"I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant"
About this Quote
Kennedy’s line is a velvet-gloved demand for civic adulthood, delivered in the specific pressure cooker of 1960, when a Catholic nominee still triggered Protestant anxieties about papal control. He doesn’t plead for tolerance; he reframes the act of voting as a test of the voter’s discipline. “Waste his franchise” lands like a rebuke: the ballot is not a tribal badge, it’s a constitutional instrument. If you use it to litigate a candidate’s faith, you’re not just insulting him-you’re cheapening your own citizenship.
The craft is in the symmetry: “either for me or against me.” Kennedy anticipates both sentimental solidarity and sectarian hostility, and disqualifies them in one stroke. That move drains the oxygen from identity-based politics without denying identity exists. He’s not pretending religion is absent; he’s insisting it’s politically irrelevant to the job. In Cold War America, that’s also a strategic repositioning of Catholicism as fully compatible with liberal democracy, not a foreign loyalty.
The subtext is sharper: I will not be your religious symbol, and I will not let my opponents turn me into a religious problem. By making religious affiliation a category error, Kennedy shifts the conversation to competence, policy, and national interest-the terrain where he wanted the election decided. It’s a line aimed at prejudice, yes, but equally at the softer temptation to vote your comfort. Kennedy is selling a modern presidency: private belief, public duty, no intermediaries.
The craft is in the symmetry: “either for me or against me.” Kennedy anticipates both sentimental solidarity and sectarian hostility, and disqualifies them in one stroke. That move drains the oxygen from identity-based politics without denying identity exists. He’s not pretending religion is absent; he’s insisting it’s politically irrelevant to the job. In Cold War America, that’s also a strategic repositioning of Catholicism as fully compatible with liberal democracy, not a foreign loyalty.
The subtext is sharper: I will not be your religious symbol, and I will not let my opponents turn me into a religious problem. By making religious affiliation a category error, Kennedy shifts the conversation to competence, policy, and national interest-the terrain where he wanted the election decided. It’s a line aimed at prejudice, yes, but equally at the softer temptation to vote your comfort. Kennedy is selling a modern presidency: private belief, public duty, no intermediaries.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | John F. Kennedy, "Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association," September 12, 1960 — primary-source speech transcript contains his appeal that voters not vote for or against him solely because of his religion. |
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