It's Over! Did the Catholic Vote Really Count?

Ignatius Insight ^ | 11/04/04 | Valerie Schmalz

[jrherreid]

It's Over! Did the Catholic Vote Really Count?
by Valerie Schmalz

Part 1

The 2004 election saw some of the most passionate involvement by Catholics, including clerics, in the political process in a number of years. But when all was said and done, was there a "Catholic vote,"—and did Catholics make any difference in the electoral outcome? Will Catholics who espouse the Church’s teaching, particularly on the primacy of the right to life and on the sanctity of marriage, have any impact on policy and lawmaking going forward?

IgnatiusInsight.com asked a number of Catholic thinkers and political activists those questions and the consensus was—maybe, maybe not. Catholics voted in greater numbers for President Bush this time—at 51 percent, up from 47 percent in the 2000 election. Weekly church-attending Catholics showed even greater support, 56% to 43%. According to newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, Bush also increased his margins among Hispanics and Jews.

But that is just over half of the Catholic electorate voting for a candidate who clearly espoused pro-life principles, in comparison to Democrat candidate John F. Kerry, who advocated unrestricted access...

[jrherreid]

Yep. Even when bishops are good, pastors and secretaries sabotage them.

[diamond6]

I wish more of the bishops would have come out and encouraged their faithful to vote pro-life. :(

[tiki]

You know, there were many things that won this election for Bush and for the good of the US. So many groups can stake a claim for getting those votes which put Bush over that it can't be mistaken: It was the Hand of God moving this election.

[victim soul]

"It killed me (too) everytime I saw a 'Catholics for Kerry' bumper sticker. (They were everywhere.)

Made me wish I had some that said 'Catholics for abortion' or 'No Fetus Can Beat Us' to stick on next to it. (When I'd see them in a parking lot.)

[tacticalogic]

Very cool. I'll email a that to my son. He's in Goose Creek, SC at Navy nuke school.

[Slump Tester]

There was another neat "Air & Space" article I'm trying to find - It was about a space ship that was to propel itself through space by exploding nukes behind itself.

I can't find the Air & Space article, but here's two good ones that Google found about it:

Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth

More stuff on Project Orion

[Conservative til I die]

This is still sad. Catholics should have voted for Bush by at least 70%. I don't see how any subject, except maybe the war on terror, could take precedence over the daily slaughtering of thousands of innocent babies. Almost HALF of our Catholics voted for a man who approves this practice. I am ashamed of them.

Well, it's because many Catholics are cultural, "In Name Only" Catholics. Much like most Jews, who should be supporting Bush because of his pro-Israel policies, vote Democrat. As you segment each of these groups by their observance of their religion, you see the trend skew towards Bush.

Absent that segmenting, the best measure of their voting is simply to compare it to 2000, and in that case, Bush still saw a remarkable growth among Catholics.

[Conservative til I die]

What I also should add is that making Bush's 4% jump amongst all Catholic more remarkable is that Bush was running against a Catholic this time, which should have actually hurt him. But thankfully, my fellow Catholics are starting to get wise, and vote for the man rather than "the home team".

[Conservative til I die]

I'm not really sure why you consider being anti-death penalty and pro-civil rights to be socialist.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Catholic Democrats now need to press their party to change its disastrous pro-abortion and anti-marriage policies," Chaput said Friday. "Catholic Republicans need to press the second Bush Administration to find a way out of Iraq and seriously attend to issues like education, immigration, support for the elderly and families, and help for the poor."

The above is from part 2 of the posted article at ignatiusinsight.com.

What positon does the Bishop want us to press the Bush administration to take regarding education? Federal vouchers? More federal money?

[NJ Neocon]

Your right. They are not necessarily so. I apologize. The ARE generally associated more with the left and liberalism (and socialists) than Conservatives, especially Capital Punishment.