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Why Do Many Pro-Life Catholics Vote Democrat?
Christian Post ^ | 09/03/2014 | Napp Nazworth

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: abortion; catholic; democrat; prolife
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To: Albion Wilde

And how, exactly, was it all DWIGHT D. Eisenhower’s fault?


It was just sarcasm, I was just speaking from my own experience and from the people I was around, even the people who had fairly good jobs including farmers and ranchers ate beans and potatoes.

I never ate a hamburger until I was 12 years old, yet there was not much that my kids were not real familiar with at a much younger age.

Although things were different in different parts of the country I was raised from the west to the mid west and it was much the same.

Although my situation may have been different from what some one else may have experienced I am still around the same type of people that I was around then but they live a totally different life style brought on by the lift in the economy which I perceive to have started in the 50s.

By the 1970s any one who worked could eat a steak now and then but that was not so in the early 50s.

Just saying people got used to the easy life and they are not going to let go of it come hell or high water.

So how they vote may not be for the reason they say, I think it is for no other reason than that people are becoming socialists.


61 posted on 09/04/2014 10:14:08 AM PDT by ravenwolf (nd)
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To: al_c
Interesting. So it seems that it’s the Hispanics that are tilting the scales.

And they will continue to do so. They come from the vein of the RCC that teaches liberation theology.

62 posted on 09/04/2014 10:22:09 AM PDT by ealgeone (obama, borderof)
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To: al_c
It seems to be more cultural to me. They tend to come from families that have voted Democratic for decades, so that's what they're used to doing.

That is ridiculous, how do you think that blacks switched from one party to the other permanently, in a single election, in 1936?

Why do you think the left has always wanted more Catholics, and that JFK devoted much of his life to immigration and the democrat party was devoted to passing his 1965 Immigration Act?

63 posted on 09/04/2014 10:24:39 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine
Some Catholics who vote for Democratic candidates incorrectly assume those candidates are pro-life.

No it's not. Republicans are afraid of mentioning abortion in ANY context in Catholic heavy states. Also, only a generation ago a lot of these folks HAD stellar pro-life voting records. Mike Madigan and Richie Daley Jr. of IL, for example. Also, a lot of the Republicans in these states decide to go "moderate on social issues", which historically means pro-abort and now includes changing the dictionary to appease sexual deviants.
64 posted on 09/04/2014 10:24:59 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Albion Wilde

The Catholics could never have created a United States, although they did create almost all of the nations of the new world.

Catholics came to America liberal, America didn’t make them liberal in the 1800s.


65 posted on 09/04/2014 10:30:52 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: married21

Address what, that you can’t tell the difference between a pro-life platform and a pro-abortion platform, and national politics?


66 posted on 09/04/2014 10:33:00 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: al_c
>It’s the Social Gospel being taught within the Catholic Church.< No, it' s not. It seems to be more cultural to me. They tend to come from families that have voted Democratic for decades, so that's what they're used to doing.

The northeast, home to majority catholics, are represented by all liberal/socialist senators.

53% of catholics voted for obama in 2012

57% of catholics voted for obama in 2008

Catholics have given 50% or greater of their vote to the GOP presidential candidate in only 4 elections dating back to 1952 based on results compiled by the National Election Studies.

If we throw in 1948 another cycle went to the liberal/socialists with catholics voting 65% for Truman.

Catholicism and it's social gospel/liberation theology influence is killing this country.

67 posted on 09/04/2014 10:39:32 AM PDT by ealgeone (obama, borderof)
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To: SeekAndFind

Want to make a difference ? Start your own vocal group Be your own precinct captain The piece below is designed to be printed up and passed around your precinct and your friends and neighbors as a half sheet flyer. On the face (REVERSE SIDE)or below the slogan you can put the name of the candidate you favor and the election dates...EXCELLENT FOR SLIPPING UNDER WINDSHIELD WIPERS ON CARS PARKED IN KEY PARKING LOTS CHURCHES, RALLY SITES....

Did you know the Democrat party voted to remove any reference to God at their 2012 national convention ? And when they decided it was a mistake and unpolitical they rammed the change to put it back in like they voted for Obamacare.But delegates booed the decision. The Democrat is not the party of JFK or even FDR. It’s a queer hyphenated marriage between socialists and “progressives” They are now Demo-Coms.

DEMO-COMS ARE
GOD DENIERS AND PREDACIOUS LIARS
PREACH REDISTRIBUTE
YOUR WEALTH INCITERS/
FIRST YOUR MONEY THEN YOUR GUNS
ISSUING DECREES OF MANY COME
DEMAND SURRENDERING CHOICES ONE BY ONE
INTO REGIMENTATION YOU MUST RUN
AND NOW THEIR ROBOT YOU’VE BECOME

It’s time to get a government
run by a lying Godless political party OUT

OUT of Our faces
Our religions and and Our pocketbooks


68 posted on 09/04/2014 10:43:14 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Want to make a difference ? Start your own vocal group Be your own precinct captain The piece below is designed to be printed up and passed around your precinct and your friends and neighbors as a half sheet flyer. On the face (REVERSE SIDE)or below the slogan you can put the name of the candidate you favor and the election dates...EXCELLENT FOR SLIPPING UNDER WINDSHIELD WIPERS ON CARS PARKED IN KEY PARKING LOTS CHURCHES, RALLY SITES....

Did you know the Democrat party voted to remove any reference to God at their 2012 national convention ? And when they decided it was a mistake and unpolitical they rammed the change to put it back in like they voted for Obamacare.But delegates booed the decision. The Democrat is not the party of JFK or even FDR. It’s a queer hyphenated marriage between socialists and “progressives” They are now Demo-Coms.

DEMO-COMS ARE
GOD DENIERS AND PREDACIOUS LIARS
PREACH REDISTRIBUTE
YOUR WEALTH INCITERS/
FIRST YOUR MONEY THEN YOUR GUNS
ISSUING DECREES OF MANY COME
DEMAND SURRENDERING CHOICES ONE BY ONE
INTO REGIMENTATION YOU MUST RUN
AND NOW THEIR ROBOT YOU’VE BECOME

It’s time to get a government
run by a lying Godless political party OUT

OUT of Our faces
Our religions and and Our pocketbooks


69 posted on 09/04/2014 10:44:07 AM PDT by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine

Considering I hear it very often, no it isn’t.

Usually pro life is defined as anti death penalty, anti gun, pro illegal immigrants (Jesus and Mary were illegal immigrants you know!) and of course, pro infanticide.

See, the others outweigh infanticide, so there.

The American Catholics have been Democrats for so long, their moral compass comes from their party, not their faith.

To be fair, the SBC is going the same way with the GOP. That isn’t good.


70 posted on 09/04/2014 10:52:00 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: ansel12
That is ridiculous

Gee … what a pleasant way to open a conversation.

71 posted on 09/04/2014 10:54:20 AM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: ealgeone

Did you happen to see the chart above that broke down the Catholic vote by race? If not, you might want to take a look at it.


72 posted on 09/04/2014 10:55:07 AM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: al_c

Gee, what a way to ignore how ridiculous your claim was.

Care to actually respond to the facts?


73 posted on 09/04/2014 11:00:39 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: defconw

I get told daily by certain Catholic FReepers about what I believe, and even when I say it is wrong, I get told that I don’t know what I believe because Father XYZ said all Lutheran’s believe ABC.

There are Eastern Orthodox Freepers that left FR because of such antics.


74 posted on 09/04/2014 11:02:06 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: ealgeone
And they will continue to do so. They come from the vein of the RCC that teaches liberation theology.

Actually, they come from the vein of the US government saying that they'll take care of them … especially the Dems. Birth control and abortion were already wide spread in the US long before they were instituted in Mexico. They're faith background is much more conservative than the US's version. They've been conditioned by politics, not religion.

75 posted on 09/04/2014 11:03:05 AM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: redgolum

I stay off threads that are not Catholic, so I wouldn’t know. Plus I have never had a Priest tell me anything about any religion other than Catholic.


76 posted on 09/04/2014 11:04:17 AM PDT by defconw (Both parties have clearly lost their minds!)
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To: al_c; ealgeone

The fairly recent phenomenon of white Catholics voting majority republican is too little too late, the Catholic vote has always been Catholic, has always been democrat, and has always been white, until just in recent history.

More Catholics coming in from JFK’s Immigration law isn’t changing anything. the Catholic vote has only gone republican 4 or 5 times in history, depending on the sources, nothing is changing, the Catholic vote was brought here on purpose.


77 posted on 09/04/2014 11:05:06 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: al_c
They're faith background is much more conservative than the US's version. They've been conditioned by politics, not religion.

That must be why all the nations south of us, including Mexico, are Catholic, and wonderful, and why we don't get millions and millions, and millions, of Catholic refugees.

78 posted on 09/04/2014 11:07:36 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: defconw

I like to argue (personal failing), so I wander all over.

To be fair, one thing I am very thankful is that FR (and other forums) has allowed me to learn more about other churches and Synods than I would have before. I am fortunate to have met a number of Eastern Orthodox who have given me a different perspective on a great number of things.

My Mother in Law’s priest tells her some very inaccurate information all the time about what my synod believe. Stating “Well, that is how the Church views it, doesn’t matter what they say!”

When I pull that tactic, it is called bigotry. When the priest does it, it is called authority. Lucky for my bride, the priest in the Lincoln diocese where we did our pre marriage stuff was a more intelligent man. He didn’t agree with me on all things (which, if he really wanted to be a Catholic he shouldn’t) but he did know where I stood, and would listen rather than repeat some old black legend.


79 posted on 09/04/2014 11:13:57 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: ansel12

Which backs up my claim that it’s political, not because they are Catholic.


80 posted on 09/04/2014 11:17:19 AM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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