....the rise of the Democratic party as we know it was to a great extent concomitant with the first waves of Irish Catholic immigrants to Northern cities. The historical details of this are well known, so I won’t go into it, but to some extent the ties still are operative. According to the exit polls, last fall Barack Obama won 47% of white Catholics. He only won 34% of white Protestants! This is still a large difference.... What you see here is clear: Catholics remain more Democratic than their Protestant brethren. Some of this might be regional, but the effect seems to still show up if I constrain by region (though in some cases it does dampen a fair amount).
bookmark
Not saying that you have to claim Republicanism, but you cannot associate with Democrats without being complicit in their depraved immoral crimes.
I grew up in a blue collar Irish and Italian neighborhood in the Bronx. Almost 100% Roman Catholic.
most of the people there were registered and voting Democrats.
this was a union thing....most people being concerned only about how much money they were going to get and could care less about the constitution, abortion, or their freedoms. They as blue collar workers were only concerned with what they considered was their ability to feed their families.
a myopic view to say the least.
Are you kidding? This unintelligent author equates intelligence with graduating from college??? Some of the stupidest people in the nation are not only graduates with worthless university degrees, but many teach at those universities. Exhibit 1: Barrack Obama, an affirmative action university graduate and Constitutional “scholar”.
What a joke.
John F. Kennedy.
It’s no more complicated than that.
Because they serve another Master.
I believe those people who came over here earlier - say at the end of the 19th Century or early 20th Century, regardless of religion or ethnicity tended to be more conservative - politically, socially and religiously.
People who came from Europe in the past 50 years or so tend to come from highly socialist states where religion is nominal and these people are overwhelming liberal.
So I think the author here needed to make that kind of distinction in these groups and failed to do so.
Also, why are Jews democrats?
This is not rocket science.
WHITE Catholics voted for MR over BHO by 59% to 40% in the last election. Nearly identical to the overall white population.
Voting behavior in the US is more determined by racial ID and than it is by religious ID.
The issue is why are (democrat) Catholics not adhering to their Catholic faith?
Catholics feel the need for a ‘protector’. The block boss, the mafia king, the union, the government ...
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.
People get the kind of government they deserve.
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.
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
Because they THINK democrats help the poor.
2. Old habits. A lot of 60+ Catholics think they are still voting for JFK and helping the little guy even tho that's not the same party.