How Trump and Barr are Benefitting from the Catholic Right’s Consolidation of Power
Author: Paul Elie
October 2, 2020
Writing in a "Daily Comment" for the New Yorker, Senior Fellow Paul Elie reflects on the 2020 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and considers how the Catholic right influences American politics in advance of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Elie challenges the typical reading of the relationship between President Trump and the religious right as merely one of political convince. By supporting Trump, the Catholic right falls into the longer tradition of arch-conservative Catholicism as a force of resistance to democratic governance, a history spanning Revolutionary France to Latin America of the 1960s. Elie concludes by suggesting how Democratic nominee Joseph Biden, known as a devout Catholic, can appeal to the critical bloc of undecided Catholic voters in the upcoming election.
