Trump won vote of American Catholics by 7%
Despite Pope Francis’s thinly disguised exhortations to vote for open borders, economically damaging climate change regulations, and, of course, Hillary, US Catholics , based on exit polling, voted for Donald Trump 52% to 45%
This is a turnaround from the previous two presidential elections in which the Catholic vote went for Barack Obama. Apparently, American Catholics decided a third term of this kind of governance was more than a little bit too much.
Although His Holiness “campaigned” hard for Hillary, while denying he wasn’t, it appears that Francis needs a little work on his skills in dabbling in the political affairs of free nations.
We’ve not yet seen, and likely will not, how much Francis’s attacks on the Republican candidate factored into the pro-Trump vote. We are guessing, though, that his assaults on capitalism, sound immigration policies, America’s role in the world, and climate change “skeptics” were not universally well-received by Catholics in the US whose “devil’s dung” (as Il Papa characterizes money earned in a capitalist economy) powers much of the Church’s global good works.
The Pope, who has urged the Catholic laity to concentrate more on redistribution of wealth, turning off their air conditioners, and “income inequality” and not be so “obsessive” about issues including abortion and the assault on traditional marriage, probably won’t be handing out “Angel of Peace”* medallions to any of the Trump team.
Here at Veritaspac we’re not checking our mailbox for Pope Francis’s Christmas card this year.
Incidentally, with the stunning repudiation of two (Obama and H. Clinton) of the most ardent followers of Saul Alinsky (1969 recipient of its Peace and Freedom Award), anybody overhear loud sobbing coming from the folks at Pacem in Terris? **
DLH
*Recipients of Pope Francis’ “coveted” Angel of Peace medals include Palestinian Authority Preident Mahmoud Abbas, Russia’s Vladamir Putin, and our own Barack Obama
Pew Research analysis
How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis
National Catholic Register
Election 2016: Breakdown of the Catholic Vote (excerpts)
‘Presidential candidates who win the Catholic vote almost always win the presidency,’ says Georgetown University researcher. (snip)
After President Barack Obama narrowly carried the Catholic vote by two points in his 2012 re-election bid, Trump won the Catholic vote by seven points on Tuesday, according to exit polls. The Pew Research Center reported on the religious voter data. This marks the fourth straight election that Catholics have voted for the winning president.
In 2000, Catholics also voted for the winner of the popular vote, Al Gore, who narrowly lost the Electoral College. Trump lost the popular vote, thus breaking the trend of Catholics voting with the popular vote in presidential elections.
Trump’s margin of victory among white Catholics on Tuesday was striking. While that bloc normally votes Republican — Mitt Romney won it by 19 points in 2012 — Trump went even further and won it by 23 points, according to exit polls, the highest margin of victory in that bloc since before the 2000 election.
As expected, Trump lost the Hispanic Catholic vote decidedly — 67% to 26% — but still at the lowest margin of defeat for a Republican presidential ticket for that bloc since the 2004 election. And the group CatholicVote.org noted in its post-election statement, “among non-Spanish speaking Latino Catholics, the margin was likely significantly closer.” (snip)
There was a divide in support among weekly churchgoing Christians and those who do not attend church as frequently. Exit polls showed Trump winning among weekly churchgoers 56% to 40%, while among those attending a “few times a year” there was basically an even split.
Clinton enjoyed a large victory (31 points) among those who do not attend religious services.
** I have no doubt there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Davenport Diocese Chancery as in most others around the country. What are they going to do with those in the pews, such undependables even deplorables. Further distress, en mass, extends from having to cancel plans to attend Hillary’s inauguration festivities. The then head of the Davenport Diocese Social Action Department danced the night away at an Obama inauguration party here in Davenport after Obama was first elected President. Never minding that even then it was well known that he was the most radical pro-abortion politician ever elected to federal office. His Illinois and US Senate record established that. How many from the chancery offices will dance at Trump inauguration festivities? R Mall
