[Waryone]

"Catholics are great social conservatives but largely fail in the fiscal conservatism category."

How do you explain gay marriage in Boston, Massachusetts and abortion all over liberal New York? Many are great social conservatives but I would not even say they are the majority of the Catholics. Unions control the hearts and minds of many Catholics. Unionism is the dominant religion in those areas.

[what's up]

Unionism is the dominant religion in those areas.

Which proves my point that Catholics are NOT fiscally conservative.

Fiscal matters are the root of conservativism, not social matters. Thus, when the fiscal root is rotten, the social tree will be corroded, even when the social values were once conservative. Boston and NY are a good example of this.

You can take any good, moral bunch of people; if they hold fiscally liberal beliefs they will end up being immoral in the end.

[Straight Vermonter]

Higher unionized states tend to be more liberal but union membership is only ~16% in MA and ~25% in NY. I don't think unions are driving the ship anymore.

	Numbers (in Thousands)	percentage
New York	2,029	24.9
Hawaii	136	24.3
Alaska	68	23.5
Washington	578	19.8
Michigan	771	18.8
California	2,740	18.4
New Jersey	703	18.3
Connecticut	275	16.9
Nevada	199	16.7
Oregon	259	16.6
Illinois	939	16.6
Rhode Island	78	16.5
Minnesota	392	16.1
Massachusetts	458	15.7
Pennsylvania	847	15.4
Wisconsin	396	15