From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
|
|
|||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
|
A [[Ku Klux Klan]]-led [[smear campaign]] in the [[1928 United States presidential election|1928 presidential election]] used this concept to target Governor [[Al Smith]] of New York, the Democratic nominee and first major Catholic candidate. The most extreme rumor said to have been circulated, much ridiculed at the time and since, was that a [[secret passage]], perhaps even a [[transatlantic tunnel]], was being dug to bring the Pope over.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Elmer |author-link=Elmer Davis |date=1928-06-21 |title=Ding Dong , etc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJ5GAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA24-PA12 |work=Life |publisher=Life Publishing Company |pages=12–13 |language=en |volume=91 |issue=2381}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Robert Emmet |author-link=Robert E. Sherwood |url=https://archive.org/details/thisisnewyork1930unse |title=This is New York: A Play in Three Acts |date=1931 |publisher=Charles Scribner’s Sons |pages=X |language=en |chapter=Preface}}</ref> There were later reports of this claim being spread by printed cards with a mislabeled photograph of Al Smith at the opening of the [[Holland Tunnel]]. |
A [[Ku Klux Klan]]-led [[smear campaign]] in the [[1928 United States presidential election|1928 presidential election]] used this concept to target Governor [[Al Smith]] of New York, the Democratic nominee and first major Catholic candidate. The most extreme rumor said to have been circulated, much ridiculed at the time and since, was that a [[secret passage]], perhaps even a [[transatlantic tunnel]], was being dug to bring the Pope over.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Elmer |author-link=Elmer Davis |date=1928-06-21 |title=Ding Dong , etc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJ5GAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA24-PA12 |work=Life |publisher=Life Publishing Company |pages=12–13 |language=en |volume=91 |issue=2381}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Robert Emmet |author-link=Robert E. Sherwood |url=https://archive.org/details/thisisnewyork1930unse |title=This is New York: A Play in Three Acts |date=1931 |publisher=Charles Scribner’s Sons |pages=X |language=en |chapter=Preface}}</ref> There were later reports of this claim being spread by printed cards with a mislabeled photograph of Al Smith at the opening of the [[Holland Tunnel]]. |
||
|
Al Smith lost handily in 1928, largely due to prejudiced sentiment. And unrelatedly, the Pope’s status in Rome was solidified the following year. But the idea lingered in the American imagination, and was the subject of much commentary during the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 election]], when the Catholic [[John F. Kennedy]] sought and won that year’s campaign. Kennedy’s pollster [[Louis Harris]] asked specifically about the tunnel question in the [[1960 United States presidential election in West Virginia|West Virginia race]], and with large numbers of voters finding it and other anti-Catholic canards credible, Kennedy was prompted to address the religion issue more directly.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Altschuler |first=Bruce E. |date=1995-07-01 |title=The First Modern Presidential Campaign: Polling the Primary Voters for JFK |url=https://journals.shareok.org/arp/article/view/575 |journal=American Review of Politics |volume=16 |pages=185–200 |doi=10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1995.16.0.185-200 |issn=2374-779X}}</ref> The historical comparison was raised again in the 2008 election with Barack Obama’s own [[Barack Obama religion conspiracy theories|religion conspiracy theories]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Freedman |first=Samuel G. |date=2008-10-31 |title=In Untruths About Obama, Echoes of a Distant Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/us/politics/01religion.html |access-date=2025-10-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en}}</ref> |
Al Smith lost handily in 1928, largely due to prejudiced sentiment. And unrelatedly, the Pope’s status in Rome was solidified the following year. But the idea lingered in the American imagination, and was the subject of much commentary during the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 election]], when the Catholic [[John F. Kennedy]] sought and won that year’s campaign. Kennedy’s pollster [[Louis Harris]] asked specifically about the tunnel question in the [[1960 United States presidential election in West Virginia|West Virginia race]], and with large numbers of voters finding it and other anti-Catholic canards credible, Kennedy was prompted to address the religion issue more directly.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Altschuler |first=Bruce E. |date=1995-07-01 |title=The First Modern Presidential Campaign: Polling the Primary Voters for JFK |url=https://journals.shareok.org/arp/article/view/575 |journal=American Review of Politics |volume=16 |pages=185–200 |doi=10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1995.16.0.185-200 |issn=2374-779X}}</ref> The historical comparison was raised again in the 2008 election with Barack Obama’s own [[Barack Obama religion conspiracy theories|religion conspiracy theories]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Freedman |first=Samuel G. |date=2008-10-31 |title=In Untruths About Obama, Echoes of a Distant Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/us/politics/01religion.html |access-date=2025-10-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en}}</ref> |
||
|
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
Latest revision as of 12:23, 16 October 2025
The Pope in the White House conspiracy theory was an American anti-Catholic fringe belief amid the Romanism panic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originated in the real historical circumstance that the “Prisoner in the Vatican“, having lost temporal power in Rome after 1870, was briefly considering relocation to find sanctuary in another European city — but instead the conspiracy theory posited a plan for a Washington Papacy that would assert a nefarious influence over the whole United States.
A Ku Klux Klan-led smear campaign in the 1928 presidential election used this concept to target Governor Al Smith of New York, the Democratic nominee and first major Catholic candidate. The most extreme rumor said to have been circulated, much ridiculed at the time and since, was that a secret passage, perhaps even a transatlantic tunnel, was being dug to bring the Pope over.[1][2] There were later reports of this claim being spread by printed cards with a mislabeled photograph of Al Smith at the opening of the Holland Tunnel.
Al Smith lost handily in 1928, largely due to prejudiced sentiment. And unrelatedly, the Pope’s status in Rome was solidified the following year. But the idea lingered in the American imagination, and was the subject of much commentary during the 1960 election, when the Catholic John F. Kennedy sought and won that year’s campaign. Kennedy’s pollster Louis Harris asked specifically about the tunnel question in the West Virginia race, and with large numbers of voters finding it and other anti-Catholic canards credible, Kennedy was prompted to address the religion issue more directly.[3] [4]The historical comparison was raised again in the 2008 election with Barack Obama’s own religion conspiracy theories.[5]
