Why do some Catholics lean politically conservative?

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Inisfallen said:
Nonetheless, the Church has never claimed that the United States Constitution was inspired by God, or endorsed it in any way.
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I understand that’s a belief of the LDS Church, not the Catholic Church.

Its a useful fact to know when processing talk show host Glenn Beck’s devotion to the document.
 
JanetF said:
And Clinton was able to balance that budget based on policies put into place during the Reagan/Bush 41 era
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Not true:

Straight from the FED

If you look at it you will notice that Reagan inherited what was more or less normal for deficit spending in this country’s history. That budget deficit was at an all time high, at the time, when Clinton look over. Clinton left with a balanced budget for the first time since 1969. Bush left Obama with what is considered the worst rescission in US history. You can play politics on this one, but it’s hard to argue that 8 years of economic policy vs at most a few months of Obama’s administration played any part here. Yes in his first year deficit spending hit an all time high; but this is highly considered what kept this country out of depression. You’ll also note that the deficit spending dropped dramatically after that. Is it good, not at all, but I think I’ve presented strong evidence to the contrary using the Government’s own numbers. If you want another opinion on this, see this Forbes, which is a pro-business magazine and favors free market policies.

Forbes
 
The Second Amendment objection makes no sense. Last time I checked, using lethal force to defend oneself or others is permissible for a Catholic.
 
blackforest said:
I’ll begin first by staying that Donald Trump is an opportunist, not a conservative. He is whatever it takes to be and stay in power.
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  1. No body thought he would win, including Donald himself. All the polls got it wrong except the one that counted.
  2. His campaign promises were up front. He was elected fairly
  3. As far as staying in power, if he does a lousy job he’s out in 4 yrs. If he does the best job anybody has ever seen in history or ever will see, he’s still out in 8 yrs. That’s more than one can say about those entrenched in the house and senate
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blackforest:
Second, he has pushed for censorship of everyone from climate scientists to media outlets to critics of police brutality. It’s traditionally been a position of the nationalistic Right that no one should be allowed to express free speech by sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance or refusing to sing the national anthem. And they’ve actively banned student protests.
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The Left is out of control. THEY shut down speech. THEY are the ones behind all the violence. THEY promote violence towards anyone not in their camp.
 
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I don’t think it’s that big a mystery. If you are a practicing Catholic, you have set moral and religious values and you are very likely to be conservative on many or most social issues. Maybe not all, however. Conservative with regard to abortion, euthanasia, marriage; but not necessarily with respect to the environment and climate change or social justice issues. As far as economics, trade policy, and fiscal issues, I’d say it’s more of a mixed bag. People of faith in most religions tend to be more conservative on social issues, and since there is little room for compromise, the positions taken often seem harsh.
 
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It makes perfect sense. The USCCB has as a stated policy, on its website, to eventually end private ownership of handguns. The lethal force argument you make makes no sense. A lot of countries allow lethal force to defend oneself. Hypocritically, they don’t allow people to have the tools to do it.
 
redbetta said:
I just read it and it does not call for an end of private ownership of handguns.
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It does call for a ban of “assault weapons”, and it is generally recognized that this is a trip down the Slippery Slope. That’s why it wasn’t renewed in 2004.
 
One thing many Americans don’t realize about Social Security is that it was originally designed (in part) to get older people out of the workforce, opening up scarce job opportunities during the Great Depression for unemployed younger workers. The same with child labor laws - by getting young children out of the workforce, there would be more jobs for older people who were trying to feed their families.

Not the only reason for those two landmark laws of the New Deal, but it was part of the calculus.
 
StephenBales said:
“The State should help people when they’re sick and can’t work.”
“The State should help people who can’t work with a social safety net.”
“The State should aid people looking for housing, or give scholarships for college.”
“The State should donate some of the proceeds from its constituents to charity.”

Sure, this sounds good to any conservative, with one change: replace the word State with Church. Then those are fine, commendable! But the government is neither responsible nor well equipped to handle any of those tasks. They’re also bad at it! They’re bad at it because poor work is incentivized. If a government agency does poor work, it does not respond to market forces, so they’re not hurt by their own poor work. In fact, they can blame the low quality of their work on their conditions, and just afford more tax dollars to themselves.

Not only is the government not responsible for the tasks listed above, as well as many tasks they have already taken on, but they’re not good at it, and they were never intended to do so.

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States…To borrow Money on the credit of the United States…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes…To coin money…To establish Post Offices and post Roads…To raise and support Armies.” From Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. The government doesn’t have a lot of legitimate responsibilities! And it shouldn’t take on anything other than what it was intended to.

So generally, a Catholic will be or lean conservative or libertarian because these positions advocate what works, and further sets the Church from any meddling by the government to boot.
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At least two health-share networks are sponsors of Catholic Answers.

No government.Look on the CA home page.
 
And at the time, people didn’t, on average, live on a few decades after the retirement age of 65, as they often do today. The average lifespan was about 65 to 70 or so, not 80 to 90.
 
Glennon_P said:
One thing many Americans don’t realize about Social Security is that it was originally designed (in part) to get older people out of the workforce, opening up scarce job opportunities during the Great Depression for unemployed younger workers. The same with child labor laws - by getting young children out of the workforce, there would be more jobs for older people who were trying to feed their families.

Not the only reason for those two landmark laws of the New Deal, but it was part of the calculus.
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Originally the Social Security legislation permitted privately operated competition.

Right now, only the Galveston County plan is allowed.
 
The security net itself is not so secure. I am “officially” retired yet working harder than I ever have in my younger years. Still I’m thankful for Social Security even though it is a pittance.
 
If memory serves me correctly, the average life expectancy at the time Social Security went into effect was 67 years. Today it’s just short of 79 years in the U.S. That’s a significant difference.
 
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