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The religious left needs help. And you can help it.
My colleague Heidi Schlumpf recently reported [[link removed]]
on a "Vote Common Good" summit in Des Moines that was organized by a group of left-leaning
evangelicals and Roman Catholics. The only presidential candidate to attend was
Marianne Williamson, and she dropped out of the race the next day! If there was
a perception that the Catholic left had some electoral juice, you can bet that other
candidates would have put the event on their calendar.
On the other hand, the religious right is as powerful as ever. And as corrupt as
ever. As I write, the March for Life is happening on the National Mall in Washington
and the organizers are thrilled that a sitting president, for the first time ever,
will address the rally in person. Fresh from crowing about the assassination of
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, determined to make life miserable for the desperate
immigrants who flock to our southern border, aiming to restart federal executions,
a man whose lips and twitter feed are dripping in insults, this man will be celebrated
as a hero to the pro-life movement. It is to weep.
National Catholic Reporter is the newspaper for record for the Catholic left. We
have been the outlet covering social justice issues for fifty years. We have been
the ones objecting to clericalist cover-ups of sex abuse. We have investigated the
increasing role of money, conservative money, in the life of the Church. We are
the ones reporting on the way some Republican operatives in Catholic drag are, without
permission from anyone, geofencing Mass attendees in hopes of flooding their iPhones
with ads promoting the president's reelection. We are also the outlet that is not
afraid to challenge the religious or political left when it gets goofy or strays
from its principles!
As the country begins to focus on the election, Catholic voters will be critical.
Luzern County in Pennsylvania is 44% Catholic. In 2008, Barack Obama won the county
by an 8-point margin. In 2012, he won it by 5 points. In 2016, Donald Trump won
it by 19 points. How did that happen? Dubuque County in the swing state of Iowa
is another example. It is 56% Catholic and in 2008, Obama won the county by a 21-point
margin. That margin shrunk to 15% in 2012. Trump won the county by a single point
in 2016, but he won it. What made those voters, many of them Catholics, flip? And
what role will Latino Catholics play in swing states like Arizona, Virginia and
Florida?
Those are some of the stories we will be looking at. Already we have reports by
Schlumpf and Brian Roewe from Iowa. I filed a piece about New Hampshire. Where will
you get the Catholic angle except here?
We can't do it without your help. Hotel rooms, rental cars, flights, it all adds
up. And, in addition to the reporters, there are editors and production staff to
help get our writing out to you. It is a group effort, and you can be part of the
group. Please become an NCR Forward member [[link removed]]
and help us continue the work that nobody else is going to do if we do not do it.
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Michael Sean Winters
Political Columnist
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