Michael W. Higgins details how US presidential candidates have played the faith card to date
The current Irish election cycle, the recent Canadian election, and the British election as well, were not without their ”values” discussions, but one would be very hard pressed to say that theological or philosophical matters held sway. Faith-specific matters were and are of marginal consideration, perceived as potentially divisive, and best neutered.
That is not how it works in the United States.
First, the Republicans. Coming out of the polarising and surprising dynamic of the Iowa caucuses one would have to be from a different planet not to notice how determinative religion is as a political factor in US elections, particularly of the presidential type.
The endlessly offensive, utterly predictable (yes, predictable), bombastic, and frightfully amusing and pugilistic Donald Trump was upended, mustering fewer delegates and placing second to the fiercely pious Ted Cruz. The latter’s appeal to American Evangelicals was blatant and relentless and, in its way, deeply shrewd.
Cruz’s “Christian” credentials enjoy a credibility and constancy among believers that the more decadent Trump could only dream of. Trump’s wayward religiosity, platitudinous posturings, and peculiarly limited grasp of the Christian essentials, in the end proved a harder sell than he imagined.
Desperate
Not all Evangelicals are as credulous, as desperate, as myopic as he rates them. They surprised him and went for the “genuine goods”.
Cruz is, however, no model of Christian tolerance, inter-religious openness, and sophisticated theological sensibility. He wraps his faith in the flag; Jesus is an American, or ought to be; Muslims need not be banned, per Trump’s suggestion, but they are suspect; social and economic justice have the smell of Satan about them; apocalypse is just around the corner.
The third place winner in the Iowa caucus is the Cuban-American Catholic, Marco Rubio. He, too, has strong appeal in Evangelical quarters, is disposed to change his policy positions according to the shifting currents of public opinion (quite the reversal on Immigration and Obamacare, for instance, when he realised his pro-Barack sympathies were getting him into difficulty), has huge cred with the growing Hispanic community in the States, and juggles his Catholic convictions with his enthusiasm for Evangelicals rather adroitly if too obviously.
He is emerging as the very likely moderate choice among mainstream Republicans appalled by the circus-like antics of Trump and the zealous nativism of Cruz.
And now for the Democrats.
Martin O’Malley, the Catholic former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, is now out of the running. He placed poorly as expected, and has never really been tested. A progressive social justice Catholic, he was always disadvantaged because of the extraordinary Establishment support for Hilary Clinton, past senator, secretary of state, first lady, and favoured democratic presidential nominee. Too bad.
Phenomenon
The Jewish Socialist from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, is giving Mrs Clinton a run for her money. He may be able to replicate the Obama phenomenon and eclipse her rise only to fall in the end to the Catholic Rubio.
That is why the Democrats are likely to rally behind Clinton, a politico who plays the religion card rarely, and who will offset by her temperateness the radical buffoonery of a Trump or the insidious conservatism of a Cruz.
Rubio would be a palpable threat and a Catholic presidential candidate more acceptable to a conservative Catholic hierarchy than ever John Kerry was, or even the sanctimonious Rick Santorum, a former governor of Pennsylvania and a current candidate for the Republican nomination running below the Catholic governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.
Faith counts in American political arithmetic. So does public piety, crass manipulation of people of faith, and a dangerous coupling of Christianity with the American way.
Visit Michael W. Higgins’ blog, Pontifex Minimus: http://sacredheartuniversity.typepad.com/pontifex
minimus/