Posted on 10/26/2007 5:58:24 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
The Human Life Foundation's Defender of Life annual award dinner this month was an eye opener. The award recipient was Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, and in the brochure noting his accomplishments I learned that the congressman is co-chairman of the bipartisan pro-life caucus. Bipartisan? In amazement, I asked him if there really are pro-life Democrats in Congress. "Oh yes," he assured me, "about 30." He went on to name one, but I'm not going to repeat the name because he and the others probably get enough grief from other congressional Democrats.
A senior editor for National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru, introduced Mr. Smith. In his book, "The Party of Death" Mr. Ponnuru makes no bones about which political party deserves that description. I'm not sure whether it's wise to use such hyperbolic language about the nation's majority political group, and yet maybe strong words are overdue in describing the culture that's being promoted today. Abortion on demand, embryonic destruction, euthanasia, and animal rights now displace human rights. It wasn't the GOP pulling the plug on the disabled Terry Schiavo.
My sisters are Democrats, and one refuses to vote for any Republican. They are also Catholics, and Catholics have traditionally voted Democrat. I'm still amazed by how loyal Catholics are to a political machine that champions causes directly opposed to church teaching. Although I have never been a registered Democrat, I've voted for and campaigned for that party because it once fought for basic human rights. That is no longer the case. Senator Miller, who formerly represented Georgia in the upper chamber, had it exactly right when he wrote his book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat." He frequently says that he did not leave the Democratic Party. It left him.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Too many just don't get it, or are unwilling to understand what it is they are doing.
Here is Mass, it’s single party state (Demmy) so anyone who wants to get elected switches party affiliation no matter how stauchly Republican they are.
In the end you have Conservative Demmies (who are often more Conservative than the Republicans) and Commie Pinko Lib Demmies.
I myself originally registered as Demmy when I was 18 because it’s what my parents registered as back in the ‘50s and never changed (though they never vote Demmy). I finally gave up on them on the Life issues so when I registered when I moved I changed my affiliation.
I think inertia might be part of it....at least in Mass.
Though you’d be suprised how many under 40 Republicans I meet up here.
Agreed. It is impossible to be a Christian and a Democrat. You’re either one or the other—not both.
While I agree with your premise, I know Democrat Christians who will focus on the Democrats “concern” for the poor as evidence of Christian influence. Some Democrats have even convinced themselves they are better Christians than Republicans because of that and Democrats’ stewardship of the earth (global warming) and civil rights for all (tolerance for all). Sadly, many, many believe this is being Christian while hard-hearted conservatives can’t possibly be true Christians. Selection perception works well on cognitive dissonance.
I believe that the catholic support of democrats comes from a time when catholic immigrants were not welcome in America.
They got ‘duped’ just like the other groups that thought that the democrats would help them, “The little guy.”
The town I live in has a large percentage of immigrants, or second generation children of immigrants. They still believe that the democrat party is the party helping the downtrodden and poor.
My in-laws are such people and we go around all the time on this issue. I don’t know how any ‘real’ catholic could vote democrat. But there are alot of ‘republicans’ that are just as bad, Rudy, Olympia Snow, etc. RINOs.
More puzzling why Jews back democrats.
Past opinion surveys have shown that the more likely a Catholic is to attend Mass on at least a weekly basis, the more probable will be his vote for the Republicans and to be conservative politically. The same holds true for mainline Protestants.
Bishop’s fault.
Freegards
Actually it's not puzzling at all (although it's certainly in vogue around here to express puzzlement). Jewish liberals, Catholic liberals, and Protestant liberals all vote for Democrats because they're .....well, liberals. And the moderates among them usually vote Donkey because of tradition and the (false) assumption that the Dems are the party of the underdog.
I refuse to be unpuzzled!
:>)
Your puzzlement might subside when you realize that Israel is barely the political radar for liberal Jews. Just like liberal Catholics and Protestants their main political concerns are elsewhere. Liberals vote Democrat — not exactly breaking news.
Even though results show otherwise - since dim policies have literally destroyed black families, keep taxes high and murder the littlest "guy" of all.
One more time - as in all areas of life - it isn't what they SAY people, it's what they DO.
First, because of the emphasis on social conservative issues, the Republican Party has become very competitive for the Catholic vote, and in the last two presidential elections, actually obtained a majority of the Catholic vote.
But keep in mind not all Catholics are pro-life, sadly. Especially non-devout Catholics. A majority of Catholics who are not devout are pro-abortion. That’s a bit unsurprising. These are folks who have already declared, implicitly or explicitly, that the Church holds little sway in how they run their lives, in what they believe.
Yes, they're still Catholics. They still count as Catholics. But these are folks who aren't making much of an effort to live particularly Catholic lives.
A majority of these folks vote Democrat.
Devout Catholics tend to vote more for Republicans, primarily due to the social conservative agenda of the party.
But even among these, some devout Catholics are pro-abortion, and are more socially liberal. This is the fault of the bishops, who proclaim the Gospel of Life, but don’t do much where the rubber meets the road in terms of disciplining prominent wayward Catholics.
I’ve asked pro-abortion Catholics (folks who may think it’s morally wrong to procure an abortion, but who believe that it should nonetheless be legal) how they could defy the Church’s teaching on this matter. They point to the bishops’ treatment (or lack thereof) of folks like Chappaquiddick Ted. If the bishops don’t do anything to major pro-abort Catholic politicians, they reason, then they don’t really mean that I, Miss Catholic-in-the-Pew, must think that abortion should be banned.
And then, when you ask a critter like Chappaquiddick Ted (and he has been asked for the record), he’s actually said stuff like, “It’s the bishops’ problem, and they haven’t done anything to me to date, so why should I change?”
Another thing to keep in mind is that Catholics, even devout Catholics, are not ideologically conservative, as currently defined. We don’t view low taxes, less government regulation, more capitalism as obtaining to the level of the moral law. For devout Catholics, being a Conservative with a capital “C” or a Capitalist with a capital “C,” or for that matter, a Liberal with a capital “L” is tantamount to idolatry.
Some Catholics favor the war in Iraq, some don’t. Even the pope acknowledges that there is legitimate room for difference on this question within the Church. There is no direct teaching that socialized medicine is intrinsically evil. There is no “right” level of taxation, or government intrusion into markets. These are all legitimate issues of debate for Catholics as persons who engage in the political sphere.
Thus, you’ll find that reasonably devout Catholics (folks who go to Mass each Sunday and Holyday, which is part of a minimum obligation to be a devout Catholic), we vote mostly Republican these days, most of the time, mainly because of the social issues. Most devout Catholics ARE pro-life, ARE pro-family, DO come down on the conservative side of things in terms of using the law to enforce minimal standards of morality.
But we’re not wedded to the Republican Party. We’re wedded to Catholic Faith, which we believe was given to us by Jesus through the Apostles, and preserved in the Holy Catholic Church.
As well, devout Catholics are more likely to be Catholics who know a little more of their own history here in the United States. We remember how virulently anti-Catholic the Republican Party once was (and to some degree, still is). “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” and all that. We remember how Republicans and freemasons passed anti-Catholic constitutional amendments to state constitutions to prevent any sort of public aid reaching children in our parochial schools. We remember their attempts to SHUT DOWN Catholic parochial school systems, to force our children in to their “public” schools, to indoctrinate our children against our faith, in the effort to eradicate our faith, and by so doing, to “Americanize” us.
So, for many, there may be lingering feelings of unwelcome. I personally feel that in the Religion Forum almost everyday from the swarm of anti-Catholic bigots who post here.
Finally, the current effort by some in the party to de-emphasize, or even vitiate, the social conservative agenda will not draw less devout Catholics to the party in any large numbers, but will manage (is managing) to send large waves of devout Catholics right out of the party.
sitetest
Nice that someone finally came out and said it. I appreciate the honesty, at least.
For the same reason kids love Santa Claus.
Catholics are called to be disciples of Jesus, first and last, and I don’t recall Jesus laying out an economic program.
sitetest
Out here in Colorado, the Republicans are the grandkids of the Kluxers who burned a cross near my parish and on my Irish great-grandparents' lawn. They aren't "my people," even when I vote for them. One of my great-grandparents' grandkids is my family's only politician, a relatively successful local Democrat.
Walk them through the Ten Commandments. The RAT platform violates all of the Ten Commandments.
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