Posted on 01/30/2014 7:15:41 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Catholics who came to this country were generally ethnic minorities at the time they arrived (first Irish, later Poles, Italians, etc.) As such they usually ended up as manual labor on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. Often they were looked down upon and not treated particularly well by their WASPish bettors. In such an environment, appeals to class warfare resonated heavily, ultimately resulting in strong Catholic support for FDR, Unions, Father Coughlin, and other avenues of “getting even” with the power elites.
Since most Catholics settled in northern industrial cities, they also embedded themselves in machine politics, and took full advantage of the patronage system.
What amazed me is how stubbornly persistent these attitudes have been. My Irish family has been in the country for over 130 years. Many went on to great professional success as lawyers, etc. Yet they still retain the old Democrat voting patterns. When pressed they will generally answer “Because my grandparents did. Because they’re for the WORKIN’ MAN!” Whether that is in any way true or not.
As a child I was stunned to hear older Irish Catholic relatives gathered around the kitchen table, bashing Andrew Carnegie with blunt and profane language. Nearly fifty years after he had died, mind you. Despite his libraries and all his contributions to Pittsburgh. They just dwelt upon old family tales about what a blood-sucking Scrooge he was as a boss.
It is only with my generation that at least some of us have seen the folly of all that, become Conservatives, and left the Democrat Party. But they still have more than enough straight-party voters.
I have no reason to believe that if they get amnesty, the new wave of Hispanic Catholics will be any different.
Catholic charities promote government dependency programs even more so than in the past as Bush II made it the law that faith based charities could be eligible to receive government grants and support.
Catholic charities are quick to jump on republicans like Romney who whispered an idea that perhaps people would need to show some work seek effort to qualify for EBT food stamps.
Catholics are also long established in inner cities where handouts are long entrenched.
I am for social safety nets as a trampoline but not as a hammock. Catholics don’t think that far. They think day by day. Whatever works ***today*** is what they stand behind. To them it doesn’t matter how today affects tomorrow.
it hasn’t changed very much has it...
when there is Republican Mayor, you get either a worse liberal like Lindsay....
.....or you get a “Rudy” out of fear of another Crown Heights Riot.....
we moved to Suffolk Cnty in ‘64 when I was 15 and I never looked back. Now Suffolk a republican bastion in the state is now a Dhimmicrat county thanks to folks like myself leaving the state and leaving the libs in place.....I wish I was in a situation to do the same....
Because I kept the information on my home page from the results of the last election.
8 out of 10 white Protestants voted for Romney...95% of black Protestants voted for Obama...
6 out of 10 White Catholics voted for Romney...75% of Mexican Catholics voted for Obama...
People get the kind of government they deserve.
8 out of 10 white Protestants voted for Romney...95% of black Protestants voted for Obama...
What you posted was interesting, but it didn't answer the question. I'll repeat the question: Why do you say they are Protestants?
Catholic charities tend to be run and heavily influenced by nuns.
And for whatever reason, anyone who is a nun today appears to be out on the far-left fringes of Catholic thought.
(my mom has floated a theory that a lifetime of celibacy is actually quite unhealthy for the female brain)
Interesting theory.
You don't have to have an abortion but you do have to have a job. Harder to get if you don't belong to the Masons.
A: Because their grandparents were.
They vote Democrat in larger numbers because they are more likely to be unionized or raised and educated in northeastern states.
Their Catholicism is irrelevant.
no Masons in my neighborhood....Knights of Columbus perhaps, but no Masons...
Obviously not a rich neighborhood so it votes Democrat.
no....Catholic, you cannot be a Mason if your are Catholic.
of course their are plenty of stealth Catholic Masons....but not suppose to be....
My dad came from southwest Missouri, growing up on a farm that harvested more rocks than any other crop. Along comes the Depression, and with the CCC camps and WPA, you would have thought that they would have become die-hard Dems. Not so. The family had been forced to leave the county they lived in at the beginning of the Civil War because of attacks by southern sympathizers. However they had voted in the past, the family was against session and therefore became hard core Republicans. Absolutely detested FDR and all Dems that followed him.
Why are Catholics Democrats?
BECAUSE.... not all catholics are catholics?...
“Catholic” is just a word.. sometimes a mask..
other times a disguise.. or even camouflage...
Example: Ted Kennedy was a catholic... othodox religion is conserned with paying customers... a veneer..
It’s a business.. often a club... a social network...
with a sprinkling of true believers like sparkles..
Why?
Tradition
Training
My mom had tried to befriend a number of nuns, only to come away fairly shocked and horrified by some of the stuff they believed.
Because they THINK democrats help the poor.
Pittsburgh is pretty conservative culturally speaking. Very Pro-Life. Not terribly gay friendly (though they are pounding on that door really hard). Yet those same people will vote 80+% Democrat because, rightly or wrongly, they feel it is in everyone’s best economic interests.
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