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 ...
It’s the Social Gospel being taught within the Catholic Church.
Catholic Church = Democratic Party = CONTROL
Maybe they are just stupid. There is a lot of that these days.
Same thing with American Jews.
When Joe Biden, John Kerry, Nancy Pelousi, etc. are defined as “Catholic”, your results are garbage in, garbage out.
“Why Do Many Pro-Life Catholics Vote Democrat?”
Easier than working?!?
I think the same can be said for many of those that attend more liberal Protestant denominations. I believe it’s the preaching and teaching of social justice principles that is the cause of the support for government welfare programs.
I can’t remember who it was on FR that has said that, in their opinion, the churches have relinquished much of the responsibility that they felt in the past to provide aid, and instead transferred the responsibility to the government. I couldn’t agree more.
Oh come on now, that is ridiculous.
Because free stuff is more important than human life?
RE: But as always. It’s the Catholics who are at fault.
Which Catholic? The individual or the church?
Same problem with Jews voting for Dems, or Blacks voting for Dems, or Hispanics voting for Dems, or Women voting for Dems, or —
You get the picture. Why does anyone vote for the Dems.
1. They grew up in a Dem voting family, so it’s learned behavior.
2. They don’t know how to critically think for themselves.
3. They work for government and have no understanding of a free market or economics.
4. They don’t like themselves or other people.
5. They confuse utopian fantasy with real human behavior.
Take your pick.
Does it matter? I know it does not on this forum. If some obscure priest from some obscure country farts the wrong way, it gets posted here. It is the fault of every Catholic that he did it.
Same with "church going" blacks who vote Dem. Financial considerations supersede social conservatism.
Take a look at race and ethnicity to see if there is any correlation with those variables and their influence on voting preferences. Latinos vote over 70% for Dems. What percentage are they of Catholics?
Because 60+ years ago the ethnic groups that made up the bulk of the Catholic Church in America (Irish, Italians, Poles) were primarily at the lower end of the working class spectrum, where they were sitting ducks for the prevalent class warfare rhetoric of the day.
There were even Catholic priests (Father Charles Coughlin, Father James Cox) who jumped into the leadership of various Leftist movements. This was very popular with their prevailing audience at the time.
These attitudes tend to get handed down through families generation after generation. I remember being a kid in the 70’s hearing my old Irish aunts sit around and hurl invectives at Andrew Carnegie, half a century after he had gone back to Scotland and died.
The vast majority of Catholics here in Da Burgh are socially conservative, but will not hesitate to vote for any Democrat who claims to be standing up for “Da Workin’ Man”.
Likewise there has never been a disgustingly pro-abortion Catholic politician who was not welcomed with open arms at local Church functions.
Lately I’ve struggled with the postion of the Catholic church on a lot of things. At least in my area of the Country, nothing has been said of the slaughtering of Christians. Nothing. Nothing has been said of the expansion of abortions. Nothing. Nothing has been said about actions taken by this administration that run counter to Catholic beliefs and teachings. Nothing.
And yet they still devote time in Mass and ask for my money to send to other countries to pay for schools, churches, etc. Catholics feel good about being charitable, and I guess that’s why they vote DemocRAT.
Take abortion and just about anything dealing with sex out of the equation, and a lot of Catholic doctrine is in line with Democrats. Problem is that abortion should be a big deal breaker, but it doesn’t seem to be for too many people.
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