Posted on 09/23/2004 5:59:56 PM PDT by Coleus
Author: Catholic Vote Will Decide Election
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.comDespite what he calls the "crack up" of what was once a solid, cohesive voting block, George Marlin predicts Catholics will be decisive in choosing who will win this year’s presidential election.
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004
And while that influence that may have reached its apogee when the so-called “Reagan Democrats” deserted their party to vote for a conservative Republican who shared their social values, Marlin insists it will be back with a vengeance this year.
In an interview with NewsMax.com, Marlin explained the division among Catholics which has watered down their power as a voting bloc.
"You had the post-war 'greatest generation' - inner city, blue collar ethnics who took advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights and who strove to become middle class, they suddenly felt unwanted in their home party,” Marlin explained.
He noted that the party’s leftward tillt began with “elitists” like Adlai E. Stevenson who frowned upon the values of the blue collar Catholics.
But, Marlin said, things began to change "when a significant number of the grandchildren of those members of the greatest generation became Yuppie Catholics.
"They suddenly reached beyond their parents, achieving upper middle class or upper class status. They longed and lusted to be accepted by the upper East sides of Manhattan and Boston and Chicago and Philadelphia, and so in many ways took a walk from the Church."
They became, he said "cafeteria Catholics" a phrase describing dissident Catholics who feel free to pick and choose which doctrines and disciplines of the Church they will accept.
Marlin touched on the issue of the wide division between traditional Catholics and those who no longer practice their faith.
Two recent Gallup polls reported in NewsMax.com revealed that Catholic registered voters who attend church weekly - a group that represents about one-third of all Catholic registered voters - support Bush over Kerry by a 52 percent to 42 percent margin.
Among those "Catholic" voters who seldom or never go to church (a group that makes up 38 percent of self-described Catholics), Kerry had a large lead of 57 percent to 39 percent.
As a result, Marlin said "Today, in the voting public you have to distinguish between the practicing Catholic and the cafeteria Catholic. In my judgment, George Bush’s job is to energize the church-going practicing Catholic vote and John Kerry’s job is to energize the non-practicing Catholics , which he should be good at because he’s a non-practicing Catholic."
If a CBS poll released August 19 is correct, it appears that Bush is doing what George Marlin suggested.
It showed that where Kerry once had a double digit lead among Catholics over Bush, the two are now tied.
Marlin weighed in on the dispute over whether priests should refuse to give Communion to Kerry should he approach them during Mass. "It would not shock me if Kerry’s handlers would welcome a priest denying him Communion so he could make himself a victim, and all the Yuppie cafeteria Catholics might become energized.”
Marlin noted how the Catholic divide effected the 2000 race. "... in the year 2000 George Bush received 57 percent of the practicing Catholics vote while Al Gore received 59 percent of the cafeteria Catholics.
"Catholics still matter in a lot of states – they represent about 25 percent of the voting population nationally. However they are congregated in generally key states so their percentage of vote is even greater.
"In my judgment Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin are the three key swing states. In Wisconsin 32 percent of the voters are Catholics. Bush and Gore tied at 48 percent of the vote each that year. Wisconsin could decide the election, and the Catholics could decide Wisconsin."
Marlin said in this election "depending on the turnout, practicing Catholics could turn this election for Bush and the non-practicing Catholics if they turn out to swing the election to Kerry. "This election will be decided by Catholics of various stripes in the key states."
Elections, he noted, are decided by undecided voters and this year there aren’t that many.
"Kerry didn’t get much of a bump after the convention and I don’t think Bush is going to get much of a bump after the Republican convention.
"This election turns on getting out your base vote. Whoever turns out the largest number of base voters wins.
"The Bush campaign has to energize practicing Catholics. They have to make sure those people know Kerry’s record. They have to make sure that they know Bush’s record on abortion, on partial birth abortion, on gay rights, on gay marriages, on gay unions. That’s the key."
In his book, Marlin provides an in-depth history of America’s political background that goes far beyond the facts about the Catholic vote. He traces the evolution of today’s political parties, explores the issues that divided them and provides glimpses of the key historical figures of the times.
Along the way he shows how Catholics such as Confederate General Longstreet , Union General William T. Sherman’s wife, and the feisty New York Archbishop John Hughes (President Lincoln used him on foreign diplomatic missions and sought to have the pope elevate him to the rank of cardinal) had a huge impact on the politics of their day.
It is an invaluable lesson in American history seen through the prism of one of the nation’s most important and influential voting blocs that emerged from a viciously anti-Catholic colonial era to become respected citizens of the United States.
The book is an inspiring story of ethnic Catholics who arrived on American shores with only the clothes on their backs, worked through their parishes and neighborhoods to overcome hostile, nativist bigotry, to become a significant voice in local, state and national political affairs.
George Marlin has served as Executive Director of the massive Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and is now Chairman and C.O.O. of the Philadelphia Trust Company.
Among his nine books is the 46-volume "Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton." The foreword to this book is written by Michael Barone, one of the nation’s leading experts on American politics.
Kerry Wrong for Catholics.com -- CATHOLIC ISSUES OVERVIEW by the RNC
There is a black vote, which is sad.
But it is what it is.
White blue collar Catholics have gone the way of the three-toed Sloth in the northeast. Upward mobility (touched upon in this article) killed the culture that certain people like to idealize (I for one am happy that my parents, aunts and uncles chose the white collar path to upward mobility).
Life in the rowhouses was not as great as people like to make it out to be.
Not really. It's ridiculous, however, to lump non-practing and practicing Catholics together. Practicing Catholics went for Bush in 2000 by almost 60%. Bush is campaining hard to get the other 40% on his side too.
I know people who are active Catholics, but still have an allegiance to the Democratic party. Here in Pennsylvania, many, if not most of them, voted for Rendell for governor, despite his pro-abort stance. But I don't know any sincere, practicing Dem Catholics who aren't bothered by the abortion issue. I think the Bush team is being smart to highlight Kerry's extreme positions on social issues. Tweak their consciences enough and they'll be voting for Bush this time around.
Speak for yourself.
The amazing thing is when I worked with black and hispanic people at my job a few years back, I was amazed at how similar they were to my grandparents in terms of the "mentality."
Right, but when you talk about a voting block, you are saying the group votes en masse to the same issues. Catholics do not do this. Catholics vote. There is not, however, a Catholic 'block' vote. Not any more.
This one is, too.
This Catholic(albeit not always a good one) is voting for Bush.
But don't get me started on the lazy union workers.
BTW: I was raised in suburbia, but have spent most of the last ten years living in a variety of urban areas. The union/"us versus them" mentality is a disease that unfortunately, still effects too many people I know.
Yet another "not as devout as I should be" Catholic voting for Bush.
VOTE CATHOLIC
NOT KERRY
bumper strip to my car. I live in a heavily Hispanic community and my car seems to spend a lot of time in the church parking lot. Who knows, maybe it will cause some thinking to occur that otherwise wouldn't.
The stickers are available at catholicsagainstkerry.com, BTW.
This Catholic is voting for GW. I refuse to cast my vote for someone who has called my vietnam vet relatives war criminals.
Well said. Its just
a power trip.
I agree. Catholics are now so assimilated, they no longer form a "bloc." Some are Demoncrats, some Pubs, and many don't vote. But I vote. And my wife votes. And we always "help" our elderly mother's to vote...So, the Catholics are leaning Bush (at least in my family..)
Protestants are fragmented: Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc.
I thought there were 527 groups to decide it.
The Democrats are likely to lose the Catholic vote in November—and John Kerry could well lose the election as a result.
So would this one but unfortunately I am not old enough...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.