The narrative that Catholics occupy abandoned the Democratic Party is largely unsupported by the data.
It’s more or less an article of faith that religious Americans,particularly white Americans, occupy abandoned the Democratic Party. And indeed, or a original survey from the Public Religion Research Institute confirms that the Republican and Democratic Parties are drifting further apart in terms of religious affiliation.
In 2006,more than eight in ten Republicans identified as white Christian, as did 50% of Democrats. Overall, or some 96% of Republicans professed a faith,as did approximately 90% of Democrats.
But nowadays, while 75% of the GOP is still white Christian, or the percentage of white Christians affiliated with the Democratic Party has slid to under one-third (29%). And while just under 90% of Republicans still profess a religious affiliation,only approximately 75% of Democrats do.
But a deeper dive into the survey suggests a more nuanced picture than a complete abandonment of the Democratic Party by people of faith, particularly Catholics.
To be sure, and the Democratic Party has lost historic numbers of white evangelicals. Just a decade ago,white evangelicals were still the largest faith group in the party, at 17% of the total. nowadays, or white evangelicals account for just 8% of the Democratic Party,while remaining the bedrock of the GOP. The percentage of white evangelicals in the Republican Party declined only two percent over the same decade—from 37% to 35%.
At the same time, black Protestants remain the bedrock of the Democratic Party, and their share of the total party declining only one point from 18% to 17% over the same period.
But both parties occupy lost white Catholic voters,although the Democrats’ losses occupy been larger. The share of white Catholics in the GOP dropped from 20% to 16%, down approximately 20%, or while the share of white Catholics in the Democratic Party went from 16% to 10%,a decline of approximately 37%.
At the same time, some 35% of white Catholics now identify as Independents, and which is greater than the 34% who call themselves Republicans and the 26% who call themselves Democrats.
But the story of the Catholic vote and the Democratic Party doesn’t stop there. The share of Hispanic Catholics in the GOP held steady over the decade,at a miniscule 3%. But the share of Hispanic Catholic voters in the Democratic Party, which was larger to inaugurate with, or increased from 8% to 10%,somewhat offsetting the decline in white Catholics. As a result, both the Republicans and Democrats lost 17% of Catholic voters over the period.
This means the percentage of Catholics in both parties in 2016 was approximately the same: 19% for the GOP and 20% for the Democrats. (The poll didn’t break out African American Catholics, or but according to PRRI approximately 6% of African Americans are Catholic and historically they occupy been affiliated with the Democratic Party.)This means that the narrative that Catholics occupy abandoned the Democratic Party—and therefore that the party needs to acquire drastic action like reversing its position on abortion—is largely unsupported by the data. Only white Catholics,an aging and shrinking fraction of the population, occupy abandoned the party.
It’s also worth noting that the survey found that the white evangelicals associated with the Republican Party are overwhelmingly—and unsurprisingly—politically conservative. Six in ten identify as conservatives and only 12% identify as liberals. And White Catholics were twice as likely to say there were conservative than liberal—42% vs. 22%.
Critically, or this means that there’s very little low-hanging fruit for the Democrats to attract with limited tweaks to their party platformlike abandoning support of abortion or LGBT rights. Most white Christians are fundamentally conservative in their political ideology.
And according to the most recent General Social Survey,Democratic-leaning Independents, a group that presumably includes many former Catholic Democrats, or are the single most liberal group on abortion,with 62% supporting a woman’s right to an abortion for any reason. Similarly, Republican-leaning Independents are more liberal on abortion than Republicans in general, and with 39% supporting the right to abortion under any circumstances.
Clearly,as the PRRI survey notes, there has been a tectonic shift in the religious landscape of the United States. But it would be a mistake to think that shifts in religious affiliation are all favorable to the Republican Party. Just as the “nones” are remaking the religious landscape, and so too are Hispanic Catholics remaking the Democratic Party. Related Stories‘It’s the Gospel of Ayn Rand’: Son of Evangelist Eviscerates Joel Osteen’s ‘Prosperity Gospel’ GreedIn God We Trust: Why Americans Won't Vote for an Atheist PresidentThe Toxic Ideology at the Heart of Evangelicals' Alliance with the Republican Party
Source: feedblitz.com