Why, as a Catholic, do I support Barak Obama? I’ve been asked this several times, and it’s really surprised me that there’s an assumption that a good Catholic cannot support Obama. It seems to me that it usually boils down on his being pro-choice on abortion. Many Catholics seem to think being pro-choice automatically makes one unfit for Catholic support politically. Of course, that assumes that the Catholic position on abortion is always right, but that’s another topic.

I believe the problem is that many Catholics use the stance on abortion as the ONLY yardstick. They have become single-issue voters, which is very dangerous. No one candidate, of course, will fit all the criteria for choosing the perfect candidate. There is no perfect candidate. What we must do is discern who will be the best man for the job, taking EVERYTHING into consideration.

• For me, I cannot understand how anyone who purports to be a Christian can support what the Republicans stand for in this country. Consider the following:
• Republicans are so pro corporate interests that they ignore the rights of the individual citizens.
• Republicans are adamantly pro capital punishment, which the Catholic Church claims to be as evil as abortion.
• Republicans are against any kind of health care reform that would benefit those in need, or even the working middle class.
• Republicans are against social programs desperately needed by the poor, instead wanting to push the burden onto the private sector and churches.
• Republicans believe in armed military intervention where US corporate interests are threatened, and are willing to engage in torture.
• Republicans align themselves with the Christian Fundamentalists who, despite allying with Catholics on issues of abortion, steadfastly maintain that Catholics are not true Christians and actively discriminate against us.

Meanwhile, most Democrats want medical care, education, and other measures designed to cut down on the instances of unwanted pregnancies, and to provide programs to care for expectant mothers so they aren’t faced with little choice but abortion. Studies have shown that unwanted pregnancies would decrease under Democratic programs.

Democratic programs are much more pro-family than Republican initiatives. Under Republicans, we would become slaves to the profits of corporations, with little incentive to provide much needed daycare for working mothers. Pensions plans would continue to fail, and efforts to privatize social security would leave people penniless when retirement age arrived (just see what the stock market is doing and thing, would you want your retirement savings dependant on it?). Do you think it was the Republicans that championed the 40 hour work week, worker’s compensation, the right to unionize, pension systems and health care? No, all this was fought for by Democrats, progressives, and socialists.

Catholics need to wake up and not let themselves be fooled into being one-issue voters. Yes, let Obama know you disagree with his stance on abortion (though allowing abortion to legal hardly forces you to have one. You can still act on your conscience and not have one). Don’t, however, vote for someone just because they are “pro-life” over abortion when they otherwise support policies that lead to the breakup of the family, poor medical care leading to the deaths of children, the further divide between the rich and poor of the country, and the state sponsored murder of people in a corrupt criminal justice system.