Monday, December 10, 2012

Why Obama Won Catholic Vote By Two Percent

 

VERBATIM

Every day, I am amazed by what people are willing to believe. People believe what they are told by authority figures without question. What’s even more stunning, however, is what people don’t know. On a daily basis, people buy products about which they know very little; they marry people whom they don’t know as well as they should; and they vote for politicians who stand in direct opposition to their core beliefs. I call these people “The Uninformed”; the people who go about their day taking in as little information as possible; and doing as little as possible to critically analyze what is going on in the world around them.

A new article on NPR.org goes into great detail regarding the breakdown of voter demographics that won Obama re-election. The article goes through many topics, but one brief data point caught my eye. According to NPR, Obama won the national Catholic vote by 2%.

Now, you may say that 2% isn’t a big deal, but in my opinion, Obama should not have gotten a single Catholic vote, let alone a majority. Many of Obama’s views and political actions stand in exact opposition to what Catholics stand for.

1. The HHS mandate. Obama wants to force Catholic-run medical establishments to provide birth control and abortion-related services to patients. According to pittsburghcatholic.org: “The HHS mandate requires that every employer, including the church as employer, facilitate birth control, sterilization and abortion-related services in its health plans. This mandate would apply to all secular employers and faith-based entities.” They go on to mention that the only exemption is for organizations that serve primarily religious customers.

2. Obama’s record on abortion. While in Illinois, Barack Obama voted against a bill that would provide basic human rights to infants born alive following a botched abortion. Not only did he vote against it once, but four times. When questioned, Obama claimed he voted against the bill because it would undermine Roe V Wade. This was later proven patently false.

3. Obama’s approval of same-sex marriage. Though Obama’s support of same-sex unions is tepid at best–his positions on it have fluctuated for years–even basic approval goes against Catholic beliefs.
So why is it exactly that Obama was able to win the national Catholic vote by two percentage points? I’ll tell you why: ignorance. We live in a country full of people who are too stupid or lazy to take a critical look at anything.

We are told by the media that Obama wants to help the poor by implementing Obamacare and bailouts. Well, it must be true. We are told that all the hubbub about the HHS mandate isn’t a big deal. Well, it must be true. We are told so many things that aren’t true, yet there is such a dearth of critical thinking in this country that it all goes right over our heads.

It reminds me of a quote from Thomas Paine: “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

So many have lost the will to use reason before they cast their votes. Without reason, we are dead.

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