Editor's Note: Stephen S. Schneck is director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America.

By Stephen S. Schneck, Special to CNN

For years, pollsters and political scientists have been stumped about Catholics.

On one hand, it’s been pretty clear that as American Catholics go, so goes the nation. George W. Bush narrowly won the Catholic vote in 2004 and won a second term. Barack Obama narrowly won the Catholic vote in 2008 and, with it, the White House.

It’s easy to see why Catholics are sometimes seen as the swing voters whose shifting political preferences swing elections.

Nevertheless, the idea of a Catholic bloc is patently ridiculous. As voters, American Catholics mirror the electorate as a whole, divided into Democrats, independents, and Republicans at about the same percentages as all Americans. And it’s hard to trace such political complexity to religious allegiance.

One explanation for why is the sheer number of Catholic voters and their now multigenerational assimilation into American society. About 35 million Catholics voted in 2008. That’s about 27% of all voters.

In the 19th century and for much of the 20th, Catholics self-consciously occupied a distinctive identity in America. Predominantly blue collar, they often lived in white ethnic neighborhoods, attended their own schools and colleges, established their own hospitals and charities, and experienced some level of discrimination.

In those years, Catholics associated overwhelmingly with the Democratic Party, which not only accommodated but promoted policies that advanced ethnic assimilation – everything from minimum wage laws to the GI Bill.

But by finally achieving that assimilation, Catholics in the last 50 years have lost much of their sense of special self-identity. For white Catholics, who are about 60% of the Catholic vote, their distinctiveness in class, education, income, and even ethnicity has grown increasingly ambiguous in America’s famous melting pot.

The melting pot has even transformed Catholics’ relationship to their church. Polling numbers released Friday by CNN about the White House contraception dust-up illustrate this: Only 11% of Catholics polled said they should always obey official church teachings on moral issues like birth control and abortion.

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بدأ التردد الذي يعتري الموقف الأميركي إزاء الأزمة السورية والذي خيّم على مؤتمر «أصدقاء الشعب السوري» في تونس، يثير كثيراً من الشكوك والجدل لدى المعسكر المعارض لدمشق، ما استدعى لقاء جمع وزير الخارجية السعودية الامير سعود الفيصل مع نظيرته الاميركية هيلاري كلينتون على هامش هذا المؤتمر.يعزو خبير ديبلوماسي لبناني عائد من زيارة لواشنطن هذا التردد الأميركي الى إنقسام الادارة الاميركية الى فريقين: الأول، سياسي يؤيد المعارضة السورية ويدعمها في سعيها الى إسقاط النظام تحت شعار "تحقيق الحرية والديموقراطية للشعب السوري".

أما الفريق الثاني فهو عسكري، يبدي مخاوف وخشية من أن يكون البديل من إسقاط النظام، سيادة القوى الأُصولية المتطرفة التي يعتبرها متعارضة مع المصالح الاميركية ويضعها في خانة "الإرهاب"