On Catholics and Democrats
Dionne, E. J. Jr.
In the Fall 1999 issue of Dissent, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels argued that by making abortion a litmus test, the Democratic Party is alienating Catholic voters who should be its supporters. We...
...Although white Catholics are still more Democratic than white Protestants, Catholic voting is now heavily conditioned by class (well-off Catholics are more Republican) and by region (southern and western Catholics are generally more Republican than Catholics in the northeast and Midwest...
...We asked several people to comment—EDs...
...And I could not agree with her more that it would be a catastrophe if physician-assisted suicide were turned into another "prochoice" litmus test...
...You know, mother," the exasperated son replies, "if Jesus came back to earth and ran as a Republican, you'd vote against Him...
...Mrs...
...The left and center no longer wish to allow the right to enjoy a monopoly on Ronald Reagan's famous trinity of "family, work and neighborhood...
...And although Steinfels accurately describes Clinton's stand on abortion, it's also true that Clinton has made a point of painting the Democratic Party as less hostile to religion than some of his predecessors did...
...She's also right in saying that making abortion a litmus test is a mistake for either party...
...Progressives just might be forced to rethink their attitudes toward abortion opponents who agree with them on so many issues, even as prolife progressives challenge the partisanship visible in segments of the anti-abortion movement...
...And, of course, Latino Catholics, a growing part of the Church, have their own distinctive patterns...
...The intense doubts within the disabled community about physician-assisted suicide ought to give other progressives pause...
...In truth, there are few politicians in either party prepared to argue against the death penalty...
...The politics of litmus tests undermines the moral seriousness and difficulty of the issue...
...O'Reilly would certainly understand the Catholic ethos Peggy Steinfels evoked with such eloquence, feeling, and thoughtfulness...
...Mrs...
...E.J...
...That protest is at the core of Steinfels's argument and I suspect that most of the editors of this magazine— especially Michael Walzer, who has written so powerfully on these subjects—agree with her on this point at least...
...I I SHARE SOME of Steinfels's frustration with Clinton—especially with his decision to sign the welfare bill and his stand on the death penalty...
...That suggests Clinton evokes something of the communitarian ethos that affects most Catholics, right, left, and center...
...He turns to his mother and asks her how she plans to cast her ballot...
...is a columnist for the Washington Post, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era...
...She has always voted Democratic...
...They are also uneasy with an outright ban, especially in the early weeks of pregnancy...
...Most Americans, the polls suggest, are sensibly ambivalent about abortion...
...Isn't that a probDISSENT / Winter 2000 n 79 ARGUMENTS lem for the left...
...Straight Democratic," she says, predictably...
...E. J. Dionne, Jr...
...Her son, a member of the upper middle class, votes for lots of Republicans...
...Why should He change His party after all these years...
...At a moment when progressives are raising the right questions about managed care, do they really want to make it more likely that physicians will prescribe death as an alternative to more compassionate care toward those in pain...
...There is good reason to protest against a radical individualism that fails to see how per sonal liberty is best protected in a community that values social justice and honors the bonds of family and free association...
...My hunch is that as parts of the prolife movement attack their long-standing supporters for backing campaign finance reform, the politics of abortion may change...
...My sense, from the pages of this very magazine, is that our politics are turning in a modestly communitarian direction...
...My hope comes from evidence that falling crime rates are making many Americans think twice about capital punishment...
...THE STORY is told of Mrs...
...Perhaps it will become politically possible for the more courageous politicians to speak out again against it...
...Its worth noting that for all the frustration with Clinton that Steinfels describes, he has done unusually well for a Democrat among Catholic voters—not, to be sure, when compared with John F. Kennedy, but certainly when compared with other recent Democratic nominees...
...Ah, hush...
...O'Reilly being taken to the polls on Election Day by her son...
...But, for that monopoly to end, progressives will have to be more open to people such as Peggy Steinfels and to the arguments she's advancing...
...Meyerson paints other Democrats too harshly, but his underlying point about Clinton is valid enough...
...DIONNE, JR...
...It often seems easier for Republicans and conservatives than for Democrats, liberals, and people on the left to speak to this ambivalence...
...Especially in California, they are moving strongly toward the Democrats, though Latino trends are as diverse as the Latino community itself...
...Clinton's greatest legacy may well be his leadership in reducing the bigotry against religion that has been expressed in recent decades by much of the Democratic Party and American liberalism," Adam Meyerson, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, said a couple of years ago...
...In the Fall 1999 issue of Dissent, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels argued that by making abortion a litmus test, the Democratic Party is alienating Catholic voters who should be its supporters...
...But perhaps I'm less pessimistic than she is...
...But there are now many more Catholics like Mrs...
...They are, for good reasons, uneasy with it morally...
...O'Reilly snaps back...
...O'Reilly's son than there used to be...
Vol. 47 • January 2000 • No. 1
