“Hispanic Voters Divided by Religion”
October 22, 2008
From Gallup:
Catholics and those who attend church less often are most supportive of Obama.
Taken as a group, Hispanic voters solidly support Barack Obama over John McCain for president, but there is a significant difference in the Hispanic vote by religion. Catholic Hispanics support Obama by a 39-point margin, while Hispanics who are Protestant or who identify with some other non-Catholic Christian faith support Obama by a much smaller 10-point margin.
10 Comments
Comments are closed.
Sounds like the Catholics understand the seamless garment more than their Protestant brethren. Maybe the white Catholics can learn from them.
Yes, but those who go to church less often will vote for Obama! Maybe because they don’t attend church as often, they are not aware of some of the inconsistencies and grave issues both candidates support.
I think I’d buy the “ignorance” argument of Katerina’s before the “they’re sophisticated enough to understand the seamless garment” argument from MM. Not that immigrants can’t understand it, but my grandparents were more interested in just getting by when they came the country – and the allure of assimilating into the culture in a way that doesn’t quite mess with your identity (oh, I can vote AND celebrate el Dia de los muertos?) is pretty powerful.
my grandparents were more interested in just getting by when they came the country -
That’s very true. In fact, my family members were decided to vote for Obama until I mentioned to them the issue of abortion and ESCR. We come from a country where abortion or ESCR just didn’t come up as issues, because abortion, on one hand, is illegal. Period. They’re still going to vote for Obama, but somebody had to flag those two issues to them, because they just weren’t aware of it even though they go to Church every Sunday.
“They’re still going to vote for Obama, but somebody had to flag those two issues to them, because they just weren’t aware of it even though they go to Church every Sunday.”
Katerina, excellent point. My latino friends were horrified to hear hubby and i have traditionally voted Republican. I had to explain that most pro-life Catholics voted Republican because of the abortion issue. They were so sad that it is split like that. For them, to vote Republican is to vote against themselves and their families, But to vote Democratic means voting to keep abortion legal. THE dilemma for us all this year.
MM is hilarious.
Protestant Hispanics are more likely to be practicing than Catholic Hispanics. There’s your answer.
For them, to vote Republican is to vote against themselves and their families,
Exactly. That is why RR’s answer above is nonsense.
I would be interested in the same analysis for white voters. My anecdotal experience would be that white Protestants would also support Obama significantly less than white Catholics. If true, ethnic background may not mean much. It may just mean that Catholics tend to be more liberal.
It appearss that an important piece of information is missing from the poll which would distinguish Hispanic Catholics from Hispanic Protestants in the Religiosity poll. In other words, who do devout Hispanic Catholics and devout Hispanic Protestants support?
What surprised me was that 1/3 of Hispanics are Protestant or non-Catholic Christians. I would have guessed that to be a much smaller.
“For them, to vote Republican is to vote against themselves and their families,
Exactly. That is why RR’s answer above is nonsense”
What does that have to do with what I said about the disparity between Catholic and Protestant Hispanics?
I recommend Peter Kreeft’s talk on this issue.