Replies

“While you are claiming that 32% of Hispanics are Protestant, I am quite skeptical and I was using the Mexican vote figures and not the Hispanic figures generally. “

Hispanics and the 2004 Election:
Population, Electorate and Voters Pew Research

• Religion appears to be linked to President Bush’s improved showing
among Hispanics in 2004 over 2000, when he took 34 percent of Latino
votes. Hispanic Protestants made up a larger share of the Latino vote last
year (32% in 2004 compared with 25% in 2000), and 56 percent of these
voters supported the president in 2004, compared with 44 percent in 2000.
The president’s share of the Hispanic Catholic vote remained essentially
unchanged between 2000 and 2004.

All I am saying to you is that conservatives need to have Catholics voting conservative. If, for whatever reason, there is a higher percentage of Hispanic Protestants who vote conservative than the percentage of Hispanic Catholics who vote conservative, I am not sure what that means as an action agenda for conservatives. This is a free country. People get to choose their religion. I don't imagine that there is anything about Catholicism or Protestantism that makes it more likely that either will vote conservative.

I happen to be Catholic and I am NEVER going to change that. OTOH, I would be a fool not to ally with other hristians who agree on about 95% of the important things and differ only on a few things. I generally refuse to fight with non-Catholic Christians for the entertainment of our mutual enemies. The exceptions are when my Catholic Faith is attacked and when people who are not Catholic claim to be and misrepresent the Catholic Faith.

What percentage of the Hispanic vote is Catholic or Protestant and what percentage of the Hispanic population in the US is Catholic or Protestant are not the same thing. My Knights of Columbus Council is a verrry successful and verrry fast growing council but we have had almost no success in recruiting Mexican Catholics (who abound in the parish which is our home base). The pastor belongs and is Mexican/American and one other member is a Mexican born during World War II in Texas. Recent immigrants are afflicted with paranoia over all the immigrant-bashing and this affects even those whose papers and immigration status are entirely in order. They absolutely pack the Spanish Mass on Sunday. They are absolutely respectful, fervent religiously, large families, well-behaved kids. The people at the Anglo Masses should look as Catholic.

Further, it is important to break down the Hispanic vote by specific nations of ancestry. They are by no means homogeneous. In order to win elections, we want more of them voting our way, regardless of religious affiliation. We had better figure out how to get those votes because they are already more numerous than African-Americans. Between Hispanics and lacks, the two groups make up ore than 25% of the population, leaving us to try to get 2/3 of the Anglos despite the large number of white leftists.