Ed Kilgore
at Washington Monthly on the Catholic vote and the failure of the Church hierarchy's hysterics and demagogy:
A dog that definitely did not bark on November 7th was the
once-very-intense Republican effort to “wedge” Catholic voters with
claims the Obama administration was waging a “war on religion,” notably
via the allegedly insufficient exemptions it offered to a contraception
coverage mandate created by Obamacare. Obama won Catholics
by a 50-48 vote, almost exactly his margin among voters generally, and
continuing Catholic voters’ very close similarity to the electorate as a
whole. The failure of the “war on religion” effort is all the more
remarkable since it received tactic (and in some cases overt)
support from the Catholic hierarchy, particularly via the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign during
the spring, aimed at mobilizing the faithful against the contraception
mandate.
In a thoughtful piece for the National Catholic Reporter
on Election Eve, Maryland parish priest Fr. Peter Daly examined the
failure of the “Fortnight for Freedom,” and basically schooled the
bishops:
Our Catholic bishops started out leading a political parade
in the spring. But when they looked behind them in the fall, they
discovered that almost nobody was following. What happened?
A few groups got in line. The Knights of Columbus were very
active. EWTN had several programs devoted to Fortnight. There were some
rallies around the country. A lot of money was spent on pamphlets and
videos. There was an opening Mass in Baltimore and a closing Mass in
Washington, D.C. But there was hardly any talk about it in the pews. The
average Catholic hardly even noticed a Fortnight for Freedom was
happening.
Why didn’t this movement catch fire? Four reasons, I think.
