Posted on 11/11/2006 1:41:23 PM PST by Sabramerican
Catholic Vote Swings Democratic in Midterm Elections By Jeff Diamant Religion News Service
Catholics, who compose a massive 67 million-person slice of the electorate, favored Democrats in Tuesday's election by 55 percent to 45 percent, according to National Election Pool exit polls.
That's a marked difference from 2004, when President Bush, a Republican United Methodist, won 52 percent of the Catholic vote and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Catholic, received 47 percent.
Catholic voting patterns varied by state, but the overall shift helped Democrats in several big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to John Green, a senior fellow at Washington's Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
For much of the 20th century, American Catholics were loyal Democrats, but in recent elections their voting patterns have been largely indistinguishable from the general population.
And for the last quarter-century, conservative Catholics and white evangelicals have increasingly voted Republican, making opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage their top political issues.
Yet since the 2004 presidential election, liberal religious groups have worked to get the Catholic vote back to the Democratic Party, using the issues of poverty, health care and environmentalism as ways to get voters' attention. A liberal group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good credits those efforts for the shifts reflected in Tuesday's voting.
Green says the shift is harder to explain.
"It could be that many Catholics that had voted Republican in the past were not real happy with that vote," he said. "And it's entirely plausible that efforts by religious progressives did move some Catholics to vote Democratic."
For years, polls have shown that people who attend religious services at least once a week are more likely to vote Republican, and people who attend infrequently are more likely to vote for Democrats. Democrats did better this year with both groups than in 2004.
The Rev. Tony Campolo, a liberal evangelist and professor emeritus at Eastern University in Pennsylvania, says that since 2004, when Kerry was widely perceived as uncomfortable talking about his faith, Democratic candidates have tried harder to attract religious voters.
"Democrats have learned that when you want to speak to the religious community, you can't do it simply by saying `I went to church when I was a kid,' or quote a few Bible verses in your speech," Campolo said. "What you have to do," he said, is convince people who are religious that one's views "on things like torture, on things like war, on things like poverty, emerge out of your spiritual convictions."
White evangelicals, who have collectively voted Republican since the 1980s, had been widely expected to sit out the election because of anger over sex scandals and the war in Iraq. But polling indicates they voted in full force, and that Republicans came away with a healthy 70 percent of their votes, down only 8 percentage points from what they gave President Bush in 2004.
Jewish voters, longtime Democratic loyalists as a group, gave congressional Democrats nationwide 87 percent of their vote.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4321769.html
The culprits are Latinos, married mothers, and again Catholics.
I think if you've lost mothers, you're going to lose.
I'm relieved. From so many daily threads I thought it was the Jews' fault.
"Jewish voters, longtime Democratic loyalists as a group, gave congressional Democrats nationwide 87 percent of their vote."
How can a Jewish voter support ANY democrat!? The democrats are for abortion, a holocaust of the unborn.
You can't get any more Catholic than that. Poll them when they exit the Pews.
On a serious note, I totally agree. That's exactly what happened in this election. The Independents voted against George Bush. It's not as complicated as many seem to think it is.
The fault lies with the "teach the Republican's a lesson" conservative and no show voters.
Now we all will have to suffer.
Bingo
Let's see. Catholic support dropped from 52 to 45%, a massive defection, but Evangelicals turned out with a drop of only 7%.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but isn't a drop from 52 to 45 also only 7%? Doesn't that mean that conservative Catholic and Evangelical turnout dropped about equally?
I'd say that both groups dropped somewhat because Bush has been a disappointment these last two years, accomplishing very little except for those two excellent Supreme Court appointments. Clearly the Republicans are the better choice for religious conservatives, but on the whole they have been very disappointing. And evidently the corruption issue did have some effect. Also, of course, it's an off year.
You can count me among them. I voted for Bush twice. But, his big spending on the Farm, Education and other bills have completely turned me off. His total lack of leadership on the illegal issue TOTALLY turned me off. He failed to do his Constitutional duty, he violated his Oath of Office to Defend the Republic against all enemies when he fought to grant illegals amnesty and make them legal. He violated his oath of office in failing to do due diligence with his administration. I would not vote for him again. I would probably vote for the Constitutional Party or something. I would not vote for a RINO again. I made that mistake twice. Shame on me. The only thing I support Bush on is the war on terror and I have my problems with some of his actions in regards to this. My total support is behind my brothers and sisters on the front lines. That is all I am worried about now. That they are going to pay a higher price in blood because of the crap the socialist democrats will pull. WE can thank Mr. Bush for that. He and his screwed up party.
I wish you folks would quit pinning this garbage on us.
APf
Rev. Tony Campolo, a liberal evangelist = heretic and false teacher.
Evangelicals also turned their vote from the Republicans to the dimocrats.
Not just the Catholics.
There is a thread with that info on FR
Does the poll distinguish churchgoing Catholics from non Churchgoing Catholics?
In my view, the Catholics who voted dem have just voted for abortion and all its ugliness. Just when I was thinking of coming back...
No now it can be Pelosi's fault!
AMEN!
How any Catholic voter can support a democRAT is beyond me too. They're truly the Party of Death.
I don't understand this search for people to blame. The Republicans lost, and they probably deserved it.
Protestants, too.
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