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Abstract
Various material forms of national identity have become ubiquitous features of the post-9/11 American cultural landscape. This research specifically examines the ‘In God We Trust’ (IGWT) license plate in the state of Indiana as a material expression and territorialized form of national identity. While conceptually anchored in banal nationalism research, exploring the spatial patterns of adoption or non-adoption of IGWT license plates by Indiana residents is only possible through situating this research through the mediating lens of the culture wars and civil religion. Although the IGWT license plate project legislatively materialized through the localized spatial networks of non-state actors in the context of a new and conservative state–citizen relationship firmly anchored in the culture wars, adoption behavior is also mediated through the much broader influence of civil religion. We conduct a quantitative analysis to determine license plate spatial distribution by county, but more importantly to explore the sociodemographic dimensions of IGWT license plate adoption and non-adoption. While our results generally mirror the sociodemographic findings of social issue-based electoral geography, the imbrication of banal nationalism, the culture wars, and civil religion as materially expressed by the IGWT license plate yields an ideologically different and broader dynamic when compared to culture wars defined by national identity.
Dans le paysage culturel américain d'après le 11 septembre, de diverses formes matérielles de l'identité nationale sont devenues omniprésentes. Cette recherche actuelle étudie en particulier la plaque d'immatriculation «In God We Trust» (IGWT) [En Dieu repose notre confiance] dans l'état d'Indiana comme expression matérielle d'une forme territoriale de l'identité nationale. Cette étude se base au niveau conceptuel dans le domaine de recherche du nationalisme banal alors qu'il ne pas possible d'étudier le choix d'adopter plaque d'immatriculation IGWT ou ne pas le faire de la part des habitants d'Indiana que à travers l'objectif médiateur des «guerres de culture» américaines et de la religion civile. Le projet plaque d'immatriculation IGWT se constituait législativement à travers les réseaux spatiaux localisés d'acteurs hors de l'état eux-mêmes situés dans le contexte d'un nouveau rapport conservateur entre l'état et ses citoyens ancré fermement dans les guerres de culture pourtant que le choix d'adopter la plaque est influencé par l'influence beaucoup plus large de la religion civile. Nous ne entreprenons pas uniquement une analyse quantitative pour déterminer la distribution spatiale des plaques d'immatriculation par comté, mais aussi pour explorer les dimensions sociodémographiques de l'adoption et de la non-adoption des plaques d'immatriculation IGWT. Bien que nos résultats reflètent largement les conclusions sociodémographiques issues de la géographie électorale à base de polémiques sociales, l'imbrication du nationalisme banal, les guerres de culture, et la religion civique telles qu'elles sont exprimées matériellement par la plaque d'immatriculation IGWT donnent une dynamique plus large et idéologiquement différèrent en comparaison à une identité nationale définie par les guerres de culture.
Varias formas materiales de identidad nacional han llegado a ser características ubicuas del paisaje cultural Americana post-9/11. Esta investigación se examina espficamente la placa ‘In God We Trust’ (IGWT) en el estado de Indiana como una expresión material y forma territorializada de identidad nacional. Aunque este estudio está anclado conceptualmente en una investigación de nacionalismo banal, explorando porque residentes de Indiana adoptan o no adoptan la placa IGWT es posible solo por situar esta investigación a través la lente de mediador de las guerras culturales y religión civil. Aunque el proyecto de la placa IGWT se apareció legislativamente por los redes localizados espaciales de actores no-estadales en el contexto de una relación estado-ciudadano nuevo y conservativo anclado firmemente en las guerras culturales, conducta adoptiva también está mediado por la influencia más amplia de religión civil. Conducimos un análisis cuantitativo para determinar la distribución espacial de placas por condado, pero más importante explorar las dimensiones sociodemográficas de la adopción y no-adopción de placas IGWT. Aunque normalmente nuestras resultas reflejan las conclusiones sociodemográficas de geografía electoral, la traslapa de nacionalismo banal, las guerras culturales, y religión cívica materialmente expresados por la placa IGWT se cede una dinámica ideológicamente diferente y más amplia comparado a una identidad nacional de a una guerra cultural.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Ian Yeboah at Miami University and the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments during the manuscript revision process.
Notes
1 This article is a significantly expanded version of a paper presented by the first two authors at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Washington DC.
2 For example, the Kansas and Kentucky plates only display the phrase In God We Trust and the Tennessee plate possesses a bust of a bald eagle which is both the official national bird and the symbol of the country. Texas is the only state offering a license plate with all three symbols of the flag, a bald eagle, and God Bless America, and also offers a plate with the localized phrase God Bless Texas.
3 Leib (Citation2011) claims that IGWT license plates in many states is indirectly connected to the national-level conservative American Family Association who first lobbied state legislatures to require the posting of In God We Trust signs in public schools to inform students of the essential historical role of God in the nation's cultural fabric.
4 Within months of the issuance of the plate, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana (ACLUI) filed a failed lawsuit on behalf of an individual. Because past federal court decisions have upheld the constitutionality of IGWT license plates, the ACLUI based the lawsuit on the state treating the IGWT plate as a standard or regular plate rather than a specialty plate which costs vehicle owners between $15.00 and $25.00; the state thus was forced to absorb the $3.69 manufacturing cost. The only other source contesting the IGWT license plate was numerous internet forums whose arguments were primarily constitutionally based.
5 Counties are widely accepted as a spatial unit of analysis in political geography, despite obvious problems of internal sociodemographic diversity (Morrill, Knopp and Brown Citation2007). The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles does possess finer scale IGWT license plate data based on license branches, but using this data would present two major problems. The first and most obvious is that US census data at scales smaller than the county can't be used because highly populated counties possess multiple license branches and attract auto owners from throughout the county. Secondly, sparsely populated counties possess no license branches.
6 Because the twenty six county sub-region of southern Indiana is a singly large multi-county region characterized by higher IGWT license plate adoption, we conducted a correlation analysis to determine whether a significantly different sociodemographic regional dynamic exists. The adoption variables of two or more household members 60 years of age or older remained significant, but per cent rural, per cent Mainline Protestant, and Evangelical Protestant that were significant at the state scale were no longer significant for southern Indiana. All the IGWT non-adopter variables that were significant at the state scale remained so with the exception of increase in a county's population between 1990 and 2000, and per cent single family households. In addition, per cent of the county's population employed in manufacturing and the professions that were not significant at the state scale became significant at the regional scale. While these regional and scale differences are important to identify, the results must be questioned because twenty six counties do not comprise an acceptable sample size in addition to the greater socio-demographic uniformity of southern Indiana when compared to the state as a whole.