Interesting article about the Catholic vote in the US election

[Romans 13:3]

I am curious to see how the OBOB groups sees this article. I suspect that ideology will trump intellectually stimulating dialogue, but hey, that discussion might be interesting too.

Who will claim the Catholic vote? - CNN.com

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

Disengage their minds, sabotage their health
Promote sex and war and violence in the kindergartens
Blame the parents and teachers; it's their fault, "Annuit Coeptis"
Attack the church dynamic, attack the family
Keep the public undisciplined 'til nothing left is sacred and
The "have-not's" get hooked and have to go to the "have's" just to cop a fix

I am the King (An evil king),
Who dreams the wickedest of dreams
An ancient mystery, nobody could interpret
Of seven empires falling, the wolf is at my door
As predicted years ago, that that was, that is, that is no more

The word predicts my future and tells the truth about my past
Of how the world's leaders are waiting to usher in
The eighth world power of modern Rome: Washington is Next!

 

[Fantine]

In my neck of the woods, when you go to church, you see a lot of Romney and "Choose Life" bumperstickers.

You hardly ever see any from the opposition. While I don't think that the self-righteous bumper sticker Catholics would necessarily slash tires, they would almost definitely gossip, blackball, stalk, and engage in other extreme un-Christian behavior.

How do I know? Because in 2004, a woman tried to get me to sign a petition to get a Marriage Amendment on the ballot in the church vestibule. I refused, telling her I don't believe in putting propositions on ballots during Presidential Election years when the primary purpose is to slant the election.

Well, this blankety-blank woman, who has since moved to Ohio, waited until a crowd had gathered and yelled out in a loud trumpeting voice, "___________'s in favor of gay marriage."

So when you see that all the bumper stickers in your parking lot are Republican, just remember it may very well because the behavior of the people in your parish is so un-Christian.

 

[GNJ]

Well, no self-respecting human being would vote Romney so...

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

Well, no self-respecting human being would vote Romney so...

Vote Obama?

 

[GNJ]

Vote Obama?

I see that to be the better choice.

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

I see that to be the better choice.

I see that to be as bad a choice.

 

[FriendlyJosh]

why are there only two choices? I thought last election had at least 3? Obama basically wins by default because Romney is way too out there.

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

why are there only two choices? I thought last election had at least 3? Obama basically wins by default because Romney is way too out there.

There is the Constitution, Green, Libertarian Party, but, come on? They don't have the number of voters to really make a dent.

 

[GNJ]

I see that to be as bad a choice.

And why would that be?

 

[Brooklyn Knight]

And why would that be?

Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay still open, bailing out Wall St., being funded by big banks/corporations, leaving the Patriot Act in tact, continuing bank bailouts, BP oil spill gaffe. Just a few off the top of my head.

I just think the federal government has too much power as is.

 

[Romans 13:3]

...Yet I am not acknowledged as a prophet.

 

[Fantine]

why are there only two choices? I thought last election had at least 3? Obama basically wins by default because Romney is way too out there.

Our two parties haven't always been Democrat and Republican. The Whigs, for example, elected two Presidents from 1833-1860.

I think that over the next few decades a third party will arise and replace the Republicans.

The Republicans are primarily white in a nation that is becoming more and more diverse and in which white people will eventually be a minority. Their policies and platforms alienate minorities, and they are engaged in a battle currently to prevent minorities from voting in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida (the Pennsylvania ID law, for example, requires a Social Security card--lead time to get one, 5 weeks--birth certificate, and two other forms of identification).

Women, other than white suburban housewives, vote primarily Democratic.

And social conservatives aren't that emotionally invested in the prime Republican platform--tax breaks for the rich, lack of regulation for businesses, free reign for Wall Street.

If the only way Republicans have a shot in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida in the 2012 election is to disenfranchise minorities, imagine how hard it will be in 2016 and 2020, when there are so many more of them.

I think that a new party can ascend over the next few years--hopefully a party that has a seamless garment social message.

 

[Romans 13:3]

And as I cling bitterly to my religion and guns, I wonder if liberal folks think I am as narrow-minded as they are.

 

[Fantine]

My comments were demographic in nature. Voting statistics have shown that Republicans get a significant majority of white, male votes while women, minorities, and younger voters favor the Democrats.

Given those demographics, it stands to reason that as the white population declines in the electorate, unless the Republican Party reinvents itself with a message that doesn't alienate minorities, women, and youth it will die in the foreseeable future.

I am married to an old white man who, thank God, has never clinged to guns (or fired one since Vietnam) and could probably afford to cling to religion more than he does. I have no beef with old white men.

 

[Romans 13:3]

My take on the article was that those who tend to follow the Church 'party line' tend to vote Republican and those who tend to have issue with the Church on various issues tend vote Democrate. I see this as only logical.

Most Republicans self-identify as conservative, as in resistant to change. The Church proffers that it is the unbroken, unaltered truth as delivered by Jesus and the Apostles. Those seeing fault or wishing change in the Church's position would be progressive in nature and naturally gravitate to a political ideology that is also progressive.

Someone will no doubt say that progressivism was championed by Republicans in the early 1900's. That is true. Anyone have any historical data on Catholic voting then? I assume it was leaning toward the Democrat candidate.

 

[Fantine]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most Catholics were immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany. Like today's immigrants, they were discriminated against--both as Catholics and as immigrants.

The US wasn't a Catholic country until the great wave of immigration in the late 19th century.

The Knights of Columbus was formed partially because the new immigrants were blocked from most decent jobs by other fraternal organizations only open to Protestants.

And so, when the union movement developed, the Catholic Church was very supportive of its immigrant population, and for many years, Catholics voted Democratic because the Democrats favored workers over big business.

In the Catholic Church, I see Catholic Democrats voting the way they do because they believe that the world becomes a better place when we have a strong social safety net, a safe environment, good education, and a commitment to diplomacy, whenever possible, in foreign policy.

I see Catholic Republicans voting the way they do because they believe the world becomes a better place when there are laws criminalizing certain sorts of behavior, the more the better (except for white collar crime, of course), because if people would just act like they did in the 1950's the world would be a better place. I consider that simplistic and altogether unrealistic.

 

[Vasallus]

Wow....could you possibly slant left any further?

 

[holyorders]

My comments were demographic in nature. Voting statistics have shown that Republicans get a significant majority of white, male votes while women, minorities, and younger voters favor the Democrats.

Given those demographics, it stands to reason that as the white population declines in the electorate, unless the Republican Party reinvents itself with a message that doesn't alienate minorities, women, and youth it will die in the foreseeable future.

I am married to an old white man who, thank God, has never clinged to guns (or fired one since Vietnam) and could probably afford to cling to religion more than he does. I have no beef with old white men.

That's what leftism basically boils down to. The white male is a putrid monster that must be slaughtered or opressed.

Without men (of any race) in the world you wouldn't have half of the things that makes this world worth anything.

 

[Needing_Grace]

That's what leftism basically boils down to. The white male is a putrid monster that must be slaughtered or opressed.

Without men (of any race) in the world you wouldn't have half of the things that makes this world worth anything.

Well, I only see a straw man here.

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