Comments on: Conservatives And The Catholic Voter

By: RLHotchkiss

RLHotchkiss — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:04:36 +0000

sorry about the double post, I am using internet exploer for first time in years

By: RLHotchkiss

RLHotchkiss — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:58:29 +0000

I see we're not exactly spotting racoons yet, are we.

Let me get this clear. You wan't to give money families who live in the suburbs where the schools are good, have been sending their kids to Catholic schools, but one parent has lost their job, and they still are going to pay 3000 dollars in taxes.

So you have never actually talked to anyone who has lost their job, or a Catholic.

This is what the preist will tell you and say from pulbit. We have a waiting list for these suburbing schools. The Catholic schools in the cities are the one that are dying.

What are you going to tell your lower wage protestants who never paid 3000 dollars in federal taxes but get their kids to religious schools.

What about a mother who home schools whose husband loses his job, but she could get a job that is availble to her. What about her kids.

And what about the gay Republicans. They may have made thier peace with the Republican party but the new Pope has virtually declared war on gays. How are they going to feel about paying to send other people's kids to Catholic schools>

By: RLHotchkiss

RLHotchkiss — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:45:05 +0000

By: dendup

dendup — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:02:26 +0000

Refining the observation about how each candidate tried to appeal to Catholics. Activist Catholic youth are cultivated by the Church in a variety of ways. World Youth Day is a huge event for these young people.

Check out the Pope's message for World Youth Day celebrated at the local level last Sun. Obviously the Pope has major differnces with Obama, but ask youself which candidate resonates better with this message.

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=32431

By: A.B.

A.B. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:41:24 +0000

My sincere apologies, HC, I didn’t mean to be rude. It would be helpful, there is no doubt about that, it just strikes me as woefully insufficient. As an ex-Army brat who trudged through a couple of perfectly awful “civilian” schools, as well as a couple of excellent government-run (base) institutions, I am aware that there are parents who…don’t itemize deductions. Their children are important, too.

By: cjohn831

cjohn831 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:31:33 +0000

I was born and raised Catholic and went to Catholic school my whole life. I'm not sure if New Orleans is a pradigm for other large cities but we have a struggling education system, and parents that can afford it send their kids to private school because of the discipline and better educational opportunity.

I do think that experience educates people. I grew up with a priest that put financials in the parish bulletin. Therefore when we got a priest that manipulated the distribution of money in the church, we were aware and did thing to get him out.

Society has realized that George Bush used the Christian rite issues (abortion, stim cell, etc) to draw people morally. And they understand now that no matter how you feel about that, that does not give you a job. Everyone feels that they need the guy who is smarter, is the intellectual, and has the best interest of the people and not the 1% that are controlling everything...the monopolies.

By: krove

krove — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:22:00 +0000

HC, It's a question of equal rights. Bush was invited to Notre Dame to speak even though he had put many to death in Texas.

The Catholic church is against capital punishment and treats it equally with abortion. A death is a death.

So why the different treatment. Oh I forgot Obama is a Democrat.

Bush did not pull the noose yet he is pro death, Oh and not all convicted killers are guilty.

By: Henry Clay

Henry Clay — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:21:31 +0000

Several interesting comments that I wanted to address.

PatSajak: I too would like to see some data on the political preferences of the parents of Hispanic kids in parochial schools. My guess is that it tacks right of the Hispanic population as a whole. And I would expect that the same holds true of non-Hispanics.

joeofpa: I don't want to leave the wrong impression. Though some others at NewMajority might disagree, I do not believe that the answer for conservatives lies in changing course on abortion policy. I was merely suggesting that conservatives need to spend as much time courting Catholic voters on pocketbook issues.

krove: Though a bit off point (this was not a post about the ND decision to invite Obama), I do have to add something to this discussion. Reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of ND inviting Obama to speak at its commencement (and more at issue, the decision to grant him an honorary doctor of laws degree), but it grossly misrepresents the concerns of those opposing ND's decision to say that they are "afraid of an alternative viewpoint."

joemarier: I agree that any proposal like this is unlikely to pass in a Democrat controlled Congress. That said, I think conservatives need to wake up every morning and ask themselves "How will we promote policies today that appeal to the middle class and that will be rabidly opposed by liberal interest groups". In other words, conservatives can win by losing on issues like this.

And A.B.: I had no idea I was so predictable. I agree with you that "not everything can be solved with tax credits." But I do think that the tuition load for a couple million middle class parents could be lightened by a tax credit. I suppose a tax credit would matter quite a bit to them.

By: Henry Clay

Henry Clay — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:17:19 +0000

By: A.B.

A.B. — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:58:47 +0000

Gee, a tax credit. A temporary one, too. How did I know the article would end with that? Not everything can be solved with tax credits; in fact, they matter very little to anyone. Sigh.