Catholic Colonization of the American Right: Historical Overview

International audienceCatholic background, in the ideological building of the contemporary American right, seems to be a secondary issue in the history of the conservative movement. However, with very fine studies in recent years on the right-wing tendency of Catholic population or on the long lasting relationship between Catholics and political life, this peculiar aspect of the American right was recognized by George Nash; it gave rise to some enlightening analyses from John Diggins, Michael Miles, John Judis or Melvin Thorne3; it offered a unique and substantial matter to Patrick Allitt, from the Thirties to the Seventies. Then, the Eighties opened a new era for the Republican Party, which receives more frequently the Catholic vote, while the Republican political staff began to be ‘catholicized’ – without ever been a majority in the Party- with some great national figures, often converted but not only, and presenting themselves as orthodox or devoted Catholics in their political and confessional display. Things have changed since the Sixties, characterized by an antithetical “Kennedy‘s model” with its Catholic voters, loyal to the Democratic Party