Is Pope Francis good for the Democrats? Obama in the Vatican

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/03/francis-democrats-vatican.html

Is Pope Francis good for the Democrats? Obama in the Vatican
By Juan Cole | Mar. 28, 2014

Could enormous popularity of Pope Francis spill over into American politics? Pope Francis is worried about inequality, a Democratic Party issue, and his statements and actions on the subject are a stunning rebuke to “evangelical Catholics” such as Paul Ryan, who tend rather to celebrate economic inequality or to deny it or to blame the victims. On the other hand, Francis is worried about Obamacare forcing Catholic institutions to pay for birth control for their employees, against their will.

The real reason Joe Biden is vice president is that the Democratic Party has a White Catholic problem. Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans and Italian-Americans give the edge to Republican presidential candidates over Democratic ones by anywhere from 5 to 19 points. The two extremes both occurred in the case of Obama, who received 47% of the White Catholic vote versus John McCain’s 52 percent in 2008, and who received only 40% of their vote in 2012 versus 59% for Mitt Romney. Biden was able to turn things around in that constituency in 2008, but not so much in 2012.



The White Catholic problem is not a Catholic problem in general. A majority of American Catholics reliably votes for the Democratic presidential candidate, though it can be a bare majority. Latino Catholics have been strongly trending Democrat and a stunning three-fourths of them now vote for the Democrat in presidential races (it was more like 65% a decade ago).

President Obama had attempted to position his meeting at the Vatican as an “inquality” summit. Pope Francis, in contrast, structured the publicity around President Obama’s meeting with him so as to concentrate on abortion and birth control. Obamacare mandates that employers pay for insurance that includes giving birth control to employees. Pope Francis opposes this affront to Catholic conscience. He appears to be attempting to make a trade– his support on inequality issues in return for Obama backing off pressure on Catholic hospitals (e.g.) to pay for coverage of contraceptives for employees.

[KoKo]

1. Interesting Stats... and article by Cole. I wonder

how all this will change in the coming years since so many of the younger voters don't have a religious preference. So far they are trending Democratic in large number.