“What is silly is this ridiculous fantasy about the Catholic vote in America, not existing, not being real.”
It’s not a fantasy. Catholics no longer vote in anything approaching a monolithic bloc. A group that votes 50% for Party A in one election, 54% for the same party in the previous election, 51% or so for Party B in the election before that, etc., giving smallish majorities to Party A in some years and Party B in others is no longer a single voting bloc.
The last time Catholics gave anywhere near 60% of their votes to one presidential candidate or another was in 1968 when Hubert Humphrey got 59% of the Catholic vote, according to Gallup. That's 44 years ago.
Oh, wait. That's not quite accurate. By Gallup's numbers, Catholics voted 61% for RONALD REAGAN in 1984. Oh, well. We DID sorta vote as a little bit of a bloc in 1984. For the Republican. LOL.
Examples of voting blocs would be blacks (over 80%, often over 90% Dem, consistently) or Hispanics (never below 60% Dem, often quite a bit higher for the Dems) or Jews (in recent decades, nearly never below 70% Dem, as much as nearly 80% Dem).
Whites are not quite a voting bloc. They typically give the Republicans in the high 50s or near to 60%. But that leaves a whole lot of white folks voting Dem.
But since 1972, Catholics increasingly do not vote as a bloc. Their votes have continued to trend away from any particular preference for the Dems to the point now where usually the Catholic vote is within a point or two of the national vote of the entire electorate. In fact, the Catholic vote was apparently a little bit more Republican this year than the rest of the electorate.
Catholics no longer represent anything approaching a single bloc of voters that predominantly votes for a particular party.
But only anti-Catholic bigotry blinds some to trying to fit the square peg into the round hole of trying to re-imagine the modern Catholic vote as a single bloc, when the larger truth is kicking them in the pants: Similar to the rest of the US voting population, different ethnic and racial groups of Catholics do vote as blocs, or nearly so. And those blocs are broadly similar to those that exist in the rest of the population.
BLACK Catholics do. HISPANIC Catholics do. WHITE Catholics do, a little. Just like blacks, generally, Hispanics generally, and whites generally.
But in the Church this year, out of 100 folks, 48 voted for Gov. Romney and about 50 voted for the anti-Christ.
That is at odds with this piece of tripe: “Catholics and liberal is not two different things,...”
That doesn't even take into account the fact that more religious Catholics - those that take more seriously the actual teachings of the Church - are more likely to vote Republican and less religious Catholics - those that often ignore even the most basic teachings and disciplines of the Church - are more likely to vote Democrat. In other words, those who take seriously the teachings of the Catholic Church are, as a population, less liberal.
That kinda makes a hash of this: “Catholics and liberal is not two different things,...”
Of course, it’s apparent that your misinterpretation goes much deeper than merely mis-identifying “Catholics and liberal” as the same.
In comparing a single American denomination to the Universal Church, you don’t evince any realization that the American political categories of “liberal” and “conservative” may fit narrow American denominations, but not the Universal Church.
However, let me address directly your logical fallacy of deciding that because Catholic Hispanics vote more heavily than Protestant Hispanics, it must be because the Catholic Church is liberal. A bare assertion unsupported by any actual argument or citation of facts.
Hispanics usually come from societies that don’t embrace many of the concepts that are central to conservatism, especially that of a preference of smaller government. Hispanics who don’t assimilate well (and unfortunately, large numbers don’t) are unlikely to let go of their ways of thinking about most things, including the proper scope, size and role of government. They are also unlikely to change their religion.
But those Hispanics that better assimilate are more likely to embrace more mainstream American social and political thinking such as the idea of smaller and limited government. Folks who more readily assimilate and change in these ways are also more open to changing their religion.
sitetest
Yes, Catholics are a democrat voting block, and always have been with the exception of 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 2004, and possibly 1956.
Only one of those votes was against an incumbent democrat, the rest were reelections, and Reagan’s third term.
That is as good as it has ever gotten for us in regards to the Catholic vote, but that little period is over, and Catholics are back where they have always been supporting Obama both times, and we have no guarantee that they will ever vote republican again.
The Catholic denomination has traditionally been a dependable democrat voting block, and with a little burp during the last 40 years to help elect republicans who were already in office, it is returning to it’s home.
Catholic immigration equals to importing democrat voters, which it always has.