Monday, August 29, 2016

Trump and the Catholics

I always thought that US Catholics would have trouble with Trump, and I'm pleased to see that they emphatically do:
Back in 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney lost the Catholic vote by just 2 points, 50 percent to 48 percent. And the GOP has actually won the Catholic vote as recently as 2004 and in 5 of the last 10 11 presidential elections.

But Trump trails among Catholics by a huge margin. A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute released this week shows him down 23 points, 55-32.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released earlier this month painted an even worse picture for Trump’s Catholic support. He was down by 27 points, 61-34.
It's only conservative Catholics who like to engage in the culture wars they've already, by and large, lost who would vote for him for tribal, anti-Clinton reasons alone.   (See the conservative Catholics of Catallaxy, for example.)  There is nothing Catholic friendly, in terms of consistency with Catholic social teaching, in Trump's threats-which-pass-for-half-baked policy.

1 comment:

Paul Montgomery said...

See also: the Irish experience with the last time the American Right put up ignorance as their central policy.