White non-hispanic Catholics are about as CONSERVATIVE as White Protestants.
Black Protestants vote Democratic. Hispanic Catholics vote Democratic.
Race trumps religion for most, when it comes to how they vote.
Show me the man (or woman) and I will tell you who they will vote for. about 70% correlation with huge ethnic categories. I can predict from 20 feet away and be mostly right, without ever talking to them.
And it hasn't changed in 50 years.
Demographics is Destiny in American politics.
Everywhere around the world, population density controls the demand for oppressive government, higher taxes, lower freedoms. People can't blare their stereos, barbecue a pig, shoot their gun at an annoying squirrel if they live in a Manhattan high rise, but have the freedom to do all these things if they live on a farm. Marketing methods for selling soap to different demographics leads to generalizations that are not useful when it comes to politics, and are often harmful.
Everything changes, your age, the climate, your neighbors. You can fight some of these changes but it becomes futile at some point. Fortunately, it's a big world out there. If you don't like how your local world has changed, just pack up and move to some other place where things are to your liking. Vote with your feet. It's far easier to move yourself than try to move 1 million new high density neighbors.
I think that location might trump race or religion in some cases, usually between the urban/rural divide but also regionally. There were splits where Catholics went for the republican by 60% and in another state went for the democrat by 60%. Also, exit polling for religion is only done in a very limited number of states, and then applied as a national statistic. Which seems to me to be potentially completely misleading when you have reversed splits by state like that in a group.
Freegards