This morning NPR broadcast a story wondering how it could be that so few Catholics were showing enthusiasm for Donald Trump, and they did so with a remarkable lack of awareness about history. The broadcast saw everything through the lens of abortion, and asked his Catholics could possibly support someone who was consistently pro-choice. The presenter didn’t ever ask if there was anything else that might come into play in making their decision.
There are many things, of course: all branches of Christianity do have an avowed aim to aid the poor and sick, which the Clinton Foundation certainly does, and though there are certainly wealthy Catholics there is also a certain repugnance in many quarters toward ostentatious and self-serving wealth. Nevertheless there is another element that might be even more of a barrier: Catholics with any sense of history will recognize that Trump’s style of nativist rhetoric was aimed at them through most of American history.
Look at the image that heads this piece, a political cartoon by brilliant illustrator Thomas Nast. There are details you probably didn’t notice: the ruined public school topped by an American flag hanging upside-down, a symbol of distress and surrender. In the background the Irish flag flies over Tammany Hall, the headquarters of the Democratic Party in New York, and an elegantly dressed woman is being led to be hanged to the top right. Even the title, “The American River Ganges” was designed to imply that America was beset by representatives of an alien superstition.
The theme that Catholic immigrants were tampering with the vote was also common in this period, as in this 1840 cartoon in which Irish and Germans steal a ballot box:
Those crude caricatures of Catholics as barbarian aliens later gave way to more subtle innuendo, but the basic ideas remained. Catholics were more loyal to their religion than to any country, and could not be trusted with the vote or with political office. As late as the election of John F. Kennedy, within living memory of many people, these ideas could be expressed in the national media by mainstream commentators. It will not be lost on modern Catholics who have a sense of history that the KKK, whose members have so enthusiastically supported Donald Trump, is also an anti-Catholic organization. How these facts have escaped the mainstream media is a mystery to me.
The power and malice of these images shows how completely Germans and Irish were demonized as people who could never assimilate into American life. It occurs to me that from his name, one would guess that Trump’s campaign manager Steven Bannon is probably of Irish descent; I would like him to be shown some of these cartoons and asked what he thinks of the cartoonists who portrayed his ancestors as subhuman beasts.
One may see some hope for all who hold these racist ideas in the career of Thomas Nast, a brilliant artist who put his talents to demonizing foreigners for most of his career. Late in life he had a change of heart and drew pieces like “Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner” that show the symbol of this country serving a group that included Native American, black, Chinese, Jews, and even Irishmen at a festive table whose centerpiece reads “Self Government And Universal Suffrage.”
If you are part of a religious community, or have friends who are, find some of Thomas Nast’s images and spread them around the congregation. The more people have a sense of how religion and nationality have been used to divide us throughout our history, the less likely they are to fall for the same lies aimed at a different target.
Peace,
PNE