The Candidates
In what will be a very interesting debate, Sam Brownback and Chris Dodd, the two Catholics in the race for president, will debate each other on Monday at Boston College. Tim Russet will be moderating the debate. The event will be broadcast live here and will be taped and aired on C-SPAN.
It sure is a shame that “Catholic” Senator John Kerry isn’t in the race — would of been awesome to watch Brownback crush him in his home state.
The Catholic vote is very important in presidential politics — in 2000, Gore won the Catholic vote; in 2004, Bush won it with 52%; and in 2006, Democrats won 55% of the Catholic vote. Whichever way the vote swings, it is usually around 50% and can determine the outcome of the election.
Here are the details:
As the buzz surrounding the 2008 election heats up, Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center has invited Catholic presidential candidates and current senators Sam Brownback (R-Kan) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to discuss the challenges that intersection of faith and public policy brings to American life in a debate titled “Catholic Senators and Presidential Candidates: Their Faith and Public Policy” on Monday.
Brownback and Dodd, representing opposing sides of the political spectrum, will give their opinions on a variety of polarizing issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, and “just war,” which forces them to grapple with their dual loyalty to church doctrine and secular political principles. The debate will be moderated by Tim Russert, host of NBC’s Meet the Press and political analyst for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show.
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My co-chair of Students for Brownback, Danielle Huntley, is a law school student at Boston College and will be covering the event. Also, here is an awesome article written by Boston College Students for Brownback member Colm Willis, on why Senator Brownback is the most credible Catholic candidate. To view video coverage of the Students for Brownback rally he is referring to at Catholic University, click here.
A credible Catholic candidate
by Colm WillisWe twisted through the crowd of people walking toward the Supreme Court building as the sun was setting. We were late and had to make it to the other side of D.C. before 5 p.m. My friends and I were on our way to Catholic University to listen to a Catholic senator who had just announced his bid for the presidency. After rushing off of the metro, we walked breathlessly into an auditorium packed with students cheering and holding signs, on fire in their support of Sen. Sam Brownback.
I had only heard a little about Brownback before my trip to D.C. Senators from Kansas don’t usually garner a lot of press out in Oregon. As I listened to him speak, however, I was increasingly impressed. In his speech, he quoted Mother Teresa and stressed the need for humility. I didn’t know that politicians understood what humility was. In contrast to my experience of skepticism when I heard McCain speak here at Boston College, by the end of Brownback’s speech, I was convinced of his sincerity.
Brownback holds amazingly similar views to most American Catholics. For the first time in our voting lives, we, as Catholics, might actually agree with everything that a candidate stands for. Brownback has opposed Bush’s latest troop surge in Iraq, and in place of the current strategy, favors dividing the country under a federated government in order to allow the United States to remove itself from the Iraqi civil war.
He has also been consistently anti-abortion and led the push that stopped Bush from putting the unqualified Harriet Meyers on the Supreme Court. It was his leadership that led to the nomination of Justice Alito, another anti-abortion Catholic, to replace her.
He has spoken out strongly in favor of intervention in Northern Uganda, where children are being kidnapped and trained as child soldiers. He has also advocated intervention to stop the genocide in the Sudan.
In contrast to the oil tycoons that we currently have in the administration, Brownback is pushing hard for energy reform. He co-sponsored the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for America Security Act, which aims at reducing oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels a day in 10 years by pursuing alternative energy sources.
In addition, Brownback is a strong supporter of improved schooling for the underprivileged and cites in his platform the success that underrepresented minorities have had in D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship program.
After hearing Brownback speak, I was convinced that Catholics all around the United States would support him: He is one of us. On returning to Boston, however, I heard almost nothing else about him in the most Catholic city in the country. Despite Brownback’s obviously Catholic platform, he has been all but forgotten, overshadowed by names like Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, and McCain. This is absurd.
In the United States today, there are over 67 million Roman Catholics. This is about 25 percent of the total population of America. Yet, every primary season we seem incapable of electing someone who holds our values.
We haven’t had a Catholic president in this country since John F. Kennedy ran almost half a century ago, and the Catholic candidates that we have seen since then have blatantly disregarded the church. Today when I speak to other young Catholics about potential presidential nominees, most don’t even bother to ask what a candidate’s positions are. Inevitably the first question is: “What are his chances of winning?” We have become so used to compromising what we believe when it comes to voting for presidential candidates that we now treat elections like the NCAA basketball tournament.
Our attitude only shows how poorly we paid attention when the nuns taught us how to count in kindergarten.
If we all voted together, we could ensure a candidate’s success. But we are so divided among ourselves that it is now commonplace to ask whether someone is a liberal Catholic or a conservative Catholic. It’s as if there is more than one Roman Catholic church. As Catholics, we need to decide what our religion is.
Is it one of the American political parties? Or is it the church that Christ founded? We are getting so swept away by the glitz, the name recognition, and stupid straw polls that we have forgotten who we are.
We are supporting candidates like Giuliani and Obama who hold values that are antithetical to our own. In this presidential primary season, there is finally an uncompromised Catholic man running for president and it’s time that we as Catholics came together. Brownback deserves our support. We are Catholics - let’s start voting like it.
Colm Willis is a Heights staff columnist. He welcomes comments at willisc@bcheights.com.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
[...] post by Billy Valentine and software by Elliott [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
My favorite quote from the article:
“In this presidential primary season, there is finally an uncompromised Catholic man running for president and it’s time that we as Catholics came together. Brownback deserves our support. We are Catholics - let’s start voting like it.”
April 19th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Billy, what are Brownback’s views on affirmative action?
April 19th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Billy, there are your American/Cafeteria Catholics and you’ve got your Roman/Real Catholics. I’d guess that probably 30-40% of self-identified Catholics don’t meet any criteria for identifying as a Catholic.
Still the Catholic vote is vital but it doesn’t fit into our political structure. The Church is socially conservative and economically liberal. Many of your Midwest Catholics are also socially conservative and economically liberal. These voters are hard to reach but essential for victory in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
JF, I do not know. If there are any Senate votes on affirmative action that you know of, I’d be more then happy to look up how Brownback voted on them. I know that he did have concerns with Harriet Miers based on affirmative action, and his concerns were in the conservative standpoint.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Econ grad, agreed. The numbers are far different from 50% when you break up what Catholics go to church weekly and those that do not. For instance, Catholics who went to weekly mass in Ohio voted 65% - 35% for Bush over Kerry. But as the last two presidential elections show, the Catholic vote as a whole can fluctuate, and given the closeness of the last two elections, it is a vital voting block to win.
April 19th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Billy, I’m not aware of any specific Senate legislation on affirmative action, but his lenient views on illegal immigration, as well as his support of apology to Blacks and Indian Americans for past injustices (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/2983.html) leads me to believe that he probably also supports affirmative action.
April 19th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Isn’t Rudy Catholic?
April 19th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
If we all voted together, we could ensure a candidate’s success.
Sounds a little funny to me. As if there are not further qualifications to the Presidency beyond being a good Catholic?
April 19th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Whether Rudy is Catholic or not is debatable.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
It seems clear to me that Brownback is by far the best Catholic candidate out there. He is also probably the 6th best choice among republicans too. That and 5 bucks might buy you lunch.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
if Rudy is Catholic, I’d have to say Brownback is the 2nd best Catholic candidate out there. #2 aint bad Brownback fans.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Hmmm.
So, what is the position of the spiritual leader of Catholicism on the major issues of the day?
War in Iraq, for instance.
Torture, for instance.
Health care, for instance.
Y’know, the issues that a president will actually have an impact on.
“We are Catholics - let’s start voting like it”
Be careful what you wish for.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
If Rudy is Catholic, wouldn’t he oppose abortion?
April 19th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Awesome! I can’t wait!
April 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Oh, and it’s Tim Russert, not Russet.
April 19th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
[...] — Psycheout @ 8:37 pm Billy Valentine of Students for Brownback announces a debate over at Race 4 2008 between Sam Brownback and Chris Dodd at Boston College on monday which will be taped and [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Joe Biden is Catholic, also.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
“If Rudy is Catholic, wouldn’t he oppose abortion?”
Only if he believes that the United States is, or at least should be, a Catholic theocracy.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Or if he’s a cafeteria Catholic, Pickett.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Politicians should hold to their beliefs. Whats the point of being religious if you’re not prepared to practice it?
April 19th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I had this crazy notion that religious doctrine should not dictate public policy in the United States. Of course, since you’re going to be consistent, I assume you will call out Brownback for not supporting the death penalty for adultery or prostitution?
April 19th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
JayPe, agreed.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:57 am
econ grad stud, if a raging liberal like Chris Dodd counts as a Catholic, then Rudy Giuliani shold DEFINITELY count as a Catholic.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:59 am
“Politicians should hold to their beliefs. Whats the point of being religious if you’re not prepared to practice it?”
Of course you should practice it, in your personal behavior.
Being religious does not mean that you are required to advocate the use of government power to impose the strictures of your religion on the country as a whole.
Have you never heard of the American revolution?
What the heck do you think it was fought for - other than, at least in part, to get away from the European paradigm of state-enforced religions, by constructing this grand bargain that we have hear. Every one totlaly free to practice their relgion as they see fit in their own lives, while the government stays out of it, restricting itself to the secular, civic affairs of society.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Tano,
I don’t want to impose my beliefs on the people. I do want the people to impose their beliefs upon themselves.
Federalism.
Subsidiarity.
Consensus increases at the local level.
Give states the choice!