A Concerned Catholic Looks at the Democratic Party
Beginning with the great waves of European immigrants - including Irish and Italian
Catholics - in the latter half of the 19th century, an informal alliance formed among the
Roman Catholic Church in America, labor unions and the Democratic Party.
The struggle for acceptance by Catholics in American society reached its zenith in 1960
with the election of John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, as the first Catholic president of the
United States. The grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants, who no doubt were greeted by
signs reading 'Irish need not apply' as they sought jobs to support their families, rose
to the presidency.
Sometime after Kennedy's heartbreaking assassination things rapidly went downhill for this
old alliance. Since then - while maintaining a pretense of being the party of
'compassion,' the 'little guy' and 'the poor' - the Democratic Party has betrayed the core
values of Catholics by abandoning the poorest and 'littlest guy' of all: the child in the
womb.
One need look no further than the amorality of the past eight years of the Clinton-Gore
administration to see that the amorality which three decades ago gave us abortion on
demand, for any or no reason for the entire nine months of pregnancy, has come to fruition
and infected other areas of public and private life and has utterly polluted the
Democratic Party. Immorality in one sphere of life quickly spreads to others.
Yet some Catholics are still in denial about this betrayal. They think increasingly hollow
rhetoric about 'social justice' will stand in the face of 40 million unborn dead since
1973.
The moral capital of the Democratic Party is so bankrupt that the best Al Gore and Bill
Bradley could do, during their recent presidential debate, was stand and accuse each other
of being a bigger racist - live at the Apollo!
In effect, each is trying to exploit the laurels of the noble civil rights movement of the
1960s. Meanwhile the 'man from Hope' is 'solving' the 'problem' of inner-city blacks by
attempting to eliminate them, with stepped-up calls for more 'family planning' funds for
those target areas.
The big labor unions continue to support the Democratic Party, posing a serious dilemma
for Catholics whose ancestors they helped to lift up. One may even hear right-to-work
legislation condemned from the pulpit from time to time - while those forced to join
unions in order to feed their families see hard earned union dues (or 'agency fees') going
to Democratic candidates whose public positions are morally repugnant and inimical to the
Catholic faith.
No person, party or philosophy has a monopoly on virtue, but it's no wonder that millions
of faithful Catholics have moved away from the party of their forebears and toward the
party of Lincoln. Their new political home is imperfect, but a better fit than the party
of Clinton.
Nobody cried 'separation of church and state' a few decades ago when the saying was, as a
local priest candidly related to me, 'You can't be a good Catholic and vote Republican!'
That was never quite true, of course - but now, unfortunately, it looks like the opposite
is true.
John Mallon is contributing editor for Inside
the Vatican magazine and a member of The Daily Oklahoman's Opinion Board of
Contributors. Reprinted with permission. Send an e-mail to John Mallon
