Religion has been an essential element of American politics since before the nation's founding. Europeans ventured to the new land in search of religious freedom and tolerance, and in that search they created the United States of America. Established upon a principle of freedom of religion and from religion, the United States never strayed from its underlying basis of religious Christian morality. John Adams once said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people," so despite the fact that our nation's constitution establishes freedom from religion and thusly a government that cannot declare a national religion, religious Christian morality will always play into American politics regardless of the sect or branch of Christianity in power at that time (Romney).
In the course of American history, nearly every religion has had to find a way to prove its "Americanism," while still being true to the religion itself. There was a massive controversy in Roman Catholicism that dealt with the Americanist sentiments or beliefs that Catholicism and the democracy that the United States promotes could easily be balanced. Conservatives during this time argued that if it came down to the Pope's absolutism or the United States, the absolutism of the papacy would come out on top. Mormons experienced the same thing, but their dilemma was that others claimed them not to be trustworthy due to the fact that they were always under the threat of excommunication and eternal damnation. Mormonism is one of America's oldest religions, yet nativist approaches led to the distrust of Mormons and the questioning of how truly "American" they are.
In 1960 and in 2012, the politics of America were exposed to something unseen up to those points in history.