JD Vance’s Rise Assures the Political Homelessness of Libertarian Catholics

Since the 1980s when Ronald Reagan formed his coalition of Christian conservatives and low-tax budget hawks, Catholics with libertarian views have had a tolerable time voting Republican. An emphasis on certain social issues coupled with a generally free enterprise platform made the GOP a practical, if not perfect, fit. But with the rise of J.D. Vance, this tense partnership may soon end, leaving libertarian Catholics politically homeless.

Catholics have always had a hard time choosing between the partisan duopoly. The social teachings of the Catholic Church do not neatly fit in either party, nor does the Magisterium dictate how such social teachings must be implemented into policy. Sure, some popes or high-profile clerics in their pastoral roles have weighed in on various political issues,  (see: Francis on environmentalism, or St. John Paul II on the death penalty), but there is little formal teaching that fully aligns Catholics with either camp. 

Catholics are and almost always have been charged by the Church with the responsibility to form their own individual consciences according to Christ’s teachings and His Church and freely choose the course of action that virtue demands of them. This is a daunting task in any country, especially one in which any given major election forces you to choose between two woefully deficient choices. 

Many Catholics have chosen the Republican Party based upon key platform planks: abolition of abortion, the traditional definition of marriage in the law, promotion of the family and parental authority, and a general hospitality to Christianity. 

This is not to say that GOP-voting Catholics were always happy. Republican policies on war, immigration, and the criminal prosecution system were often hard pills to swallow. These are things reasonable Catholics can find attractive in the Democratic Party — even as the left intensifies its alliance with abortion, affirmation of abhorrent anti-sexual ideologies, and hostility to traditional religious values. There is rarely a “correct” answer politically for Catholics, and unless they vote third party, they have little peace in the ballot box.

But now, with the vice presidential nomination of JD Vance and a growing core of Republicans, the GOP seems bound to leave free enterprise behind. As a Catholic convert himself, Vance may attract the votes of socially minded Catholics, but for those who prioritize sound economics, his ascension could leave libertarian Catholics politically unmoored. 

Vance’s interpretation of Catholic social teaching (admittedly, one held by an unfortunately large number of Catholics and scholars) is far too protectionist for any libertarian to take seriously. His record on blocking free trade agreements, increasing tariffs, supporting regulations on large companies, and opposition to migrant labor fly in the face of free market thinking. Certainly, there are aspects of a brand of nationalism that influences this neo-America First thinking. But as a convert to the faith, I can’t help but think Vance is equally if not more influenced by the Church in this regard.

Ambiguity and economic illiteracy has plagued papal encyclicals and theological thinking in the Catholic Church for well over a hundred years. Terms like “living wage” or entire systems like “distributism” lack concrete definitions or foundations for practical implementation. Clerics and scholars alike seem to think that there is a magical wand governments can wave to change the inherent nature of economic reality.

As devout Catholic and economist Thomas Woods put it in his book The Church and the Market, “It no more makes sense to say that economic law should be subordinate to moral law than it does to say that physical laws should be subordinate to moral law.” Whatever the desires and objectives of the Church, she cannot fulfill them on the wishful thinking of economic ignorance. 

This is where many libertarians struggle with the Church. Ascribing to the comprehensive Austrian school of economics, they comprehend the laws of supply and demand, the principle of diminishing marginal utility, the ranking but not weighting of preferences, and so on. They realize the vitality of private property to secure prosperous cooperation. They consider liberty not just a moral right, but the only real option for peace.

When Catholics like Vance ascend to the upper echelon of a party’s politics, they bring with them the same miscalculated ideas of economics, informed by either a nationalist ideology, a flawed interpretation of Church teaching, or both. Any Catholic with free market principles looks at this developing state of affairs and laments November.

For libertarian Catholics, the Republican Party is closing its doors. For Catholic libertarians, the Democratic Party has all but disavowed them.  

For such Americans, they might prefer to wave the white flag than choose between red or blue.