Since we are gearing up for another election season, I thought that this column from the Catholic News Agency would be a good topic to share. Enjoy!
By Dr. William R. Luckey
During the election season, many Catholics wonder why so many
Catholic politicians do not vote according to their professed beliefs.
It is disheartening to have one famous Catholic politician say publicly
that he takes his faith very seriously and a woman’s right to choose
abortion very seriously as well. The answer can be found in a
relatively new school of economics called Public Choice. Since
economics studies the actions of people in general, the laws of
economics, logically, apply to the actions of persons in public office
as anywhere else. In this case, we will study what is called the
“median voter rule.”
A normal statistical curve looks somewhat
like a camel’s hump with a line straight up the middle. That middle
line is the average. Assuming that this is a curve of voters, 68.2% of
all the voters fall within one standard deviation of either side of
this average voter. This is the majority. Now, the United States, not
being a Catholic country, cannot boast of the average voter agreeing
with the most of the tenets of the Church on moral-political issues.
So unless the candidate is from a state or district where the mean (or
median) voter agrees with the Church on public issues, he will not be
able to get majority support. This is why, at times, candidates will
speak to religious groups and assure them that he agrees with them, and
then, if he happens to get elected, votes inconsistently—if he wants to
keep his job. This politician might have gotten elected the first time
by avoiding any controversial stands, so that even the medial voter
liked him. But in office, a stand must be taken on issues that appear
in legislation. This becomes public record, and that is when we see a
movement to the “center,” i. e., waffling on serious issues. After
all, who wants to come home and tell his wife that after moving all the
way to Washington, they now have to go back and he has to get a real
job.
* Dr. William R. Luckey was born in the
south Bronx, New York City, he is Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Political Science and Economics at Christendom College
and is on the advisory board of the Center for Economic Personalism.
He has been married for 30 years and has four children; he has
also been a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic for over 27 years.
Tags: Family Values, Religious Freedoms
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