For  many of us who believe and hope we have progressed socially in the last  50 to 100 years where concerns over race and religion would not be a  factor in the 21st Century will likely be disappointed during this  presidential election season.

Race  and religion have already been a factor in the Republican primary  elections. From the early shots being fired by some in the general  election campaign, it sadly seems that race and religion will be an  issue rather than the real issues of the economy, jobs and the  unsustainable national debt.

There  seems to be a disconnect between what people wish would be and what  people actually do and say. On the one hand, people talk about how we  are beyond the racial tensions of the 50s and 60s especially having   elected our first "black" president in 2008. We like to reminisce on how  John F. Kennedy put to rest the litmus test of religion with his  election in 1960 as our first Roman Catholic president.

Yet, here in 2012, race and religion remain factors in our decision making and on how and why we vote the way we do.

How  unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would  pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as  un-Christian.

Yet here it is: Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney, an  African-American and a white Mormon, representatives of two groups and  that have endured oppression to carve out a place in the United States.

How much progress has America made against bigotry? By November, we should have some idea.

Perhaps  mindful of the lingering power of prejudice, both men soft-pedal their  status as racial or religious pioneers. But these things "will be  factors whether they're explicitly stated or not, because both Obama and  Romney are minorities," said Nancy Wadsworth, co-editor of the  anthology "Faith and Race in American Political Life."

Mormons are 1.7 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. African-Americans are 12.6 percent

"Americans  like to obsess about ways that people are different," said Wadsworth, a  political science professor at the University of Denver. Voters of all  types say that a candidate's race or religious beliefs should not be  cause for bias, "but Americans are really conflicted about this, and  they talk out of both sides of their mouth."

In an October 2011  Associated Press-GfK poll, 21 percent of respondents said they would be  less likely to cast a presidential vote for a Mormon. Four percent said  they would be less likely to vote for a black person. An AP poll during  the 2008 campaign found that nearly 40 percent of white Americans had at  least a partly negative view of black people.

The gap between America's high-minded ideals and narrow-minded practice is not new.

Obama  remains the sole member of the most exclusive club in the world, racial  minorities who were nominated for president by a major party.

In  2012, it's unlikely that more than a smattering of die-hard bigots will  be repelled by both presidential choices. But even well-intentioned  people can be influenced by the powerful emotional pull of these issues.

Obama  has been assailed by racially charged accusations since he became the  first black president: Obama isn't a citizen; he refused to punish New  Black Panthers who intimidated white voters; he's seeking payback for  past white racism by redistributing tax money to poor minorities; he's  using the Trayvon Martin killing for political gain.

Wes  Anderson, a Republican consultant and pollster, said many white swing  voters who chose Obama in 2008 think he has governed further to the left  than they expected, which has fed ideas that Obama is a typical "black  liberal politician" who is "pandering to minorities."

"From their perspective, I think race will be a convenient excuse for why he has not met their expectations," Anderson said.

Wadsworth said that even after three-plus years of a black president, racial bias remains "super-loaded and super-coded."

"It's  coded into political `otherness' — he's a socialist, he's dangerous,  maybe a Muslim," she said. "I think down underneath there's a lot of  race bias, it's just that they've figured out ways to channel that into  seemingly race-neutral codes."

Then there's bald racism.

Obviously,  Obama's victory in 2008 did not put racial issues to rest. "He is never  on stable ground, racially," Wadsworth observed.

Romney has  tried to push past anti-Mormonism, with mixed success. His membership in  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been an issue his  entire political career.

In 2007, during his presidential primary  battle against Arizona Sen. John McCain, he gave a speech to quiet  concerns about his faith. "I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A  person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be  rejected because of his faith," Romney said in the address, which used  the word "Mormon" only once.

There continue to be blatant  expressions of hostility toward Mormons. For example, there is an "I  Hate Mormons" page on Facebook.

http://startribune.com/politics/150286625.html

From the Cornfield, the old Virginia Slims cigarette commercial proclaimed, "You've come a long way, baby".

Apparently, we still haven't come far enough.