IT'S ELECTION SEASON! "Latino Catholics and the Democratic Party"

Latino Catholics have typically voted Democrat out of cultural family immigrant tradition and habit, not out of thoughtful reflection on the issues. Latino Catholics may have Christian sentiments but typically when it comes to voting, they have secular minds. Latino Catholics that don’t attend Church tend to vote for liberal Democrat politicians and legislation. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a cheerleader for the Republican Party, it has its share of liberal progressives. I will disagree with Republicans vehemently if they promote something against Catholic teaching, because first and foremost, my loyalty is to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church He established. I agree with the Republican Party principles which espouse:

·       Smaller government

·       Lower taxes

·       Deregulation of the laws that drive away small business

·       Adherence to the Constitution (strict constructionist approach)

·       The rule of law

·       Pro-life

·       Pro-male and female marriage only (natural marriage)

     I am more of a MAGA Republican, a title coined by President Donald J. Trump meaning, “Make America Great Again.” There is an eye-opening book written by a Democrat, David R. Carlin, who speaks from his heart about the hatred which the Democratic Party levels at Catholicism. The book is entitled: Can a Catholic Be a Democrat? “When David Carlin was a young man, it was unthinkable for a good Catholic to be anything but a faithful Democrat. In the pews, pubs, parishes, and union halls of cities in the US, millions of poor immigrants arriving from Europe with their children pledged allegiance to the Church of Peter and the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, the culture started changing in the 1960s with the rise of a new kind of Democrat: wealthy, secular and ideologically liberal.”

     David Carlin served the Democratic Party he loved for twelve years as a Rhode Island state Senator and once as a candidate for Congress. He could only watch perturbed and disheartened as the Democratic national leaders abandoned their religious constituencies, blue-collar and pro-life foundations as they took up with the National Organization of Women, Hollywood elites, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) lobby and the abortion lobby. This transformation has been so complete that we can no longer speak of a natural alliance between Catholics and the Democratic Party. Indeed, David Carlin poses the question to the reader whether today it's even possible to be both a faithful Catholic and a Democratic true believer.

     David Carlin is also a veteran sociologist, philosophy professor, and author of The Decline and fall of the Catholic Church in America. Carlin demonstrates how his party, the Democrats, and his religion, Catholicism, are on opposite sides of the culture war. On issues such as the sanctity and dignity of human life, sexual morality, faith, marriage, abortion (and the public policies that stem from them) the modern, secular Democratic Party has become the enemy of all traditional religions especially Catholicism.

     Carlin shatters the excuses that dissenting Catholic Democratic politicians employ in a weak attempt to reconcile their faith and the way they vote. As a faithful Catholic, David Carlin admits that Catholic Democrats live conflicted in their soul, what he calls the “political equivalent of a broken heart.” In his book, Carlin examines his own political conscience. As a faithful Catholic and a Democrat well into retirement, must he now leave the party he's called home since birth? Carlin's arguments challenge all religious Democrats to ask themselves the same question.

     Even Archbishop Raymond Burke (formerly the Vatican’s chief canon lawyer) acknowledged in an interview in 2008 that the United States Democratic Party is quickly moving to become the "party of death."   I agree. The Democratic Party has been co-opted by the culture of death and Latino Catholics and black Protestants have been used as their useful idiots. The Democrats give blacks and Latinos social welfare assistance in turn for their vote.

     If America is to be saved, Catholics must stand up and vote their properly formed Christian moral conscience. We must take our faith into the voting booth; Catholics need to wake up to our responsibility. Secular humanists, hedonists, atheists, pagans, new agers, animists, pantheists, Satanists, reincarnationists, feminists, pro-aborts, tree huggers, drug users, homosexuals, etc. are allowed to vote according to their beliefs and so should the over 70 million Catholic Christians in this country.