Election 2004: Vote divided on Issues of Religion
Posted on 11/05/2004 2:58:50 PM PST by swilhelm73
It is said that George W. Bush won the 2004 presidential election because of religious voters, especially evangelical Protestants. What is not said is that John F. Kerry lost the election because he failed not only to win religious voters generally but Catholics specifically. Because he lost Catholics -- an amazing fact when one considers that Kerry himself is Catholic -- he lost the race.
Put differently, Catholics voted for the Protestant, George W. Bush, and did so in large part because they agree more with him than Kerry on moral issues, such as abortion, closest to Catholic hearts. Just as Al Gore did not win the Electoral College in 2000 because he couldn't carry his home state of Tennessee, John Kerry failed because he couldn't bring a natural constituency from his own church.
According to CNN's exit poll data, 27% of those who voted on Tuesday were Catholic, which equated to roughly 31 million of 115 million voters. How these Catholics voted is striking: They voted for Bush over Kerry by 51 to 48%. In other words, they mirrored the popular vote to the exact number.
Kerry lost the Catholic vote to Bush by at least a million. A Catholic with a major party nomination should have won the Catholic vote by several million. Another Democratic senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, once won an extremely close election because he overwhelmingly took the Catholic vote.
The numbers diverge more sharply when one considers devout Catholics compared to those who find their way to church only for weddings and Christmas. Catholics who attend Mass weekly voted for Bush by 55% to 44%.
The breakdown among states is most interesting. Bush remained close to Kerry in Pennsylvania, a state with millions of pro-life Catholic Democrats, which went for Kerry 52 to 48%, because he carried Catholics who go to Mass weekly by 52 to 48%. In New Hampshire, which barely went for Kerry, Bush took Catholics who attend Mass weekly by 63 to 35%.
Most impressive, Catholics played a key role in Florida and Ohio. In Florida, they comprised 28% of voters, and went for Bush 57 to 42%. In Ohio, they made up 26% and went to Bush 55 to 44%. The margin was even wider for Catholics who attend Mass weekly: In Florida, they went to Bush by almost two to one, 66 to 34%, and in Ohio they supported Bush by 65 to 35%.
In fact, Catholics for Bush made it unnecessary to begin counting provisional ballots in Ohio. Ohio Catholics cast 780,000 votes for Bush and 624,000 for Kerry, a difference of 156,000 votes. Compare that to the overall vote difference for all Ohio ballots: which was 136,000. Thus it can be asserted that Kerry lost Ohio, and therefore the election, because he couldn't get the support of people of his own faith in Ohio.
The Catholic vote kept Bush competitive in the liberal East, where the 41% of voters who are Catholic went for the Protestant president by 52 to 47%, and those who attend Mass weekly supported him by 56 to 42%. Bush actually won the Catholic vote in New York by 51 to 48%. Those Catholics were offset by the 12% of New Yorkers who claimed no religion at all; these atheists eagerly voted for Kerry by 78 to 19%. Kerry actually almost lost the Catholic vote in his own liberal home state of Massachusetts, where Catholics gave him the nod by a paltry 50 to 49%.
THE ISSUE BEHIND THIS Catholic snub was abortion. Pro-life Catholics were aghast at the prospect of a Catholic president becoming the greatest champion of legalized abortion ever to step foot in the Oval Office, as Kerry would have been. Kerry could speak all day about how his piety would prompt him to boost the minimum wage. Catholics could care less; they wanted him to defend babies in the womb.
The Democratic Party has ditched pro-life Catholic Democrats (like my grandmother in the mountains of Pennsylvania), pursuing instead the pro-choice feminist driving an SUV through the suburbs of Maryland. In so doing, it has lost the votes of millions of people who long voted Democrat. By bowing before the altar of the feminist church, liberals like John Kerry have ceded a huge constituency. It cost the Democrats the 2004 election, and may do so again in 2008.
Liberals will bellyache about how Karl Rove took the vote by mass-mobilizing evangelical Protestants. What they will not talk about is how they, and a presidential nominee named John F. Kerry, drove both evangelicals and Catholics toward Bush. Kerry did more for Protestant-Catholic unity in America than the churches themselves could accomplish. The fact is that moderate to conservative Catholics had nowhere to go but to George W. Bush.
Liberal Christians like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi say that Democratic politicians are "faith-filled" people as well; they read the Bible and Matthew's gospel. However, if church-going Democrats want to win the church-going population, the solution is obvious: it's about abortion, stupid -- an answer they do not want to hear. Call us club-carrying troglodytes, but us simple-minded Christians in the hinterland just can't countenance that Jesus would be a champion of legalized abortion. And until Democrats recognize that, they will never win the churchgoers they need to drive them to the White House.
I'm one of them. In fact Kerry's abortion stance was more odious to me because he was a Catholic. Is it unfair? Maybe. But the next Catholic president has to be a real not an apostate Catholic.
Kerry has faith only in the devil himself - kennedy/clinton.
If he ever was, he hasn't been a true Catholic since 1968.
He should be officially excommunicated now.
How do you lose something you never had?
I've been a little disturbed by that map being posted all over today which shows kerry winning mostly in the regions where Catholics are the dominant religion and losing where Mormons and Protestants are dominant.
It's shameful that as many Catholics voted for kerry as did, but on the whole the Catholic vote favored Bush. It just happens that lots of Catholics live in the same cities as blacks and secular liberal whites, two groups that vote overwhelmingly Democrat.
As for Protestants, Evangelicals voted 2-1 for Bush, but the Mainstream liberal protestants probably voted 9-1 for kerry.
In other words, things are more complicated than that map suggests. The coalition of Catholic conservatives and Evangelical conservatives (and in smaller numbers a growing number of Jewish conservatives) is vital to the future of the conservative movement in our country.
2 Wayne County, Michigan Catholics for Bush!
Let's see what black church he attends this Sunday!
My cat is more Catholic than John Kerry.
He has done all sorts of things that proclaim that he is NOT a Catholic and is just calling himself one to get votes - taking communion in a Protestant (AME) church administered by a female priest, attending a semi-schismatic church run by dissenting Catholics, remarrying in a civil ceremony, apparently remarrying without getting an annulment (though he applied for one), publicly scolding the conservative American bishops, plus of course his position on abortion.
It's not just abortion - it's the all-round hypocrisy and cynical exploitation of his supposed "Catholicism". If you get right down to it, President Bush is probably a better Catholic than John Kerry (not that that's saying much.)
In my humble opinion the whole thing came down to this .... Protestant, Catholic, Morman, male, female, young, old, fat, skinny, straight, gay .... we all made the same decision. Do I want to vote for a phoney duck hunter ... phoney touch football player at the airport ... phoney war hero ... phoney career politician with secret plans to solve all problems ... phoney complexion ... phoney teeth ... phoney wealth ... phoney everything! Or, should I vote for Dubya. Other than the entrenched beauracracy (teachers union, labor unions, federal, state, and local government employees, etc.) we all voted for Dubya.
SKERRY'S only 'faith' has been in his own ego and power-mongering skills as well as in his ability to get the puppet masters to back him in his power mongering.
I doubt he even believes that God Almighty really exists. His parents didn't functionally exist at critical stages of his life. Why would he think that God would exist?
How can you lose what you do not possess?
What makes the Catholic vote particularly significant is that Kerry claimed to be a Catholic. As the story notes, when Kennedy ran for president he nobbled a much higher percentage of the Catholic vote . . . the analysis is focussed on why Catholics didn't vote for "one of their own". Mostly because he WASN'T; he only pretended to be.
How about "Catholics Put their Faith in Bush"?
We didn't keep posting all these links for nothing!!!!
President Bush: Shares Our Catholic Values
President Bush and John Kerry: On the Issues Important to Catholics
"Seismic" Catholic Shift to Bush [Insight ]
Analyst cites abortion stance as some Catholic voters shift to Bush
Poll: Catholics Trending Towards Bush
Kerry Losing Ground Among White Catholics
Voting Our Conscience, Not Our Religion [Catholic Prof Says "Vote Kerry"]
Vatican: Kerry guilty of heresy; incurrs automatic excommunication
Should a Catholic Vote for Bush or Kerry?
Why is Bush getting the bishop's blessing?
Ambassador Ray Flynn in Cleveland 10/16/2004- "Vote 2004: The Catholic Factor"
John Kerry Flip-Flops on When to Use His Catholic Belief on Politics
Abortion is Turning Democrats Off to Kerry
Planned Parenthood Unveils TV Ads Backing John Kerry on Abortion
The army of God marching for Bush
The Catholics for Bush website is now live!
(Clinton Apointee Raymond)Flynn: Catholics must vote for culture of life
Priest: It's a sin to vote pro-choice
Some attempts to sabotage Catholic voters
Kerry Scolds Vatican Over Gay Marriage
Monsignor Jude O'Doherty and President Bush
Catholic bishops should beware of Kerry's 'respect'
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PRESIDENT BUSH WON CATHOLIC VOTE
Blame the Republicans? No, This Time It's the Christians
Election 2004: Vote divided on Issues of Religion
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Well said, Freeper.
Considering that a vote for the Boston Baby Butcher was a mortal sin, we'll no doubt notice heavy traffic at the confessionals this weekend. (Sad to say, only joking.)
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