Sunday, August 31, 2008

Responding to Fr. Martin Fox

A friend send me a link to a post at Bonfire of the Vanities - Fr. Martin Fox's thoughts on Gov. Palin and the Catholic Vote.

Father's synopsis on his post is thus:

1. On the strict calculus, Catholics cannot normally vote for candidates who endorse a disqualifying, grave moral evil.

2. Both major-party candidates endorse a disqualifying, grave moral evil: Obama>abortion; McCain>embryo-destroying "research."

3. Therefore, Catholics by the strict calculus would not normally be able to vote for either of these, on the strict calculus.

4. Catholics can set aside the strict calculus, and vote for a candidate who endorses a normally disqualifying, grave moral evil if there is no alternative--no candidate who doesn't endorse grave moral evil.

Several posters adequately address his points. My response is below:

Father,

A few rebuttals if I may-

>As you duly note, McCain felt the pressure and acted accordingly with the nomination. Obama would pay us no heed if he were to get into office and policies and appointments would be devastating to the unborn.

>ESR is moot. Women are not contributing their eggs and the number of offenses against the unborn cannot possibly equate to an administration that supports abortion up until the moment of birth and withholding treatment from a survivor of a botched abortion. This position is sociopathic.

>Palin will not attract the most extreme proabort feminists. This appointment will attract people who were uncertain McCain would kowtow to our pressure (he just proved he will enthusiastically. She will attract mainstream Mommies.

>There is no such thing as a "strict calculus" when two candidates take positions offensive to Catholic doctrines. If one candidate was believer in ethnic cleansing,abortion,moral ambiguity, the abolition of God from the public square and education and other communist philosophies and the other candidate supported ESR which is nearly non-existent, voting for the former instead of the latter is a collaboration in such grave societal evils that it defies common sense.

Keeping a lunatic out of office is the only sensible objective Catholics must use in evaluating such options.

Voting for a candidate we know can't possibly win is as senseless as twiddling one's thumbs when a drunk man gets behind the wheel of a car in our presence.


UPDATE: What a blessing this priest is - so deep is his love for Christ's Church and the truth that he fights the urge to compromise with passion. That feisty quality will come in handy!

Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama

He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years.

“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said.



“I think here he wanted to send the message, get somebody fresh, somebody really who represents the other America outside of Washington where people don't care whether you have an 'R' or a 'D' after your name, they just want you to get something done to help them deal with the problems they have,” Lieberman said. “And Sarah Palin comes from that other America.”

In the mad dash between throwing away the talking points the Dems had for vp candidate Romney and drumming up new ones, the following jewels from the emergency broadcasts at NPR:

Obama hearts polar bears (but not infant survivors of botched abortions).

McCain is jaded from too many years experience in Washington.

Obama lacks experience but represents change.

Palin lacks experience.

What happens if something happens to McCain.

Joe Biden is a good pick because he has a lot of experience in Washington and balances out Obama's lack of experience. (Isn't the more important question, what happens if something happens to Biden?)

The Repugs don't care about victims of hurricanes.

The Democrats spent gazilliion dollars on a glitzy convention.

The Repugs are toning down their convention to put efforts into victims of the impending hurricane Gustav, must be a sign.

A mystifying puzzle I hope some crackerjack at the Kennedy School of Government can solve at some point?

Doug Kmiec, trying to hold off the Friday morning post convention stampede to McCain has a new article up on the bastion of orthodoxy, Slate.

He explains on his way home from the losing battle of selling Romney to Catholics he came up with the next best thing to Romney for Catholic sensibility, Obama. Obama is the new Reagan.

"Now, don't think me daft,...", he says, which surely indicates he's aware selling a candidate who supports infantcide to practicing Catholics is as offensive as selling the common good policies of Karl Marx, Adolph Hilter and Joe Stalin.



"Much of the Catholic primary vote has been in the Democratic column, going at first to Hillary Clinton over Obama, as in New Hampshire, where she won 44 percent to 27 percent."


No, actually, if you take the number of Catholics in every diocese in these states, you'll actually find that most Catholics didn't find a compelling reason to go to the polls to vote between Obama and Clinton.

" Catholics or reveals that rare gift of empathy that defined Reagan and that one glimpses in Obama. "


I'm not sensing empathy, I'm getting a strong sense of ambition from a couple well-healed, well groomed with clips of Jack and Jackie O for the last four years, and lurking under that veneer is a couple filled with rage.

While McCain ran a commercial congratulating Obama for a job well done on the night of his acceptance speech, the Obama campaign made a snide/duplicitous remark in response to the announcement of Palin. This the politics of hope and unity?

Kmiec's article draws the conclusion that teachings of the Catholic Church are on a collision course with the culture and therefore we are released from It's prohibitions on voting and, in fact, there really are no prohibitions:

"While no papal instruction will ever condone the "right to choose," the church does ask for a consistent and realistic defense of life that actually takes steps to reduce the incidence of the practice, not just condemns it. Catholics will note that McCain and Huckabee's pro-life postures collapse when it comes to the death penalty."


Kmiec avoids the Papal instruction to refrain from voting for promoter of killing at will and he knows full well that the death penalty for convicted war criminals or mass murderers and sociopaths is not in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Deliberate deception.

Catholics should rise to the occasion and contact Kmiec's Bishop.

What ever happened to She Can Bring Home the Bacon, Fry It Up in a Pan?

Remember that commercial?

"I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan and never, never let you forget you're a man, cuz I'm a woman.."

I'm positively fascinated by the reactions of some of my liberal friends who suddenly find it preposterous that a woman can be attractive enough to be a former beauty queen, have a husband, children and a consummate career.

"This woman has five children and attends their soccer games.", said one of my most liberal friends, "I think the old man has gone senile".

"You've got to stop reading WaPo and get out of Cambridge, and the sooner, the better", I said.

I've had multiple conversations with this same friend over the last several months about the importance of getting somebody on the ticket who frequents a grocery store because the wealthy Republican establishment is a bit out of touch with the realities of the current economic nightmare.

"Who's gonna take care of her children?", she asked.

How come nobody's ever asked this question about Al Gore?

Was Mary's vocation as the Mother of God some kind of injustice to Joseph and the institution of marriage? Christ was aware of the impact of being an Apostle upon a husband and father and He chose them anyway?

It's true, people, both men and women, mothers and fathers take positions that are cumbersome on their schedules. Entrepreneurs, doctors, deacons, lawyers, lay apostolates, politicians, single parents who have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet, etc., are not going to have the same kind of provisions of a home-schooled or stay-at-home Mom. Just the same, we can be decent parents and our children can turn out to be productive and decent human beings. When people are called to a vocation, God provides and family and friends pitch in.

With trepidation and reluctance, I would have pulled the lever for John McCain in most circumstances (?Romney or Leiberman,etc.) but I'm really enthused about the prospects of his administration since his appointment of Governor Palin.