{"id":13013,"date":"2023-08-04T19:03:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T19:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13013"},"modified":"2023-08-04T19:03:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T19:03:34","slug":"abortion-wont-keep-catholic-latinos-in-the-new-trump-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13013","title":{"rendered":"Abortion Won\u2019t keep Catholic Latinos in the New Trump GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alex Gonzalez<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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The old clich\u00e9 Republicans want you to believe is that  \u201cLatinos are \nnaturally conservative\u201d because they are predominantly Catholic and that\n they would come to the GOP if they talk about abortion and gay \nmarriage, but that is a myth. And while it is true that Latinos across \nthe southwest are predominantly Catholic, Catholic views about abortion \nis not a strong issue to woo Latinos to the GOP. Moreover, as the social\n views of  Catholic Latinos change, in line with those of mainline \nProtestants, Latinos also will  be the main ethnic force driving the \ngrowth of Catholic Church in the southwest and the nation; and they feel\n that the Republican Party of Reagan and George W. Bush is dead and \nperceive the new GOP party of Trump to be  anti-Latino and \nanti-immigrant. More importantly, for the majority of Hispanic\/Latino \nvoters, Immigration has become the more \u201cpressing issue\u201d threatening \ntheir communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These data indicate less cleavage and more consensuses on the politics of immigration in the state,\u201d she said. \u201cI would suggest that we are moving towards a commingling of interests \u2026the increasing immigrant population. There is also another phenomenon, though, that is very important to acknowledge\u2026..That is the existence of mixed-status families. We have families across this country and in this state who are composed of U.S. citizens, permanent residents and undocumented people.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, regardless of whether 4th or 5th generation, the native interaction with Hispanic immigrants and mixed marriages is increasing the \u201ccommingling of interests\u201d between natives and immigrants\u2014regardless of legality\u2014is making immigration a cultural unifying issue overcoming any \u201ccleavages\u201d for Latinos of all background and religious identification.  And these unifying views are stronger than views on abortion. Consequently, immigration is the only issue that has the potential to create a new political realignment in the southwest because Latinos will be willing to vote against any party that continues to antagonize Latino communities and oppose an immigration reform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while it is a fact the Catholics in America are different than Catholics in Latin America, <\/a>for a very long time conservative Catholics in America have used social conservative Catholic theology to woo Latinos to the pro-life movement and the fight against gay marriage. However,  Trump Immigration policies is changing the priorities for Latino Catholics who are making Immigration their top issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the \u201cculture wars\u201dare over and more Catholics in America \nare shifting their views on what was perceived as Catholic social issues\n doctrine, and Latinos are becoming the main pillar of the American \nCatholic Church, and soon will be forming a Catholic bloc across 8 \nwestern states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing Social Views <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pew survey of American Catholics shows that :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine-in-ten U.S. Catholics say a household headed by a married \nmother and father is an ideal situation for bringing up children. But \nthe survey shows that large majorities think other kinds of families \u2013 \nthose headed by parents who are single, divorced, unmarried or gay \u2013 are\n OK for raising children, too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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According the Pew Center Survey, \u201c0ne of the strongest factors \nunderlying views of same-sex marriage is religion, and the sense that \nhomosexuality is in conflict with one\u2019s religious beliefs. White \nevangelical Protestants stand out for their deep opposition to same-sex \nmarriage: Just 27% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry, while 70% \noppose it (43% strongly <\/em>oppose); by contrast, majorities of \nboth Catholics (56%) and white mainline Protestants (62%) support \nsame-sex marriage, along with an overwhelming majority (85%) of the \nreligiously unaffiliated. and Among Hispanics, 56% says the favor \nallowing gays and lesbians to marry legally.\u201d Thus, there is consistent \ntrend among American Catholics on the so-called social issues. \nTherefore, American Latino Catholics, just like mainline Protestants, \nare becoming more tolerant about abortion and gay marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Latino Catholicization  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latinos are mainly concentrated in Southwestern states where in the \nnext 10 years Latinos will become at least half the population of the \nstates and subsequently, according to the US census by 2042, Latinos \nwill be 80% of the entire southwest from Texas to California. As a \nresult, any the growth of GOP, will happen only outside the East Coast \nin western states where Latino will soon become the majority.  A survey<\/a>\n by Gallup in 2016 showed that while the \u201cMost Democrat\u201d states are in \nthe East Coast, with California and New Mexico representing  the \nsouthwest. Among the \u201cMost Republican\u201d states, these are states \nscattered across the West, but these are state with small populations.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In the U.S.,  ethnicity is connected to religiosity and region; it is\n a ethnicity-religion-region triangulation. For example,  According to \nRobert Putnam\u2019s book American Grace: How Religion Divides us and unites us<\/em><\/a>, \n when examining the religion and demographic makeup of the nation, all \nthe religious ethnic groups cluster in specific areas. There is an \noverlapping similarities between the presence of a particular ethnic \ngroup and members of an ethnically rooted religions. This overlapping \ncan be seen when we look at the map showing clustering of both ethnic \nand religious groups. The most visible are those who are self-identified\n as German-Americans and Lutherans churches. When we look at the map \nshowing a concentration of German-Americans, we can see all 8 states in \nthe upper mid-west populated by \u201cGerman.\u201d When we look at the population\n of self-identified Lutherans, 80% of the maps show the same states and \ncounties of that self-Identity as German-Americans, where there are \nGermans, there Lutherans. And this trend holds up even after many \ngenerations have passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Putnam argues that there is strong connection between the \nScott-Irish and member of the Presbyterian churches who settled in the \nSouth predominantly. Thus, there is a strong connection that can be \nexpected between the identity of the Presbyterian church Scott-Irish \nethic identity in regions of the South across many states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catholics\u2014Irish, Poles , and Italians\u2014settled in mainly in \nindustrial  states of the north east and the Catholic map shows \noverlapping between Italians-Americans Catholic with the greater \nconcentration in Northeast and California. When the map of Latino \nCatholics is shown the concentration mainly in the 8 states in the \nSouthwest\u2013from Texas to California to Nevada and Colorado\u2014and in south \nFlorida. Here, too, the direct overlapping  between the Latinos \npopulation and  Catholicism is concentrated in one single continuous \nregion is similar to that of ethnic German-Americans and the Lutherans \nChurches in upper Midwest or the Presbyterian churches with ethnic  \nScott Irish\u2019s  in the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This observation by Putman underscores that there is triangulation \nbetween religion, ethnicity, and region because groups like to stay \ntogether and attend religious services in churches that they are \nfamiliar with.  But, one little known fact is that, while there has been\n a \u201cwhite flight\u201d in the Catholic Church for the last 3 decades, Latinos\n have been the new pillar of the Catholic Church for the last 2 decades.\n According to Putnam, Catholics are about <\/em>25% of the US \npopulation, a proportion that has remained steady for 3 decades. But, \nAmerican Catholicism has experienced a dramatic change. Over the last 3 \ndecades, \u201cAnglos\u201d\u2014non Latinos\u2014Catholics have been dropping out and \ndisengaging with the Catholic Church. During the same periods, the \nnumbers of Latino Catholics has grown tremendously transforming the \nAmerican Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Putnam, the American Catholic Church was \u201cseverely \naffected\u201d in the 1960s by major reforms in Rome\u2014the Vatican II. Thus, in\n recent decades as large numbers of ethnic whites Catholics (the \ngrandchildren of early waves of white ethnic Catholics) were slipping \nout one door of the church, but a large number of Latinos have rushed in\n through another door.  Without the timely arrival of these immigrants \nand their offspring, the collapse of Catholic mass and Catholicism would\n have been stepper in America.   Thus, the combination of high losses of\n white ethnic Catholics, a young exodus, and low converts, the only \nthing that saved the Catholic Church was the arrival of Latino \nimmigrants.  The transformation of church was so dramatic that of \nCatholics ages (18 to 35) 58% are Latinos, and ages (35 to 49) 34% are \nLatino.  This Latino presence within the Catholic Church makes it \nevident that the future of the church will be linked to the future of \nLatinos in America. And religious beliefs are linked to ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past \u201cCatholicization\u201d of the GOP linked the conservative \nsocial teaching with the Evangelical pro-life movement and opposition to\n gay marriage.  And that solidified the bond between Conservative \nCatholic views on social issue and the conservative mantra of the GOP \nand Evangelical.  For example, In an Op-ed<\/a> on CNN by a Timothy Stanley is a historian at Oxford University argues that:  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a time when the Republican Party was strictly for White Anglo Saxon Protestants.\u201d But this year  Roughly one-quarter of Republican primary voters are Catholic. <\/a>Notable\n Catholic GOP leaders include John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and \nJeb Bush. Six out of nine justices of the Supreme Court are Catholics, \nand five of them are Republicans. And, the GOP is undergoing a quiet \nprocess of Catholicization. It\u2019s one of the reasons why this year\u2019s race\n has focused so much on social issues. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Pro-life movement and opposition to gay marriage has become a\n small segment of American Catholics. Moreover, Catholic Charities and \nChurches have always seen parallels between the last great wave of \nimmigrants to the United States, in the late 19th and early 20th \ncenturies, and the current wave of Hispanic\/Latinos.  Like immigrants \nnow, newcomers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came from \ndifferent countries than their predecessors. In 1920, 75% of US \nCatholics were immigrants, with recent newcomers primarily coming from \nSouthern and Eastern Europe. In response to their needs, the church \ncreated or significantly expanded all of its defining institutions, \nincluding parishes, schools, charities, hospitals, mutual aid societies,\n religious communities. For Catholics, the church tried to offer an \narray of educational, medical, social service, and social institutions \nthat paralleled those of the larger society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Catholics in America<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the social views about abortion and gay marriage continues to evolve among American Latino Catholic while their views on Immigration are similar to those views of Irish and Italians in the 1920s, and for Latinos immigration  has become the most pressing issue, especially in the southwest where the growth of Latinos population is occurring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Texas, the population will double from 29 million to 50 million in\n the by 2050, and the 2010 U.S. census estimated that 85% of population \ngrowth since 2000 was minority, which happened to be mainly Latino.  But in Texas, in 2013, minority births in the state hit 68.5%;<\/a>\n and in California Latinos already are almost 40% of the population, 16 \nmillion Latinos live in California.  Consequently, at this rate, from \nTexas to California and Colorado, within a generation Latinos will be \nable to create a new regional bloc that can be converted into triangular\n realignment argued by Putnam similar to that in South in the 1960-79s \nwhen the South moved from Democrat to Republican due to the signing of \nthe Civil Right Legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the obstacles Trump faces with nonwhite Catholics are \npart of the reason his campaign\u2019s outreach will be heavily concentrated \nin the Rust Belt \u2014 a region that is both disproportionately Catholic and\n populated by noncollege-educated white voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the second half of Trump\u2019s first term, some white \nCatholics who originally approved of Trump\u2019s performance have indeed \nbeen persuaded to question their support. When Trump took office in \nJanuary 2017, 48 percent of white Catholics viewed him unfavorably. That\n figure rose to 52 percent in 2019, according to the PRRI survey<\/a>, which also found a 9-point drop in the president\u2019s approval rating among white Catholics.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A fall survey by the Public Religion Research Institute,<\/a>\n for example, found that only 39 percent of Hispanic Catholics in the \nU.S. favor restrictions on immigration, which the current administration\n has sought to curb drastically. At the same time, 68 percent of white \nCatholics said they favor such policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Across all racial groups, health care is the issue most \nfrequently rated as critical, including more than seven in ten black \n(78%) and Hispanic (71%) Americans, and more than six in ten of other or\n mixed race Americans (63%) and whites (61%). Beyond that issue, \npriorities diverge. Among white Americans, the other most critical \nissues are terrorism (52%) and immigration (48%), aligning them closely \nwith Republicans. Hispanic Americans blend Republican and Democratic \nissues with majorities saying climate change (64%) and terrorism (59%) \nare critical. Americans of other or mixed races similarly prioritize \nclimate change (62%) and terrorism (54%). Black Americans most \nfrequently say crime (71%) and fairness of presidential elections (69%) \nare critical issues.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Because American Catholics and Latinos no longer hold the same values\n on social issues, and with the Trump party hardening their views on \nImmigration, it is very unlikely that Catholic Latinos, even if they \nares conservative, will be wooed by Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latinos for the first time in American History are the sole pillar of Catholic Church<\/a>\n in the US.  Additionally, Latinos will be the majority in the \nSouthwester Corridor from Texas to California\u2014states with largest \nElectoral Votes and the wealthiest in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Michael Barone\u2019s Book \u201cThe New Americans,\u201d <\/a>Latinos\n share the same cultural values of other groups, especially Italians. \nBut what is unique about Latinos is that they share a historical \nattachment to southwest, especially to areas like Texas, California, and\n New Mexico where Latinos see themselves as part of the culture of the \nregion, and thus, forming cross-state cultural corridor similar to that \nof the Jacksonean Scott-Irish corridor in the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican Party honchos like to argue that Latinos can be wooed by \nsuperficial party talk alone about taxes while de-emphasizing their \nbackground and the issues of Immigration. However, as with Scott-Irish, \nthe ethnic identity never changes. What changes is the party positions \nin which the party moves its positions to reflect the values of the \ngroups they seek to represent. Therefore, Latinos won\u2019t change the views\n just to accommodate GOP party propaganda. It is the Republican Party in\n the Southwest that needs change to embody the historical, and family \nvalues of Latinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are strong cultural values in the Southwest, where Latinos will\n be majority the next 20 years, Latinos too will be sole bearers of the \nCatholic Church in the U.S. Though, there is pervasive misconception \namong the Republican circle that Latinos need to make their ethnic \nidentity less \u201cthick\u201d to be fully embrace by GOP. History shows that \nethnic groups strengthen the Political Party when the party formulates \nthe platform around the issues important to a group. This is how the \nRepublic Jacksonean South \u201cScots-Irish zone\u201d was built. But as Barone \npoints out, it is because of a misconception that Latinos are not like \nthe past wave of immigrants, and a misunderstanding about what it means \nto be American. Latinos are like any other ethnic groups that want their\n issues addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some scholars like Samuel Huntington and Michael Barone  have argued \n that the real meaning of American exceptionalism, or creed, is \ndedication to a \u201creligious common constitutional  civic culture,\u201d that \nis respect and adherences to  the institutions  of government created \nunder the Constitution. In fact, Samuel Huntington would have detested \nthe anti-institutionalism  of the new Trump  party because under \nHuntington\u2019s views of American-ness, being American meant adherence to \ninstitutionalism\u2014 institutions created under the US Constitution.  Thus,\n in its purest American form, being an American is respect for \nConstitution. And Latinos, and Latino culture, have never promoted any \nnon-adherence to a common civic culture, or disrespect for the \nConstitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like in the South, in the southwest there is greater expression of what Jefferson intended under States Rights; states have the right to have their own culture, and neither the federal government, nor a National Party, have right to impose national culture\u2014or suppress one to favor others\u2013other than a \u201ccommon civic culture\u201d. Jefferson would have agreed that a few states in the same region have the right to bond together to protect their culture and history, so long as long as it doesn\u2019t conflict with the Constitution. Therefore, Catholic Latinos have the right to insist that their culture be reflected in any political party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Gonzalez is a political Analyst, Founder of Latino Public Policy Foundation (LPPF), and Political Director for Latinos Ready To Vote. Comments to vote@latinosreadytovote.com <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Alex Gonzalez The old cliché Republicans want you to believe is that  “Latinos are naturally conservative” because they are predominantly Catholic and that they would come to the GOP if they talk about abortion […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,65,70,72],"tags":[86,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"category-culture","9":"category-latino-vote","10":"category-lrtv-articles","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-latino-vote"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13015,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13013\/revisions\/13015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}