Posted on 09/04/2014 7:41:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Why do Catholics who are aligned with Democrats on social welfare and Republicans on abortion usually vote Democrat? Recent political science research suggests an answer.
Some Catholics who vote for Democratic candidates incorrectly assume those candidates are pro-life.
Catholics are often used as an example of "cross-pressured voters" due to the political party positions on abortion and welfare. Laura Hussey, associate professor of American public policy and administration at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Geoffrey Layman, professor of political science at University of Notre Dame, however, found that a minority of Catholics were both pro-life and pro-welfare, and those that were showed little ambivalence in their vote choice.
Their research, "Coping with Cross-Pressures: Electoral Choice and Political Perceptions among American Catholics," was presented Friday at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
About 14 percent of all Catholics hold policy views consistent with the view of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — they favor increasing government social welfare programs and they are opposed to abortion. And these Catholics, by far, prefer Democrats when they vote. Only about 24 percent vote Republican.
Committed Catholics were more likely to hold the pro-welfare/pro-life (PW/PL) views. While only 14 percent of all Catholics were PW/PL, 25 percent of committed Catholics held those views. Among non-Catholics, religious commitment made less of a difference: 14 percent of all non-Catholics and 17 percent of non-Catholics with religious commitment were PW/PL. Hussey and Laymen also found that being a committed Catholic increased the likelihood of being PW/PL even when controlling for other factors, which suggests that being a committed Catholic makes a unique contribution to being PW/PL.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
Romney won the white vote 59% to 39%. Catholic whites voted 59% to 40%. I would say that the race/ethnicity variable is more predictive than the religion variable for Catholics.
As one FReeper explained it to me years ago:
Show me just one Catholic bishop who will speak up against coveting your neighbors’ goods. That is why Catholics ignored the Bishops on abortion. They know abortion is wrong but overlooked the Dems on that point because those same politicians pandered to their covetousness. Same for protestants and evangelical pastors, leaders and activists. American politics and government at all levels is driven by government-mediated coveting. Until the Church takes a stand against this we can expect to sink deeper and deeper into socialism and, oh yeah, abortion.Related threads:
RE: Does it matter?
Yes it does, and I’m not even Catholic.
But I do differentiate between the erring INDIVIDUAL from what the church teaches.
One of my Catholic cousins even has a shrine to JFK in his kitchen.
It is hard to be a Catholic and a Republican. (not looking for sympathy). But to stand for truth I feel I must vote Republican.
Here’s how I see it: They or others in their extended family are receiving Government benefits. They vote Democrat to protect their income. When asked about the abortion stance of the politician, these voters lie. They say they thought the candidate was pro-life. They know what the Church teaches. But in reality, their pocketbook trumps the Church’s teachings.
Stupidity.
Why do many pro life Christians vote democrat?
Because they want to keep their contraception pills!!
** pro-welfare/pro-life (PW/PL)**
Is this some kind of new category?
Yep. A new batch of tar arrived. ;)
Old news.
**To get a large enough group of Catholics, the study pooled data from the American National Election Studies for election years from 1992 to 2008.**
RE: Because they want to keep their contraception pills!!
Why do they believe Republicans want to take their contraception pills away from them?
What Republicans don’t want is FORCING someone else to pay for their contraception pills if the someone has a moral objection to it.
2) The reality is, besides some white Evangelical Christians and low Information Independent Women voters, nobody really cares enough about abortion to make a candidate's position on it a priority when choosing who to vote for.
When the Protestants do something about this problem, maybe the Catholics will notice.
8 out of 10 white Protestants voted for Romney...95% of black Protestants voted for Obama...
95 percent — unbelievable.
All of the Above ..
right on Capt. Dave
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