in-20 white working-class Americans say that either abortion (3 percent) or same-sex marriage (2 percent) is the most important issue to their vote.

The survey also demonstrates that white working-class Americans have not abandoned traditional religiosity and a strong work ethic, and shows that white working-class Americans do not blindly vote against their economic interests. Similarly, white working-class Americans do not embrace unfettered free market capitalism, but rather display a strong strain of economic populism.

“When it comes to America’s economic problems, white working-class Americans spread the blame widely," said Daniel Cox, PRRI Research Director. “However, one item stands out. Nearly 8-in-10 white working-class Americans say that corporations moving jobs overseas are responsible for our current economic predicament, including a majority who say corporate outsourcing is very responsible.”

The survey also finds that white working-class Americans articulate a sense of alienation from government, which they see as an outside force that often does not prioritize their needs. Six-in-ten (60 percent) white working-class Americans say that when they think about the U.S. government, they think of it as “the” government, while less than 4-in-10 (39 percent) say they think of the government as “our” government. Nearly half (49 percent) of white working-class Americans also agree that the government has paid too much attention to the problems of blacks and other minorities over the past few decades. However, white working-class Americans who live in the West (40 percent), Midwest (48 percent), and Northeast (48 percent) are less likely than white working-class Americans in the South (58percent) to hold this view.

Among the Findings:

• When the survey was fielded in mid-August, white working-class voters supported Governor Mitt Romney over President Obama (48 percent vs. 35 percent). There were substantial differences by region: white working-class voters in the South demonstrated the strongest preference for Romney over Obama (62 percent vs. 22 percent). Neither candidate held a statistically significant lead in the West (46 percent Romney vs. 41 percent Obama), Northeast (42 percent Romney vs. 38 percent Obama), or the Midwest (36 percent Romney vs. 44 percent Obama).

• White working-class Americans are unenthusiastic about both candidates. Less than half of white working-class Americans have a favorable view of Romney (45 percent) or Obama (44 percent).

• The survey debunks five widely held myths about the white working class in America:

1. Myth 1. White working-class Americans strongly identify with the Tea Party. White working-class Americans are no more likely than white college-educated Americans to say they consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement (13 percent vs. 10 percent).

2. Myth 2. White working-class Americans have abandoned traditional religiosity and a strong work ethic. White working-class Americans do not attend religious services less frequently than Americans overall (48 percent vs. 50 percent attend at least once a month), and do not report that religion is less important in their lives (60 percent vs. 59 percent say religion is important in their lives). White working class Americans also work significantly more average hours per week than white college-educated Americans (51 vs. 46 hours per week).

3. Myth 3. White working-class Americans vote against their economic interests. Low-income white working-class Americans and white working-class Americans who have received food stamps within the last two years were significantly less likely than those who have not to support Romney, whose economic plan would reduce funding for government programs like food stamps.

4. Myth 4. White working-class Americans are animated by culture wars issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Half (50 percent) of white working-class Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 45 percent who say it should be illegal in all or most cases. And while half (50 percent) of white working-class Americans are opposed to allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, more than 4-in-10 (43 percent) favor same-sex marriage.

5. Myth 5. White working-class Americans embrace unfettered free market capitalism. Seven-in-ten (70 percent) white working-class Americans believe the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy, and a majority (53 percent) say that one of the biggest problems in this country is that we don’t give everyone an equal chance in life.

Methodology

The survey was designed and conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. Results of the survey were based on bilingual (Spanish and English) telephone interviews conducted between August 2, 2011 and August 15, 2012, by professional interviewers under the supervision of Directions in Research. Interviews were conducted by telephone among a random sample of 2,501 adults 18 years of age or older in the continental United States (1,000 respondents were interviewed on a cell phone). The margin of error is +/- 2.2 percentage points for the general sample, +/- 3.7 percentage points for the white working-class subsample, and +/- 4.1 percentage points for the white college-educated subsample at the 95 percent confidence interval. Funding for the survey was generously provided by The Bend the Arc Foundation and The Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Read the Full Report, Questionnaire and Topline Results here: http://publicreligion.org/research/race-class-culture-survey-2012/

Public Religion Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization specializing in research at the intersection of religion, values, and public life.

Comments (2)

Comment Feed

"God and Guns" is to simple a definition

It's all too easy to believe, from the sounds from the fringe about guns, and the conservative version of "Christianity," that both come from a Working Class milieu. The real problem, as Paul Fussell pointed out in his 1983 book, "CLASS: A Study of the American System of Social Status," is that we have way too big an illusion about the size of the "middle class" and way too small an illusion about the size of the "working class." The working class, people who work for hourly pay, who typically have to wear some kind of uniform when they work, and have to answer to decision-makers rather than being participants in decision-making, really constitutes about 60% of the population. The "Middle Class" which includes professionals, people who work in what HR people call "exempt" (from overtime pay!) occupations, and who more often than not get to participate in decision-making in their jobs, really only are about 30% of the working population.
Nor is the "working class" monolithic: it has its various subgroups and tiers of influence or sub-classes within the "working class." Paul Fussell called them "High Prole" (for proletariat), "Middle Prole," and "Low Prole."
The unpleasant truth, as I've studied our Methodist History, is that at least since 1850, and probably earlier, Methodism essentially abandoned ministry WITH the "working class" as it was contemporaneously defined at any given time in history. We became a denomination that reached out to the "settled," i.e., those who worked in towns, who bought and farmed (or otherwise used for economic purposes) land, and who were among the more educated of the population. We ministered TO the working class, offering them some of the same kinds of help (or non-help) that was offered to those to whom we sent our missionaries in foreign countries---but rarely did we organize to reach out to the non-land-owning, the non-employed, or those who worked for wages for others (except for a governmental body.)
It should not be a surprise that we truly do not understand the mindset of working class people, particularly when we expect our clergy to come from the class of persons who could afford to take a minimum of seven years of college and graduate school education. We simply don't think in the same terms.
Perhaps that is why we find it all too easy to think in terms of "God and Guns": that's merely the veneer---all that we actually see. Sad, isn't it.

Tom Griffith more than 13 years ago

GUNS??

This survey is very interesting, but the article title is misleading. How can the myth of "God and Guns" Americans be challenged without asking them about guns?

Sarah Caldwell more than 13 years ago