In the 2018 midterm elections, the Catholic vote was split almost right down the middle, with 50 percent of Catholics voting Democrat and 49 percent voting Republican, according to a Pew Research Center poll. While evangelical Christians lean strongly to the right and nonreligious folks lean strongly to the left, Catholics continue to be evenly split in their political preferences.
As a Catholic Christian myself, I’ve come to realize that if we truly reflected on the values of our faith, it’s obvious we should be voting Republican.
First of all, the Catholic church’s opposition to abortion is as clear as day: We do not support murdering unborn human beings. Nearly all Democrats do. Earlier this year, Congress voted on the Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have banned abortions past the point of pain capability at 20 weeks’ gestation. Unfortunately, almost every Senate Democrat voted against the bill, allowing the daily murder of pain-capable babies to continue nationwide.
For Catholics, abortion is not a negotiable issue. The renowned Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia put it best in his book Strangers in a Strange Land that as a Catholic, he cannot vote for a pro-choice candidate in good conscience. Even though Chaput has publicly acknowledged voting Democrat before the party became radically pro-choice, he rejects the idea of voting for modern mainstream Democrats in his book, saying, “Supporting a ‘right’ to choose abortion simply masks and evades what abortion really is: the deliberate killing of innocent life. I know of nothing that can morally offset that kind of evil.”
Another reason Catholics should vote Republican is religious liberty. Gone are the days of the Kennedy Democrats who brought us our first and only Catholic president. Today the party has been overrun by leftists who despise orthodox Christian principles and attack them from every possible angle. One example is the Obamacare contraception mandate, which wouldn’t even grant an exemption for the Little Sisters of the Poor. Then Democrats in California tried to force pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, many of which are Catholic, to advertise for abortion facilities. Leftists have also tried to force Christian baker Jack Phillips to bake a cake for a gay wedding, another blatant First Amendment violation struck down by the Supreme Court this past year.
Some Catholics vote for Democrats because they think higher taxes and bigger government programs are good for the poor, but it’s clear what Democrats think is best for the public is consistently contrary to our values.
As the Left continually promotes defunding Catholic adoption agencies, Planned Parenthood receives more than $540 million dollars every year. Catholics must recognize that lower taxes and lower government spending could stop this madness and allow them to privatize their charity to agencies they personally support.
As for welfare programs, approximately 70 percent of welfare spending goes to government bureaucrats, leaving only 30 percent of the money for poor people who actually need it. Private charities, on the other hand, operate much more efficiently than government programs. In fact, a study from Charity Navigator found that 70 percent of charities spent more than three-quarters of their budgets on the programs they exist to provide and only one-quarter on management. As a Catholic, I would much rather give money to a private organization such as Catholic Charities than give to the government, as the government will likely help fewer poor people with that money, or the government may boneheaded-ly decide Planned Parenthood needs that money more than the homeless do.
Furthermore, for those insistent on keeping government welfare at the status quo, it should be noted that the modern GOP is not anti-welfare by any historical standard. In 1977, state and local governments spent only 13 percent of their budget on welfare, and by 2015 that number had risen to 21 percent despite the fact that poor people in 2015 had access to far more goods and technology than they did in 1977. Kennedy Democrats would have much more in common with today’s Republicans, as the GOP Congress has made no significant cuts to welfare since taking control two years ago, while many Democrats continue to push for unconstitutional socialist policies.
Yet another reason Catholics should vote Republican is school choice. If parents want to send their children to a private school, perhaps a Catholic school, they should receive some variety of tax relief because their children will not be consuming taxpayer resources at a public school. Such policies help ensure that low-income families can afford more educational options for their children. In fact, school choice policies align with Catholic values so clearly that the Bishops of Arizona Catholic Conference publicly endorsed a local school choice proposition in the 2018 midterm elections.
Despite all of this, some Catholics will still find themselves voting Democrat because of other issues such as gun control, immigration, or global warming. These are certainly important issues that deserve nuanced and thoughtful discussions. However, these are issues where Catholics of goodwill can disagree on exact policy decisions, and there are other issues where the proper Catholic policy position is crystal clear.
If Catholics want to create a more pro-life America, they should vote for pro-life Republicans. If Catholics want people of faith to be guaranteed their First Amendment rights, they should vote Republican. If Catholics don’t want to be forced to fund immoral activities through taxation, they should vote Republican. If Catholics want low-income families to have the opportunity to send their children to Catholic schools, they should vote Republican.
The modern Left is rooted in principles fundamentally opposed to Catholic values. If Catholics don’t realize this now, they’ll pay dearly for it in the years to come.
Ryan Everson is a student journalist from Arizona State University.
