The problem is that we’re harder on our own.  (For more on this, see this brief reflection from Dan Gilgoff about his conversation with Archbishop Chaput). My girlfriend has been saying this for a long time: if you’re a pro-choice Catholic, good luck ever getting elected, even if Catholics still vote pro-choice.  Pro-choice Democracts for whom Catholics are willing to vote are kind of like the shabbat goy.  They do the stuff that we’re not alllowed to do and we might not really approve of but which we’re not wholly prepared to go without. 

Is this ultimately hypocritical?  Probably, yes.  But it’s the way quite a few Catholics roll.  They recongize that other people of different faiths might have different priorities than they do, but they are less forgiving of fellow Catholics.  All of this is reason number 7 billion it’s hard to be a Catholic in the Democractic party.