Why do some Catholics lean politically conservative?

[Theo2]

It’s interesting to me that you’d put this all in the same statement. Military spending is one of the biggest drivers of our budget deficit (I’m not claiming all), especially because of unnecessary (Republican launched) recent wars. Little remembered fact…Bush Jr inherited a bipartisan balanced budget from the Clinton Era.

I agree we spend too much on defense. Are you not for a strong defense? The rest of your statement would require a political argument and the OP asked us not to go there.

 

[StephenBales]

For example, when I look at the issues outside of certain social issues, it seems like the Catholic position would be very compatible with the left-leaning or progressive view.

“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.

 

[somecanadian]

Just because there are some fallacies being thrown out there…

The people I know who voted Trump are middle class, native, white and black, mostly women. They voted Trump not because they ‘liked’ him but because they honestly thought he was the better option than Hilary.

To this day it’s hard for people to recognize that she was the absolutely worst candidate. Obama won two terms. Any other candidate could have one the next for the Democrats but they put Hilary as their front liner and that was a huge mistake.

 

[chessnerd321]

Not spending money you don’t have

As much as I agree with everything else you said you might want to look into that one. Every administration spends more than the last for quite awhile now.

 

[Theo2]

Yes, and I don’t like it. Do you? The liberals seem not to care.

 

[DENNYINMI]

Hi, Good question.
I see your name is “RCIAGraduate”"…congratulations.
I at one time identified with what one would call conservative leanings…Government bad, welfare bad, pull your selves up by your bootstraps all wrapped up in the American flag and a Catholic to boot!~
And then like a Protestant who discovered early Church history I was turned on to encyclicals…I began with Rerum Novarum as a starting point by a Jewish convert to Catholicism and began a job working within a retirement home for Jesuits.
Talk about a journey…Well, it all changed.
A lot of our programs from social security to car insurance in our country I suppose could be labeled ‘socialistic’ but I do enjoy having my roads plowed here in the Midwest and enjoy clean drinking water…so socialistic payment of taxes to government, albeit local, is ok by me. I am thankful to pool resources to have these things.

Also to my utmost surprise I discovered the Church doesn’t applaud unfettered, (unbridled, call it what you like) capitalism and has quite a bit to say about it. All of this from the late 1800’s.

Best wishes on your endeavors and future learnings (or shall I say, leanings)…but you will discover RCIAGraduate, that there are many Catholics that have no idea what the Church actually teaches, but most importantly why…Those encyclicals were right on!~!!~

 

[StephenBales]

A lot of our programs from social security to car insurance in our country I suppose could be labeled ‘socialistic’ but I do enjoy having my roads plowed here in the Midwest and enjoy clean drinking water…so socialistic payment of taxes to government, albeit local, is ok by me.

Well, those are legitimate roles! Roads, police, firefighters, etc are fine. But correct, Social Security is rather socialist, and hemorrhaging funds, too! My generation likely will not have social security. Which, to be quite honest, is probably a good thing, as the government should not be in the business of saving money for us to be doled out by them. Social Security de-incentivized personal savings because, why would you? The government is doing that

 

[DENNYINMI]

My generation likely will not have social security. Which, to be quite honest, is probably a good thing, as the government should not be in the business of saving money for us to be doled out by them. Social Security de-incentivized personal savings because, why would you? The government is doing that

Your generation ( I assume younger than myself) isn’t the only generation to consider. ouch Those that depended upon it or expected to depend upon it and are close to retirement are ‘entitled’ to have the full benefit from it without shame or feeling they are on a ‘dole’…There wouldn’t be enough time to save in the current tradition of 401’s or privatizing a retirement. Pulling the rug out from those very close to retirement age is counterproductive especially since through no choice in the matter you have paid into it for over 50 years.

There is more to think of than me, myself and I…haha…carry on!~

 

[StephenBales]

Oh, not at all! Those who have already paid in should also be paid out, and there ought not be any shame associated with it. I never promoted that. But those who haven’t started paying into it yet shouldn’t have to, and if they do, they likely won’t be paid out later. I don’t say that out of concern for my generation per se—I think we’ll be okay anyway if that happens—but to emphasize that Social Security is losing money, quickly.

 

[chessnerd321]

Either there’s not much in the way of genuine conservatism in the US or conservatives also enjoy spending money–just on things like military and tax cuts…

Not sure which is more likely to be honest. And no, I hate it.

 

[Augustinian]

conservatives also enjoy spending money–just on things like military and tax cuts…

Tax cuts aren’t “spending” by any definition of the word. Military spending is, of course. Being a world leader means a high expense for military. Someone out there is going to develop the next generation of super weapons. It may be Russia, or the European Union, or Red China or the Islamic State or someone else not on the radar. You don’t want to belong on the losing side of the arms race- if a new weapon deployed by the Iranian Mullahs neutralizes America’ s thermonuclear weapons, and delivers its own devastation, it is not going to be a happy day.

 

[Magnanimity]

A single-issue voter whose issue was pro-life would ipso facto lean conservative, politically. Most of us aren’t in that (single-issue only) camp though. IMO, a thoughtful Catholic in the U.S. doesn’t have a political party. Just take the issue of the sanctity (sacredness) of life. If you follow the logic of the sanctity of life all the way, it would seem to entail a staunchly pro-life stance (Republican) but also an anti-death penalty (Democrat), anti-euthanasia (Republican) and anti-prison industrial complex (Democrat).

And, it seems like you could go on and on with various political issues just like this, from immigration to monetary policy to the military/civil service workforce…on and on it goes, and, depending on the issue, you would align with the Republican party (conservative) at times and the Democratic party (liberal) at other times.

 

[Gingersnaps4]

The question “Why do some Catholics lean politically Liberal or Left” is more of a brain teaser, in my opinion. There isn’t much about the democratic platform that aligns with Christianity, at all. Even things like immigration are just being seized on as the issue du jour, as the records show that the last administration deported people in record numbers and politicians such as chuck schumer were preaching about the need for border control just a few short years ago. If you think they are the party that really cares about those issues, you are being played. They are all fickle as are most on the right as well. But at least on the right they are pro life and don’t support the lgbt agenda and gender theory like the left do.

 

[Magnanimity]

I like the way Ambrose Bierce defined it:

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

 

[SacredHeartBassist]

why some Catholic lean more “right” on issues like care for the poor, the environment, health care and immigration to name some.

Because they probably haven’t read up on catholic social justice or just bought into the republican party’s view of how the world should be run. Since we are called to be pro life and pro traditional families as Catholics sometimes hanging around others who hold those beliefs affects us in a weird way. Like other conservative beliefs rub off on us

 

[kainosktisis]

No, but somehow I’m sure it relies on the liberties outlined in the Constitution - especially in freedom of religion & freedom of speech.

 

[grotto]

I mentioned St. Peter, doesn’t matter that you did not. The name “Simon” was shared by both. St. Matthew may have been scorned as most of the apostles were by those that would not hear of Jesus.

Absolutely no worry on my part regarding the Saints in Heaven. Rather ridiculous of you to suggest that - but I understand that you do not like to be corrected. Suggesting Antifa as a comparison for anyone innocent of that sub level of violence, is likely to make a reader think very little of Simon the Zealot. Its just not a good ideal to let that kind of confusion go on without clearing it up. This does not have anything to do with political correctness. Honestly, that about sums it up.

 

[jfz178]

I have not read this whole thread. I am just putting in my two cents. I disagree with your premise that the the Church is conservative. I find it very left-leaning and even socialistic. About the only thing it is conservative on is abortion, even though it chooses not to use its full influence to curtail it. In the presidential elections since 2000, Catholics have favored: Gore-Bush-Obama-Obama-Trump, so about an even split.

The Church is against:

• Stronger US border control and immigration restrictions
• The Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms
• Stronger legal enforcement of sexual predation in its own ranks
• Capital punishment
• Nuclear weapons and a strong defense posture

As a conservative, those are big issues for me and they Church goes the other way.

 

[steve-b]

Hello, how are you? I just want to ask why some Catholics lean conservative or libertarian on many political or policy issues? For example, when I look at the issues outside of certain social issues, it seems like the Catholic position would be very compatible with the left-leaning or progressive view. And I know this sounds childish but the conservative or “right-leaning” agenda seems to be presented in a way that is well "harsh".

It may seem that way, and with many Catholics maybe it is.

As an observation

a Catholic University did a poll, (Georgetown Univ http://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/) found 78% of U.S. Catholics don’t go to Mass regularly on Sunday… which to deliberately miss mass on Sunday is a mortal sin. IOW, objectively speaking, 78% of Catholics in the U.S. are objectively in mortal sin until they go to confession. If they are squishy on that issue of going to mass, they are probably squishy on many other issues as well.

Taken from the poll:

"Attending Mass every week. Prior to 2000, CARA reports Gallup estimates adjusted for the effects of social desirability bias. From 2000 on the data are from the CARA Catholic Poll (CCP). For more background information on measurement, see: The Nuances of Accurately Measuring Mass Attendance . as in 23% go regularlyto mass on Sunday, and 78% don’t

In extension

Other countries polled, Stats on mass attendance Notes on International Mass Attendance

 

[Inisfallen]

No, but somehow I’m sure it relies on the liberties outlined in the Constitution - especially in freedom of religion & freedom of speech.

Very much so, today. Nonetheless, the Church has never claimed that the United States Constitution was inspired by God, or endorsed it in any way. I suspect that many would regard that claim as borderline blasphemy.