Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

The Cardinal Newman Society | 01/22/12 | CNS Staff

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

Lyndon B. Johnson, after watching Walter Cronkite conclude a special broadcast which was heavily critical of the Tet offensive, said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

Well, this story isn’t exactly on the same level as that, but President Barack Obama may be losing the Catholic Left, with obvious implications for entrenched faculty on many Catholic college campuses. Michael Sean Winters, a lead writer for the National Catholic Reporter and vocal defender of the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 commencement honors for President Obama, wrote yesterday that he can’t see how he could ever support President Obama again after the administration’s ruling on religious exemptions for the contraceptive mandate.

Winters wrote:

President Barack Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again.

One must wonder if President Obama might just be saying that if he’s lost the National Catholic Reporter, he’s lost the liberal Catholic vote. As you might remember, Obama won over the majority of Catholics in 2008, albeit mostly wayward Catholics.

Winters makes it clear he does not come at this issue as “an anti-contraception zealot.” In fact, he says plainly he comes at his decision “as a liberal and a Democrat” who defended the University of Notre Dame’s decision to honor the President.

That’s what makes this criticism sting a little more.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of dishonoring your own vision by this shameful decision.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of failing to live out the respect for diversity that you so properly and beautifully proclaimed as a cardinal virtue at Notre Dame. Or, are we to believe that diversity is only to be lauded when it advances the interests of those with whom we agree? That’s not diversity. That’s misuse of a noble principle for ignoble ends.

I accuse you, Mr. President, of betraying philosophic liberalism, which began, lest we forget, as a defense of the rights of conscience. As Catholics, we need to be honest and admit that, three hundred years ago, the defense of conscience was not high on the agenda of Holy Mother Church. But, we Catholics learned to embrace the idea that the coercion of conscience is a violation of human dignity. This is a lesson, Mr. President, that you and too many of your fellow liberals have apparently unlearned.

I accuse you, Mr. President, who argued that your experience as a constitutional scholar commended you for the high office you hold, of ignoring the Constitution.

Besides thinking Obama is constitutionally and morally wrong on this issue, Winters also complains that this action by Obama is just plain ol’ politically stupid and could imperil his presidency and destroy the progressive movement.

Winters seems to think Obama took this action to appease Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Winters wonders if Obama could have actually thought that these folks were going to vote Republican unless he did this? In short, Winters seems to believe that Obama took this action to gain the votes of those who were already voting for him.

Winters seems to feel spurned by Obama as well, saying:

I accuse you, Mr. President, of treating shamefully those Catholics who went out on a limb to support you. Do tell, Mr. President, how many bullets have the people at Planned Parenthood taken for you? Sr. Carol Keehan, Father Larry Snyder, Father John Jenkins, these people have scars to show for their willingness to work with you, to support you on your tough political fights. Is this the way you treat people who went to the mat for you?

Winters makes it clear he won’t be joining the GOP anytime soon but says he won’t be supporting President Obama either.

…as soon as I learned of this decision, I knew instantly that I also could not, in good conscience, ever vote for Mr. Obama again. I once had great faith in Mr. Obama’s judgment and leadership. I do not retract a single word I have written supporting him on issues like health care reform, or bringing the troops home from Iraq, or taking aggressive steps to halt the recession and turn the economy around. I will continue to advocate for those policies. But, I can never convince myself that a person capable of making such a dreadful decision is worthy of my respect or my vote.

We wonder, what does Notre Dame’s Father Jenkins think of all of this?

[GlockThe Vote]

Bs. For leftists communists, politics trumps all else.

[Bobalu]

I hope so!
How could a good catholic vote for that immoral creep?

[Rudder]

Are there any Catholics Left?

[bibletruth]

I certainly hope the Catholics do not vote for this socialist / communist / muslim / anti-christ Obama [man-child] again .... this dud has destroyed this USA

[NKP_Vet]

“If it impossible to be for abortion and be a Catholic”.

~Father John Corapi.

So these anti-God bigots might call themsleves Catholic, but they’re not. There is no compromise with murder.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Let's hope ping.

We must Pray for the conversion or CONFOUNDING of all proponents of the culture of death!

Praying for their confounding is certainly scriptural. (Do a search of the KJV or Douay-Rheims for "confound.")

[ansel12]

It could happen, and having a Catholic running against him increases the odds of the Republicans winning the Catholic vote.

[GlockThe Vote]

I am sick of these religious groups. They are liars and frauds. They made a deal w Obama to pass this pofs bill and now should live w the same of their actions.

[Talisker]

Has Obama Lost the Catholic Left?

He never had them. The "Catholic Left" are Hillary's people - especially the women.

[GlockThe Vote]

They could care less.

[Just mythoughts]

I won't discuss politics with my Catholic inlaws. Their politics comes right down from the pulpit, liberal to the core. But hey I also have ‘protestant’ relatives/inlaws, that are just as liberal wearing those WWJD bracelets. Right now it is the ‘mean’ bad Congress that is stopping progress. Deception is hip deep in many Christian churches.

[Digger]

I certainly hope the Catholics do not vote for this socialist / communist / muslim / anti-christ Obama [man-child] again .... this dud has destroyed this USA

Oh, they will. Why would Jews vote for him? They will in the majority. This guy just doesn't understand liberal total indoctrination. They can't but a couple % change. It's like RUSH say, it's in their DNA.

[bibletruth]

Yes Digger - you’re right and so is Rush - it is in their DNA...sad... really sad they have no discernment at all.

[RobbyS]

As I recall, Madison’s first version of the First Amendment offered a specific protection of liberty of conscience.

[ansel12]

Well if you like conservatism then you have to like the hard core, right voters, called the Evangelical voters.

[Salvation]

I certainly hope so.

The people who voted for Obama were not really Catholics, but only CINOs.

(Catholics In Name Only)

[Salvation]

And what about members of other denominations that voted for Obama? Have they changed their minds?

50 percent of Catholics (Catholics make up about 22 percent of the U.S. population.) approve of his presidency, down from 67 percent in his first six months in office.

DOWN 17 POINTS

 

among non-Catholic Christians, who make up 55 percent of the U.S. population, had fallen from 58 percent to 43 percent.

DOWN 15 POINTS

 

Mormon respondents, who represent about two percent of U.S. adults, fell from 43 percent to 26 percent

DOWN 17 POINTS

 

About 78 percent of Muslim respondents approved of the Obama presidency, down eight percentage points from when the question was first asked.  (86)

DOWN 8 POINTS

 

atheists, agnostics, and members of other non-Christian religions, who comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population -- While about 75 percent of these respondents approved of President Obama at the start of his term, their approval declined to about 64 percent.

DOWN 11 POINTS

 

Jews were the religious group third likeliest to approve of President Obama, giving him 61 percent approval. This too is a decline: in January-June 2009, their approval rating of the president was 77 percent.

DOWN 16 POINTS

 

Overall, 48 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s job, down from 63 percent in the first months of his presidency. Gallup claims that its survey of over 276,000 adults claims an overall margin of error of plus or minus one percent.

DOWN 15 POINTS

 

 

 

 

[ansel12]

I say there is a chance that we win the Catholic vote this time.