I don’t recall such heavy discussion that far back? Then again, it feels like 100 years, and all the days just blur together…
ETA: There definitely were not Republicans floating the idea back then…
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Really not cool. I hope this is the end of his career.
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Hahaha Hawley is probably shitting his pants that this turned into what it did.
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I like the thread title update
Yea for Stacey Abrams, and yea for everything she says here: https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1346981537972158465
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I wonder if the fear of cowering in a room while gun shots ring out in the distance will make any of the senators feel differently about the yearly events of mass violence we experience in this country.
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Nope. A few of them got shot during a softball game a few years ago and it didn’t change shit.
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How wild is the world that I totally forgot this happened?
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Our rep came to one of my work events a few days after the shooting happened and one of my colleagues asked him if he ever played any softball. I do not know how she didn’t lose her job on the spot.
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Is being a Catholic POTUS a big thing?
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I have been watching today in disbelief. I’m sorry to everyone close to this. Even at a distance, it’s a lot. 
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Yes. To date, the only Catholic (until now) president was John F. Kennedy. In fact, the fact that Kennedy was Catholic gave some people serious pause at the time, as they thought it was possible that he, and therefore US policy, would be influenced by the Pope and the Catholic Church. It’s kind of wild to think about.
(The largest religious denomination in the US is Protestant (something like half! which is wild in and of itself). Protestantism (as a group) considers Catholicism (as a denomination) fairly threatening.)
(I myself was raised Catholic, in the northeast, which has a higher percentage of Catholics (I think) than the majority of the country. It is (was) fairly strange to live in places with a very minor Catholic presence, even once I became agnostic myself.)
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No, I don’t think so. It was when JFK was elected but I don’t think too many care now. It is slightly unusual, though.
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Oh, I guess more than “slightly” unusual.
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I mean, I don’t know if many people care any more (or, as much as they did in the late 50s/early 60s). Catholicism then was more… “extreme” I want to say? As the second Vatican Council (aka Vatican II)* hadn’t happened yet (it happened 62-65).
*Vatican II was an ecumenical council during which the church made a number of substantial changes to try to appeal more to people and (I believe?) stem the loss of congregants to the church, including such things as including lay people more in the inner workings of the church (in ways much more common in Protestant denominations), having less strict rules (eg. the stricture that women needed to cover their heads in church (they used to have to wear little lace things)), changing how mass was said (prior it was largely celebrated facing away from the congregation), and approving mass being said in vernacular (ie, the language of the congregation) (so yeah, in 1960, mass in Catholic churches was still being said entirely in Latin (except maybe the homily?). This last one I understand might have seemed somewhat threatening to outsiders).
Anyway, people (ie non-Catholics) in the late 50s were definitely… “concerned”.
I would like to think it doesn’t matter anymore the religion of the candidates, but recall when Mitt Romney was a candidate what a Big Deal™ people made over the fact that he is Mormon. The US is less “religious” than it used to be, but even though Catholic and Protestant denominations are losing members, still over 75% of Americans self-identify as belonging to some particular faith (ie not atheist, agnostic, nothing, or spiritual but not religious). Which, as a non-religious person I also find wild. Compare also that Protestantism dominates here, whereas Catholicism dominates in many parts of Europe (IDK about other parts of the world) and atheist/agnostic/etc make up a larger part of the population (in Europe).
TL;DR religion is still a big deal here even though it doesn’t seem like it (especially in some parts of the country).
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And I think the main point is that it’s something outside of the “standard.” Usually, our leaders are white, protestant men. That was the “standard,” it’s still the majority, and we’re mostly sick of it. Yea for any bit diversity we can get!
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DEFINITELY!
(Also I didn’t mean to write a book, oops.)
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Thanks for explaining the Catholic thing. I dont think Catholic or any other Christian religion is considered that big a deal in Australian politics.
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