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.
It may also be a generational thing. This newest crop of Bishops have replaced the 'Depression generation' Bishops, so they don't have that memory of the vast numbers of people who were on 'relief' because there was nothing else for them.
I believe they understand the pain caused by generations of people who have accepted the govt. handouts as their only income, and have done nothing to try to better their lives, even with the opportunities presented to them in the form of classes, work programs, etc. I think the Bishops are torn between wanting to help these people and realizing that sometimes folks need a real kick in the pantsl.
There is no surprise here. Bush/Cheney did not deliver on things Reagan Catholic Democrats supported, and they supported some things unpalatable to this religious community with historic roots in the Democratic Party until the Great Vision of America carried forward by Ronald Reagan.
Oh, yeah, and we see just how successful THAT was in creating peace in Northern Ireland. The only reason things have quieted down in Ireland is because the regular folks got sick and tired of the killing and stopped supporting it.
The same thing is happening in Iraq. Regular folks are helping the Coalition and the Iraqi Army find the terrorists in their midst. Some idiot will always find a way to set off a car bomb, or wear an explosive vest, heck, someone could do that in one of our major cities tomorrow, but we don't have the same type of tensions here that they have there. They are trying to change centuries old ways of thinking, and that's not going to happen in three years.
There's an early 20th-century American novelist named Winston Churchill (not the famous one) who wrote a series of historical novels beginning in colonial days and working down to the late 19th century. He beautifully describes the moment when the Protestant Churches of that era decided that it would be better for the government to help the poor than for rich church-goers or parish vestries to help the poor, because it would be less "demeaning."
The Protestant minister hero gets tired of hitting up rich parishioners to help the poor, and instead finds it more dignified to have the government do it.
Big mistake. That's where the trouble started.
Unfortunately some of my books are still packed up after a move, but I think the title of the novel is "Within the Cup." At any rate, it's one of a series I have by that author.
Ah, I found it in Widipedia, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_(novelist)
It's "The Inside of the Cup."
Not inclined to help the easily confused here... I write plainly enough.
Interestingly enough my mother fits that scenario of a Catholic voter voting Democrat. She is more of the so called Reagan Democrat, She has voted Republican for some time now but this election she voted straight democrat. The main reason was Bush and the war. I am sure it is the constant barrage of images and news about soldiers dying for reasons never clearly explained to her. And add on top of that of all the corruption and indiscretion she would hear concerning Republicans, and her moral and value scale tipped just enough for her to vote straight Democrat. Now me I follow politics closely and understand what your saying but for someone like her its another story.
"I wish you folks would quit pinning this garbage on us." What is that supposed to mean? I assume if you sat out to teach Republicans a lesson, you're proud of what you did. It is only "pinning garbage on you" if you acknowledge the result was garbage.
Pews? Apparently it would be better to poll in the cafeteria....
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If you want on (or off) this Catholic and Pro-Life ping list, let me know!
Interesting! I'll have to see if I can find that book!
We can have our opinions all we want but the terrorist have soliditary and they just won this round.
It wasn't just the Catholic vote. There is a thread here about how evangelicals left their morals and also voted for dimocrats.
Your mother's vote helped put a legislature in place that is pro-abortion and has violated principles of her Catholic faith. She should abstain from receiving the Eucharist until she has repented of her sin. To do so is to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in an unworthy matter. There are many in this nation lacking discernment concerning the issue of fighting a war against a dangerous enemy and protecting the life of the innocent. The life of the unborn is a position on which there is no compromise.
I always am skeptical when the " Catholic" vote is bandied about. Most of the time many of the Catholics surveyed are Catholics in name only. They have not been to mass in years. Many are at least partially pro choice.
Abortion is an issue that can not be put in the same moral category as social justice issues. Social justice can and often is accomplished by non Government means. But abortion will continue in this country unless Roe vs Wade is overturned and State's are allowed to legislate against abortion. The hope of Roe being overturned is gone for now with a Democratic majority in the senate.
A catholic who truly understands the Church teaching on abortion will not vote for a pro abortion candidate.
I am sure they are speaking of the Pew Charitable Trust, is that the correct name of the organization?
See post#114
I agree.
This message should be preached from every pulpit across the nation tomorrow, regardless of Christian denomination. God's word is the same for all Christians.
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