by George Rasley
That the Democratic Party has become the party of the anti-religious Far Left was confirmed way back in 2012 when delegates to the Democratic National Convention jeered the mention of God and struck all reference to him in their platform.
However, until recently, as smart politicians most national figures in the Democratic Party carefully avoided the anti-Christian, anti-Semitic bigotry displayed by their Left wing grassroots activists.
That all changed in 2017 during the confirmation of now-Judge Amy Coney Barrett when California’s Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein went after Barrett’s Catholic faith during her confirmation hearing.
Feinstein charged that Barrett has “a long history of believing [her] religious beliefs should prevail,” and added “when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.” Liberals have since tried to explain away Feinstein’s odd phrasing, which had the quality of a nativist, anti-Papist tract from a century ago observed James S. Robbins in a recent op-ed for USAToday.
These days, says Robbins, liberals have taken to portraying people in public life who exhibit almost any kind of faith orientation as dangerous extremists. In a discussion of the high court, CNN contributor Dean Obeidallah maintained that “there are people who want to impose Christian Sharia law in this country.”
It was an ironic comment, observed Robbins, since progressives would be thrilled to support a Muslim court nominee whose jurisprudence was informed by actual Sharia. And the Daily Beast tells us that President Trump is “carrying out the agenda of a small, secretive network of extremely conservative Catholic activists” who supposedly control the nomination process, supported by a network of dark-money fundraisers.
That the Daily Beast, a Washington Post property, would promote that kind of Anti-Catholic bigotry shows you how close to the surface of the Left such attitudes are and the nomination to the Supreme Court of practicing Catholic Judge Brett Kavanaugh has once again brought them back out in the open.
Kavanaugh, reports CatholicNews.com, is a regular lector at his church, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington. He also volunteers for the St. Maria’s Meals program at Catholic Charities, has coached CYO, tutors at the Washington Jesuit Academy and belongs to the John Carroll Society, a group of Catholic lawyers and professionals.
Judge Kavanaugh also dissented from a recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that a teenager in an immigrant detention center was entitled to seek an abortion. He claimed the decision would give immigrant minors a right to “immediate abortion on demand,” but urged the government to transfer her to private custody so she could do “as she wished.”
Kavanaugh likewise dissented from a majority decision of the D.C. Circuit that rejected a request from the Archdiocese of Washington and Priests for Life to have the full court review their challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.
James S. Robbins concluded his USAToday piece by saying there should be a rule that the first side to invoke a Knights of Malta conspiracy theory to explain anything loses the argument, but the Democrats’ Anti-Catholic bigotry has a political cost far greater than lost conspiracy theory debating points.
Historically, Catholics have been marginal Democrats, swinging to the GOP for Ronald Reagan and other candidates who have wooed them on the cultural issues, so the 11-point swing in the Catholic vote from Romney in 2012 to Trump in 2016 was arguably the margin in the top four battleground states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida.
In the top four 2016 battleground states Trump won Wisconsin (where 31 percent identify as Catholic) by 22,177 votes. In Pennsylvania (where 27.4 percent identify as Catholic) Trump won by 67,416 votes. In Florida (where 26 percent identify as Catholic) Trump won by 134,000 votes and in Michigan (where 23 percent identify as Catholic) Trump won by 10,704 votes.
In the near term, months of televised Anti-Catholic bias from Democrats as they try to block the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh could solidify the Catholic voting trend demonstrated in the 2016 election, giving Republicans a huge advantage in the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections.
Catholics are the largest bloc of swing voters in America, and months of Democrats bashing Judge Brett Kavanaugh for living his life according to the tenets of his Catholic faith will forever brand Democrats as Anti-Catholic in the eyes of millions of Catholic voters, potentially moving them permanently into the GOP in the same way that Southern Evangelical Protestants moved from Democrat to Republican in the 1970s and 80s.
The Senate’s Republican majority should approve Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court without delay. The toll-free Capitol Switchboard is (1-866-220-0044) we urge CHQ readers and friends to call their Senators today to urge them to support the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States.
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George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie’s ConservativeHQ.com and is a veteran of over 300 political campaigns. A member of American MENSA, he served on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle, as Director of Policy and Communication for Congressman Adam Putnam (FL-12) then Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and as spokesman for Rep. Mac Thornberry now-Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
