A colleague on Catholic Democrats on FaceBook sent me an article in response to my "Why I am a Catholic Democrat" call for articles. 

The article is entitled: Why I am not a Republican, and is written by David R. Carlin, who is a professor of sociology and philosophy at the Community College of Rhode Island. He is the author of "Can a Catholic be a Democrat?" and he recounts how mainstream Democrats have denouced him for his frequent criticism of policy planks of the Democrats Party:

"All this has led some Democrats to accuse me of not being a Democrat -- of really being, in my heart of hearts, a Republican. To these critics my standard reply is that the United States is not Stalin's Soviet Union: Here, party membership is not determined by ideological orthodoxy. It is determined by voter registration; and if you check the records at City Hall in my home town of Newport, you'll find that I'm still, as I have been for nearly a half century, a registered Democrat."

It's a decent piece and calls out the struggle American Catholics have with ANY party. Read more here:

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=29133