Mitt Romney's a conservative? Whoa! Who'da thunk it?
Posted on 04/08/2009 8:03:55 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich drew attention last week when he publicly converted to Catholicism.
To many, who view the Republican Party as merely a Protestant/Southern party -- and the conservative movement as the embodiment of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, this was probably shocking news.
To the rest of us, the announcement resulted in a collective yawn.
Though never monolithic, having nominated both Al Smith in 1928 and JFK in 1960, Catholics, were once a reliable Democratic constituency. Today, however, Catholics are arguably the swing vote (for example, George W. Bush won the Catholic vote -- and so did Barack Obama).
To be sure, there were always exceptions. William F. Buckley -- whose contribution to conservative thought cannot be over-stated -- was a proud, practicing Catholic (in fact, National Review remains largely a voice of Catholic conservatism), and Republican speechwriter, turned pundit, turned politician, turned pundit, Pat Buchanan was, as well.
But it was actually Ronald Reagan's Catholic father, Jack, who helped bring Catholics into the mainstream of the conservative movement by welcoming such Neoconservative intellectuals as Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Bill Bennett into his administration. (Of course, you also cannot overstate the impact of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision in moving many Catholics away from the Democratic Party. It is also important to note that Catholics were the first to defend the "Right to Life," while too many Protestants, sadly, sat on the sidelines.)
In recent years, Catholic conservatives and Republicans (there is a difference) have grown in numbers and gained in prominence. Perhaps because Catholics are a huge swing vote, many of George W. Bush's most prominent speech writers -- such as Michael Gerson-- were Catholic. Bush also cleverly adopted Catholic rhetoric, such as the term "culture of life", as a way to appeal to this demographic in
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Never to doubt anyone’s faith, but this is curious timing.
How so?
Mitt Romney's a conservative? Whoa! Who'da thunk it?
It was not public. The media have been talking about it, but it was not a public spectacle.
I'm going to be watching and listening to Newt over these next couple of years. This could get interesting for the conservative base.
That’s true. They voted BO
Hey, bigot much? Mackerel snappers? Total BS. Obama won the cultural Catholic in name only vote, not that of serious Catholics.
It would seem you have a rather serious proof problem.
Gingrich has poped. Oh, the horror!
Huh?
Freegards
No proof of that either. Non-scientific exit polling, but no proof.
John Wayne converted to Catholicism right before he died...
-George Nash, "The conservative intellectual movement in America, since 1945."
Wrong! Catholics who take their faith seriously DID NOT, repeat did not vote for Nobama.
I sometimes get a little apprehensive when I hear or read about the “Catholic Vote”, whatever that means. It really does need to be dissected. The Catholic Church with about 1.2 billion members worldwide, is not only the world’s oldest Christian church but also the world’s largest Christian church. The Catholic Church is not a political party and should not be thought of as such. Yes, there is no shortage of liberal politicians who claim to be Catholic—the Kennedys, Nazi Pelosi, Joe Biden, etc. But the contemporary conservative movement was also founded largely by Catholics including William F. Buckley, Russell Kirk, Phyllis Schlafy, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich etc.
When talking about the Catholic vote, what exactly do we mean by that? BHO carried the Catholic vote last November. Approximately one third of all U.S. Catholics are Hispanics and BHO carried the Hispanic vote overwhelmingly. Would BHO carried the Catholic vote without Hispanic voters? I doubt it.
Now, on to my favorite distinction: Observance. There are practicing Catholics (defined as those who regularly attend Mass) and nominal Catholics (CINOs). My guess is that if the CINOs were subtracted from the total universe of Catholic voters, BHO would not have carried the overall Catholic vote. Now, if you subtract both Hispanics and CINOs, my guess is that BHO probably fared very poorly among Catholic voters.
As a Political Science major in college, we were once taught that socio-economic status largely determined party preference. The lower your income was, the more likely you identified with the Democrat Party. The higher your income was, the more you likely you identified with the Republican Party. I don’t think this is a useful model any longer. I think now the more frequently you practice your religious faith the more likely you are to vote Republican. The more secular you are, the more likely you are to identify with the Democrat Party.
Oh, I don’t know...all of a sudden, he’s talking up the conservatives, trying to sound tough with NK, I don’t know, it just seems to me like he is campaignin already.
I am NOT saying that someone would not convert to Catholocism unless they had an ulterior motive...I just don’t trust HIM. But, shame on me, I should not question someone’s faith. It’s just hard not to go there, especially with the given circumstances.
53% of Catholics voted for BHusseinO.
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