The Pope, the President, and the Changing Catholic Voter - (Catholics strong for G.W

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Catholics - committed ones that is and not RC lite cappucino catholics like a well known Boston Irish family and others - find it increasingly diffucult to stomach the democrats who are let’s face it militants in favour of aborting unwanted children. I am not an american and do not like GWB but would not have voted for a flaky cappucino catholic like Kerry
 
From the Denver Catholic Register in November:

**Stolen idealism **
**By Scott Powell **

I feel like I was robbed of my democracy. Going to the polls to vote has always held a sort of romantic place in my heart. The feeling of going out, participating in this great process of ours with the knowledge that my voice counts; that we live in a country in which each individual can contribute to the good of the free world. The first time I voted, I felt a rush of adrenaline as I took my rightful place in this great republic our forefathers fought and died for.
This year was different.

I didn’t feel that adrenaline. It was replaced with a dull, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I went to the polls. I, along with many of my fellow Americans was dissatisfied with my choices on Nov. 2.

My Catholic faith is the most important thing in my life. It shapes the rest of my world, so naturally, it’s at the center of my voting choices. The problem was that as far as I could tell, none of our presidential options fit this Catholic worldview.
The tragedy of this election for many Catholics who felt like myself is that we were forced to vote on the basis of mathematics. How many more human lives would be lost voting one way as opposed to the other. I voted with the candidate who was against the slaughter of millions of unborn babies as well as the harvesting of human persons for medical research. Do I agree with his policies? Not really. Do I think he’s consistent with Catholic social teaching, the care of the poor which Jesus calls us to, care of the creation God has called us to be stewards of? Do I think he’s authentically pro-life, defending all human persons, including those on death row, those going to war, and the poor and elderly in need of adequate medical care, not just the unborn? Well, not really. But the tragedy is that I’m not really able to focus on those things because without the right for persons to be born in the first place, none of those really matter.
How cruel a choice we’ve been given. To have to disregard a dialogue on the way we should live as a society because we have to fight for the right to live in the first place. This is a sure sign that we have a long way to go in the fight to build a culture of life. I, like millions of others I assume, probably would have voted differently if things like abortion and embryonic stem cell research were not an issue.

No, I don’t feel particularly happy about the election this year. Am I relieved by the results? Of course. But merely because I believe that fewer human beings will be killed under this administration than the alternative. But honestly, can’t the United States of America do better than that?
 
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gilliam:
However, Pope John Paul II played a significant role in converting many conservative Catholics into reliable Republican voters.
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Horse bubbles unless you can document where he either advised American Catholics to vote for Bush or for Republican candidates or told them to vote for the Republicans “reliably.”

BTW, the difference between the percentage of Catholics who voted Dem vs Repub in the last election wasn’t more than a few percentage points.

I don’t think that’ll hold in the '08 elections…
 
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Richardols:
BTW, the difference between the percentage of Catholics who voted Dem vs Repub in the last election wasn’t more than a few percentage points.

I don’t think that’ll hold in the '08 elections…
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The issue is the CHANGE in Catholic voters that used to be solidly in the Democrat camp. If indeed the majority of Catholics (even if small percentages) voted Republican, this is a sea change from the way things were a decade ago when only tiny percentage of Catholics voted Republican. There is a book about the Catholic voter that tracks Catholic politics from the early years. The faith tended to vote en bloc and vote solidly Democrat. As the Democrat party morphed into secularism, it became less and less appealing to people of faith, Catholic, Protestant or Jew.

Lisa N
 
Lisa N:
this is a sea change from the way things were a decade ago when only tiny percentage of Catholics voted Republican.
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You’re saying that only a tiny percentage of Catholics voted for Bush, Sr. in '96 and '92? I doubt that very much.
 
Scott, thank you for posting that article. It expressed exactly how I felt election day.
 
Philip P:
I’m not sure it implies that JPII’s converted people to Republicanism - actually that’s kind of offensive in some light, reducing the pope to a political tool, but I’m sure that’s not what you meant (no sarcasm, really don’t believe you meant it that way).

What I think it’s more indicative of is that Catholicism has become more mainstream, more accepted as a regular part of our society. This is a potentially good thing. After all, the Church is to be the leaven, and having a strong Catholic presence in both parties can be very health for Democracy - imagine two parties battling it out on who can be the most pro-life, who can be the most concerned for social justice, etc. On the other hand, Catholics in whichever party need to guard against getting too assimilated. If you are a Democratic leaning Catholic, you need to admit that the party has a problem with abortion and work to change it. If you are a Republican leaning Catholic, you need to admit that the party is a far too prone to violence and coercion as a solution and need to work to change it.
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Well put. As a practicing Catholic, I don’t consider either party to adequately represent me. In fact, if I didn’t live in Pennsylvania where independents can’t vote in primaries, I’d register as one (interestingly, our former governor Casey & his son are good examples of pro-life Democrats & have gotten only grief from the party in return for their efforts). I registered as a Democrat when I reached voting age, but that was 25 years ago & the party hadn’t yet quite completely sold out to the extremists. Therefore, I’m the classic swing voter who went for Bush as I couldn’t in good conscience vote for Kerry.
 
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stellina:
Therefore, I’m the classic swing voter who went for Bush as I couldn’t in good conscience vote for Kerry.
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And there were the anti-war and anti-abortion Catholics who couldn’t vote for either man in good conscience. Some folks are “disenfranchised” because of the candidates’ political positions.
 
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