Question about JFK and the Catholic vote?

[woolldog]

I was wondering if people criticized Catholics for voting for JFK overwhelmingly (80%) in 1960? It was before my time but anyone remember back that far?

The election of John E Kennedy was truly an extraordinary and liberating event for U.S. Catholics (Dolan 1992, 422). As Crews (1993) notes, "An invisible barrier had been shattered. Across the nation, Catholics sensed that they had finally achieved unquestioned first-class status as loyal citizens" (p. 139). After enduring more than 170 years of political anti-Catholicism in various forms and degrees, (2) eight in ten Catholic voters supported Kennedy at the ballot box in 1960. At the time, Converse et al. (1961) noted "the vote polarized along religious lines in a degree which we have not seen in the course of previous sample survey studies" (p. 273). Slightly more than 118,000 votes separated Kennedy from Nixon nationally and it would have been a daunting challenge for him to win with anything less than 80 percent of the Catholic vote. Converse et al. (1961) estimate that Kennedy's vote among Catholics was 17 percentage points higher than what an average non-Catholic candidate could have expected (p. 275).

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5609866/Camelot-only-comes-but-once.html

[Adsos Letter]

1. I wouldn't be surprised...

Catholics have struggled for acceptance as loyal citizens since colonial days...Al Smith's candidacy against FDR was certainly hobbled by his being a Catholic.

[Submariner]

2. I was 16 when he was murdered

I do not recall any criticism of catholics whatsoever. It was Camelot the moment he was inaugurated. But I'm in Irish/Italian catholic Boston, so it would not be apparent here.

Maybe someone outside New England has a different take on your question.

[MoJoWorkin]

3. You were living a sheltered life.

You didn't live in the Bible Belt.

I was brought up Catholic, but I went to public schools. During Kennedy's campaign, I remember many a day crying (in private) for the hurtful, untrue things that were said about Catholics, by ignorant classmates.

[Raven]

4. Yes they did. Catholicism was considered a cult in those days,

although much less than in the 50's. In the 50's there were kids who were not allowed to play with me because I was a Catholic...on the other hand, I, as a Catholic, could not be friends with a non-catholic kid. When I think back on it, Boston was a little like northern ireland without the bombings and bloodshed.

For Catholics, I don't think anyone voted against JFK...at least anyone I knew. Also, there was another prejudice in existence at that time that hardly gets mentioned these days. It was the prejudice against the Irish...sometimes I think it was stronger than the anti-catholic prejudice. The fact that JFK was Irish and Catholic and attained the Presidency blew away enormous barriers in Boston. I was a teenager and I could feel it.

[TahitiNut]

6. Well, a lot of folks remembered Father Coughlin at the time.

Fr. Coughlin was still conducting mass until 1966. Today, altogether too many have forgotten that turd. (I live less than 3 miles from the Shrine of the Little Flower.) Catholicism as NEVER been ideologically monolithic in secular/political affairs. The schism between politically far right and "liberation theologians" is still quite broad.

[dflprincess]

5. I think Catholics were more apt to vote Democratic back then regardless of the candidate's religion

This was especially true of IrishCatholicDemocrats (as Tip O'Neil once pointed out, that was one word). In my family it was a much bigger deal that Kennedy was Irish rather than Catholic a German Catholic would not have impressed my grandma and her sisters nearly so much.

[unc70]

7. WASPs ran most everything

The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) -- each part represented an important prejudice. It was a really big deal. It was very important that JFK received the endorsements of people like NC Gov. Terry Sanford and the resulting vote by NC for JFK.

Remember that most times, "Free Labor" was not the same as non-slave labor. It was the labor of self-employed WASPs.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. I was in grade school when Kennedy was elected, and I'm here to tell you

that anti-Catholic prejudice was STRONG among Protestants in the Midwest. I heard people talking seriously about whether Kennedy would be a puppet of the Vatican or impose Catholic rules on the entire country.

The rumors were so strong that he had to deal with them publicly. I've seen a film clip of him calling a press conference to assure voters that he is not under the control of the Vatican and that he intends to put the interests of the U.S. first at all times.

[woolldog]

9. Thanks for the replies so far...(eom)

[NOLALady]

10. I don't remember anyone criticizing Catholics.

I was a teen and I lived in a Catholic community.

I do remember some questioning if the Pope was going to run the country if JFK were elected.

But, I attended Catholic Schools and I didn't know many non Catholics. Of course, no one in my neighborhood could vote at that time.

AHHH! The good ole days. :sarcasm: