Posted on 05/22/2012 4:58:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON -- In a blowout presidential election, a few large issues dominate. In a tight election, a range of smaller concerns -- important to strategic constituencies in battleground states -- can end up being crucial.
President Obama may have hoped for a decisive re-election victory styled on Ronald Reagan's in 1984. At best, he will return to the White House in the manner of George W. Bush in 2004 -- after a scrambling fight across the Electoral College map. In this election, Americans are overwhelmingly focused on the economy, with cultural issues lagging in priority. But it does not follow that cultural debates are electorally unimportant. For Obama, they could matter among the wrong groups in the wrong places.
Consider the Catholic vote. In the aggregate, the category is not particularly coherent. Hispanic Catholics are more Democratic in orientation than white Catholics. Very religious Catholics are more Republican than their less observant brethren. A shared faith does not always mean shared political behavior. The term "Protestant" applies to African-American voters and white evangelicals, to Episcopalians and Southern Baptists. Catholicism, while more institutionally united than Protestantism, has at least as much cultural, theological and political diversity.
But this does not mean a subset of Catholicism can't be electorally important. White, non-Hispanic Catholic voters could matter greatly in some tight state contests. And Obama has done his best to alienate them.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The majority of Catholics voted for Obama last time. Not this time!
Obamacare!
Contraception!
Gay Marriage!
Need I go on?
Politicians here wouldn’t dream of forcing Muslim women to give up the veil... but for some reason, it’s OK to demand that Catholics compromise THEIR beliefs!!!??
Do I understand this correctly???
I hope not.
The majority went willingly in 2008. The stupidity of that was astounding.
I hope you are right, but I live in a very conservative parish and we still have some Obama / Biden 2012 bumper stickers. I even wrote a Letter to the editor for our diocesan Newspaper about about this situation and they have not published it.
I hope you are right, but I live in a very conservative parish and we still have some Obama / Biden 2012 bumper stickers. I even wrote a Letter to the editor for our diocesan Newspaper about about this situation and they have not published it.
The majority of Catholics voted for Obama last time.
_____________________________
Correction: The majority of Catholics-in-name-only voted for Obama last time.
I share your hesitancy. My family is catholic and very anti-abortion. Yet to my disgust, some of them still managed to vote for obastard. I just hope that this time around it will be different but I won’t hold my breath. It’s just like the Jews; they should naturally fall into the conservative camp yet the majority of them defy gravity and vote rat every time.
Politics is a strange thing. Rational people will do irrational things. I have given up arguing with liberals as a waste of time. Their minds don’t change.
Speaking for myself, I believe conservatives are more open minded. I voted for Gov Florio over Ms. Whitman here in NJ. Whitman won by the way.
Not true. They are mostly Democrats. Further the church specifically the American Conf of Catholic Bishops has squandered it's moral authority by enthusiastically embracing every crackpot liberal idea that the Democrats have come up with (except those related to contraception and abortion) for the last 40 years. From gun control to minimum wage if it expanded government power they were for it (look at the "social justice" link on their own web page for proof). Now that they've swallowed the camel they're attempting to strain at the gnat.
....will vote for Romney in '12 to prove that they are not STUPID?
I know lots and lots of Catholics, some of whom are regular Mass attendees, who still go in and pull that “D” handle every election no matter what.
The Democrats could be carrying out mass infanticide in the streets and they likely would continue doing this. Trumped by their union newsletter which teaches that the Democrats are “for the poor and the workin’ man”.
Our former Demorat Congressman, who never met an abortion bill he did not vote for, was feted as the guest of honor at many, many Catholic Church events here in town.
That would only work if they weren't stupid
Concise and well said.
I hope not (go silently). Yet, in our Parish in our Conservative town (note that I said the TOWN was conservative, not the parish) it’s **crickets** about the abortion/contraceptive/health insurance mandate.
The most that we have gotten (2-3 weeks after the rest of the country) is a bulletin insert stating the UCCB position. Of course these letters from the UCCB are written in lengthy paragraphs using every flowery adverbial phrase causing the average parishioner to call on every ounce of their brain power to figure out what the UCCB is really saying. Yet, during this same period we got a whole homily on the importance of earth day and its connection to St. Francis!
AND we’ve had bulletin reminders that no political lit placed on car windshields, or placed in church pews or lit racks will be TOLERATED!
AND we’ve had engraved signs posted declaring the church and its grounds as being off limits for fire arms.
So, the powers that run this parish are not oblivious to all political movements. But, it’s just **crickets** when it comes to contraception and abortion.
Thanks
When have the Catholics ever not gone along quietly with anything a liberal Democrat wanted.
Married with children and want an annulment? The church was happy to oblige Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry.
Notre Dame's and Georgetown's invites to Obama and Selibus. Did Notre Dame ever drop the charges against those protesting Obama's visit?
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