Kathryn Jean Lopez On the Anti Catholic Ads Running In Louisiana

Mrs Lopez from National Review has a story up on Anti Catholic ads that the State Democrat party are running here in my part of Louisiana.

It is a good piece but I think she and the sources she cites are way off on a couple of points.

The unholy ads have run only in the Protestant-heavier north -- to play on Protestant fears without irritating the papists. According to the Almanac of American Politics 2006, "Catholic Cajun parishes (Louisiana has parishes rather than counties) cast about 30 percent of the state's vote, the New Orleans area casts around 25 percent or so, and about 45 percent are cast in Protestant parishes from Baton Rouge on north."

I think Mrs Lopez is a New Yorker so we can forgive her for her lack of knowledge of Louisiana geography. When one goes North of Baton Rouge of course one hits Mississippi in about a hour. Also even the Parishes North of I-10 in areas have very high concentrations of Catholics.

Politically, though, is the party's strategy smart? Can it work? If Romney becomes the Republican nominee for president, would hitting Mormonism be a smart strategy for Hillary Clinton (who, unless Al Gore enters at the last minute, will be the nominee)?
Philip Jenkins, author of The New Anti-Catholicism, worries it might be. He predicts: "I hate to say it but ... in Louisiana, that large territory located just south of the United States, these ads could be much more effective than someone living elsewhere might suspect. ... What prevents appropriate anger about the Jindal ads is that most Americans don't realize how uniquely bitter religious relations still are in Louisiana, and why such rhetoric is so poisonous."

I have no clue what he is talking about. I am a Catholic living in the middle of Protestant Central up here and I don't see bitter religious relations and especially UNIQUELY BITTER relations.

Again this is why these ads have other devastating effects. They give a image of Louisiana that is not true. That hurts us economically as well.