Originally Posted by
Buzz
One of the best questions I have seen on POTUS. One thing that has crossed my mind in the past is the religious differences. In the NE there are a lot of Episcopals, Unitarians, and also Catholics. Not so many evangelicals. Historically Catholics I know have supported Democrats. I am not sure why but my guess is the Catholic Church's focus on social justice. If not for the abortion issue, I believe they would lean more heavily Democrat. I have life long friends who grew up Catholic who are very conservative. Without exception they all have abandoned the Catholic Church and now go to Evangelical Churches.
I was also raised RC, and can agree that social justice and charity are a key element. I did not go to Catholic schools, however. My family could not afford to pay tuition for a non-public school, even though Catholic schools are often very low tuition. Back at that time, though, public schools were not as much of a mess as they are today. The choice of Catholic school was more for the religious content added to the curriculum.
Public schools did give "released time" each week to attend religious instruction of choice. Those who did not choose to participate in that could have a study hall. In fact, in my early years in NYC schools, Jewish children were excused from school, without penalty, on Jewish holidays. My neighborhood's ethnic mix was primarily Jewish and Italian (who actually have many cultural similarities). That was in the South Bronx in the early 50s.
And, yes, I left the Catholic church and moved to Lutheranism. Lutherans are not so far removed from RCs in their rituals and beliefs, but they are more moderate on social issues than RC. I would have to classify myself as "conservative" v. "liberal". I disagreed with RC on contraception. My views on abortion are a "mixture", as you could probably tell from my feelings on 3rd timester abortions and the fate of babies who survive late-term abortions.
I came from a very Catholic family. Grandparents And aunts & uncles who helped build parishes and Catholic Schools. I attended Catholic School. I blame my liberalism on the message of social justice that was drilled into my head as a kid. I have talked about it a little here, trying to figure out how Christians could relate to the teachings of Ayn Rand and I am mostly quite surprised by the response I get.
As you and I have discussed before ... I believe Ayn Rand was influenced, even if unconsciously, by Christian belief. Christianity, in its original form, emphasized a relationship between an individual and God, without the need for an "intermediary" of a formal church heirarchy (as had developed in Judaism). It also focused on free will, and the value of each individual. The Golden Rule was a central theme. Ayn Rand's philosophy was also based on individualism and of humans entering into relationships with fairness to both parties and free will. How ironic that the RC church should eventually develop the same kind of heirarchy that Christ faulted in Judaism.
i could be all wet, but I have thought about this before. The fact that they are so educated and wealthy could be just a byproduct of the concentration of terrific educational institutions there.
I think that MA is heavily under the influence of the Kennedy "rule" over such a long period of time. It would be interesting to see how the highly educated and wealthy are distributed throughout the state. There may be heavy concentrations in certain areas, and other groups in inner cities who are less educated and less wealthy, but have other reasons for voting Dem.
reading my post I can see that I didn't really address your question. Just rambling about one factor I think might explain the NE liberal leanings...
. The "Bell Curve" used a poor white trash population as the test group. Maybe the need to feel superior to someone exists at a higher level than us common folk realize
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