If one of the dynamics of the 2004 presidential election was that American Catholics were on the receiving end of a full-court press by the Republican Party to be co-opted in the same way that American evangelicals were in the 1970s, then I hope that American Catholics stay rooted enough in Catholic thought to realize that they do not fit into either visions of the two dominant U.S. political parties:
"Human rights are the minimum conditions for life in community. In Catholic teaching, human rights include not only civil and political rights but also economic rights…This means that when people are without a chance to earn a living, and must go hungry and homeless, they are being denied basic rights. Society must ensure that these rights are protected."
— Economic Justice for All, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1986
