Parish Maureen
| 👩 | |
| Era | The Fifties |
|---|---|
| Age | 33-39 |
| Home | Boston, MA |
| Demographic | ethnic Catholic, urban, household |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
Maureen is an Irish-Catholic mother of a large family in a Boston ward, a Democrat by family tradition whose politics are shaped at church and confirmed at the precinct. She represents the urban Catholic vote that Senator McCarthy has made available to the Republicans.
Who they stand for
Boston's Irish wards had belonged to the Democratic Party since the days of Mayor James Michael Curley. In 1952, these wards helped send John F. Kennedy to the Senate over Henry Cabot Lodge, even as the rest of Massachusetts voted for Eisenhower. The same wards were also McCarthy country. Senator McCarthy was Catholic, Irish, and a Marine veteran, and his enemies were the Harvard-educated and State Department Protestants the Irish had been fighting since the nativist Know-Nothing movement of the 1850s. Robert Kennedy worked on McCarthy's committee staff, though John Kennedy himself never cast a vote on the Senate's 1954 censure of McCarthy. Cardinal Richard Cushing's archdiocese, the parochial school system, and the Holy Name societies formed a Catholic subculture that settled moral questions before the political parties ever reached them, which is why divorce, irreligion, and disrespect for the Church cut deeper with this vote than any economic issue does. This vote returned fully to the Democrats in 1960, when Kennedy carried Massachusetts by a landslide. Shopkeeper Sophie is the Catholic voter who can be won over with a tax cut. Maureen has to be treated with respect instead.
Playing to them
Maureen responds well to a President who treats the Catholic Church as an ally and its people as equals. She wants a Catholic on the ticket or in the cabinet, federal aid that reaches parochial schools, a firm public stand against Moscow, and public respect shown for her faith. She will not forgive condescension. A President who lets educated elites sneer at Senator McCarthy, who tolerates divorce, or who talks down to the Irish wards has lost her support, and the party label alone will not bring her back. A President who wins her over by embracing the anti-Communist crusade loses the support of Faculty Eleanor, Garment Row Saul, Banker Prescott, and Junior Exec Chip. A President who wins her over by feeding the local ward political machine loses the support of Prairie Prudence and Old Country Olga, both of whom recognise the patronage for what it is. She is not a foreign-policy hawk in the way that War Widow Bridget is, so a President who is anti-Communist without becoming a McCarthyite can hold her support while also keeping Faculty Eleanor's.
Where they live
The five states where Parish Maureen makes up the largest share of the electorate in the fifties:
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- New York