Posted on 08/01/2014 5:41:40 PM PDT by Thorliveshere
I have a co-worker I've known for many years (10), and all this time, from how spoke out against abortion, homosexuality & gay marriage, common sense, drugs, and so many other progressive ideals, that I assumed she was a Republican, until today.
We got onto the topic of class warfare and poverty. Well.. I was stunned to find that she supported the Democrats wholly on this, that was the only reason she did, that the fact they supported everything else she stood against, didn't matter. Republicans, Conservatives, and especially the Tea Party were liars and were rich and hated the poor, and they should completely support welfare programs, and they weren't "paying their fair share."
To say the least, I lit into her and was aghast at her stance. I guess I could have been a little more "velvet glove" about it, but it just got me angry, as I've seen this in other Catholics who support the welfare system (they must do EVERYTHING they can to fight the war on poverty), and America just wasn't throwing enough money down the rat hole.
Just what percentage of Catholics are like this? This is aggravating, when they SHOULD be the more conservative among us. I know there are lot of good Catholics here, but what have you guys encountered?
Was it only last year that Biden and Pelosi met with their "Holy Father" and took Communion at the Vatican?
Remember that Ted Kennedy was Catholic royalty, and treated as such by Popes and Cardinals.
The Catholic Church has a large welfare class and is taking taxpayer money to run their charities. Naturally, they favor big government spending.
There was a Pew Research study published right after the 2012 Presidential election (http://www.pewforum.org/2012/11/07/how-the-faithful-voted-2012-preliminary-exit-poll-analysis/).
Their poll showed that while Catholics were fairly evenly split between Obama (50%) and Romney (48%), the differences between white Catholics and Hispanic Catholics was major. White Catholics supported Romney over Obama 59% to 40%, while Hispanic Catholics supported Obama over Romney 75% to 21%.
Catholics have leaned toward being the party of workers, unions. They don't campaign for more freedom for those who carry the load...they campaign mostly on getting more money from taxpayers.
There are of course exception to this but generally this is the case.
“Some of my Catholic family were staunch Democrats. The explanations were that the “Democrats are the working party,” and “In the old days when a Catholic family was struggling the Democrats would always show up with food baskets.”
I explain away our SIL’s mother and father as being from the NE and were used to the ‘neighborhood protector’ (mob boss).
They feel they have to have a ‘boss’ to protect them from the evil republicans.
My brother in law is very active in his church and after his retirement, he became a small church pastor.
But, he was a union member, even a shop steward, so all his life he voted democrat straight party ticket.
Bingo - unions.
Catholics choose union loyalty over religion.
It’s that crude.
same question can be asked about Black Christians who live very Conservative. One speaks with them and they are fiscal/social Conservatives but vote Dem. Its ignorance of what Conservative means. They think Conservatives are Anarchists. I had one of these people tell me that Dems will take care of the disabled....they have no clue Dems will be the first to ration healthcare to the disabled.
Hi Thorliveshere. I’m not trying to be mean, so please be patient with the following question. Are you aware of Congress’s constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers imposed on Congress by the Founding States, and that such powers don’t include taxing and spending on behalf of the poor?
Hispanics are recent to America, it doesn’t change the role that the Catholic vote has always played in America, since immigration started in the 1840s and Catholics started moving here.
My parish and town are like yours. Our priest is liberal. Drives us nuts when he gets going
My family have been Catholic Republicans since the start of at least Roosevelt. I don’t know what party they were before that - actually, I do. I think at least one of them was a NY Copperhead. In between, I don’t know.
When I was young, Catholics and Jews along with “negroes” were not allowed to belong to or even enter certain places like country clubs and different organizations that were primarily populated by Republicans.
There is a long history and a perception that still remains in the voting patterns of Catholics.
Not really, black voting is a total mystery, it ALWAYS went republican, and then totally reversed itself in 1936, and has ALWAYS gone democrat since then, a perfect and instant reversal, and let's be honest about it, the least fiscal/social Conservative group in America, are not fiscal/social Conservatives, regardless of what we are told.
By the way, I have never heard blacks called fiscal conservatives, where did that come from?
Nonsense, it isn’t genetic memories that makes Catholics vote democrat.
What was the policy that caused them to reverse?
*Anyone* who supports big government is voting to empower their god: government
That in which they put their faith (trust) is their god. If it’s a thieving beast.gov, well you know what they truly worship.
The food basket that binds to eternity reads better than the whiskey jug that compels infinite allegiance. I've heard more than one "Irish Catholic Democrat and proud of it" brag about how the family has voted 100% Democrat since coming over from Ireland and "the old man" being given free drinks by the local party boss.
In any event, it's like a family curse wherein one guy in 1848 gives ownership of his descendants - whether they like it or not - to a political party until doomsday, and each successive generation is fine with it. Weird. One guy I know (who votes Republican on the sly) can not change his party registration without losing an inheritance, and probably getting shunned by most of his family.
My own Irish family component had a falling out with the church over something three or four generations back, and apparently the break carried over into politics, because my maternal grandfather voted Republican and hated FDR with a passion.
Mr. niteowl77
I don’t know what the percentage is of Catholics that align with the Democrats at the voting booth, but I can tell you that some of my very dearest friends who are Catholic, as I am, vote with the Democrats, unlike myself. Usually social justice is the theme they hover around. It’s been hard for me to accept that people who I truly love and care for, can be so differently aligned politically, even though I think we see eye to eye on so many of these issues. We all seem to think that the poor and downtrodden need help. I differ in that I don’t think it’s the government’s job to take care of them, I think it’s mine. I am, like you, stumped as to why they are so hardened against conservative candidates. However, because they are some of my very best friends, I try to make sure these differences don’t get in the way of our friendships.
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