Catholics are prototypical swing voters. Traditional Catholic positions do not fit easily into Democratic or Republican Party platforms. The Catholic Church - whatever that means - has generally been opposed to abortion, war, the death penalty, torture and, theoretically, supportive of worker rights.
And while the "official" positions at the diocesan, national and international levels might be maddening, the positions of individual Catholics are even more confused. It is possible at a mass to see a Democrat in a union jacket give the sign of peace to a Republican with a Chamber of Commerce tie. And it is possible to see the votes of Catholics blow from party to party each election night. It is a beautiful and a maddening thing.
Catholics disproportionately populate swing states and districts. And it is this demographic good fortune that allowed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to force passage of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. But with that impressive political power play, the Catholic bishops and Catholics everywhere now also have a responsibility to go to the wall in support of national health care. As Colin Powell once said in another context, "If you break it, you bought it." It is the bishop's war now.
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