-
Obama’s Far Left Hand
May 15, 2013 | 133 comments
-
The Left’s Captive Mind
May 8, 2013 | 85 comments
-
A Sportscaster Comes Out As Christian
May 1, 2013 | 291 comments
-
The Price of Obama’s Islamophilia
April 24, 2013 | 196 comments
-
The Perverse Logic of the Left
April 17, 2013 | 138 comments
Campus Scenes
E.J. Dionne’s Civility
His view of commencement speaker John Boehner.
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne is upset that the media didn’t devote enough attention to the charge made by some Catholic professors that John Boehner disregards the poor. The media’s inattention to the charge, if that’s even true (many news outlets covered it), probably derived in part from its flimsiness and staleness, but for Dionne the explanation is that Boehner’s critics were “civil and respectful,” which he says doesn’t fit the media’s inflammatory mood.
Dionne doesn’t explain what is civil and respectful about saying that Boehner’s support for a debt-conscious limited federal government means that he disregards the poor, the assumption on which the charge rests. (The group of Catholic academics claimed that his “record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress.”) Untroubled by that specious equation, Dionne instead focuses on what he sees as the civility of the professors, who, despite considering Boehner an enemy of the poor, didn’t boycott his invitation to speak. That apparently was very big of them.
But surely that decision was strategic, not sincere. Left to their own devices, they would never have given the Catholic John Boehner the honor of delivering the commencement address at the Catholic University of America this year. They pretended, however, to support that decision in an attempt to somehow show up the boycotters of Barack Obama’s 2009 commencement address at Notre Dame. It is a measure of the Catholic left’s loss of power that it now has to play such games.
“We congratulate you on the occasion of your commencement address to The Catholic University of America,” they wrote to Boehner. “It is good for Catholic universities to host and engage the thoughts of powerful public figures, even Catholics such as yourself who fail to recognize (whether out of a lack of awareness or dissent) important aspects of Catholic teaching.”
Many of the signatories of the letter are notorious dissenters themselves who have made careers out of failing to recognize “important aspects of Catholic teaching.” Nevertheless, they are sure that Boehner’s support for specific budgetary cuts violates the “Magisterium of the Church,” a phrase which they don’t typically invoke with respect. The letter absurdly treats the “Magisterium” and current budgetary levels as one and same.
Dionne thinks that this disingenuous non-protest protest should have received more coverage but didn’t because it was “civil” and “broke from the stereotypical narrative the media like to impose on Christians in general, and Catholics in particular.” The Obama boycott at Notre Dame fit the media’s template, he said, but not this one: “when the headline is ‘Catholic Progressives Challenge Conservative Politician on Social Justice,’ this is something new and complicated.”
New and complicated? It is an old and crude attempt to identify left-wing politics with Catholic “Social Justice,” a claim in a time of massive deficits that most people don’t find terribly convincing anymore. The letter to Boehner is an obvious abuse of the concept of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church by academics who normally pride themselves on violating it. And these self-proclaimed champions of the poor aren’t doing them any favors by trying to pressure Catholic lawmakers into clinging to policies that will eventually bankrupt government programs. As the poor in Spain are finding out, where welfare programs are being severely scaled back after years of prodigal spending, socialists take a knife to the safety net once they start to go bankrupt.
For Dionne, the controversy shows that “Catholicism has a lot to say, not just about abortion, but also about justice and compassion.” What it shows if anything is that for a fading generation of Catholic academics “Catholicism” remains a euphemism for the agenda of the Democratic Party, and that perhaps even some in the dominant media are tuning this propaganda out.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (54) | Leave a comment
More Articles by George Neumayr
More Articles From Campus Scenes
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/26/ej-dionnes-civility
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.26.11 @ 6:41AM
The problem is that the government thrives by keeping a state of permanent poverty.
There is little concern for the poor, only concern for the bureaucrats.
Ed dewitt| 8.3.11 @ 4:08PM
I think everyone should work for a living, including the rich. All indications are that they do bloody little work to deserve the millions and billions they put in their pockets at the expense of the middle class. We can easily help out the poor using the gains of just one of these mega-crooks.
Kenny| 5.26.11 @ 6:49AM
Here are a few fact of life that E.J. Dionne and many of his ilk on the Catholic left need to digest.
First, the 'poor' in America have been getting most generous treatment. Indeed, by world standards, our 'poor' are quite well off -- and by absolutely no virture of their own but by the mere fact that they live in the U.S.A. (Well, I suppose one can say the poor 'work' for their benes by voting Democratic.)
Second -- and this is where the liberal cring -- benefits to the underpriviliged flow from the prosperty of the middle class. If the middle class is hurt, then as sure as night follows day, the poor will suffer inordinately. After all, the middle class is the producer. The poor are pure consumers living off the work of others.
I hope it's not too rude for me to bring up this last politically incorrect point, but here goes: Society needs a healthy middle class which is the source of wealth creation & maintenance. The poor are needed for .... what? ... to provide government jobs for social workers, prison guards, and their like.
Nancy G Murdoch| 5.26.11 @ 7:41AM
And the poor are doing a fine job of upholding their end of the bargain. After spending a few days observing budget talks in my county, I can tell you that most of the money spent in this country by government (at the local level) if for health, welfare, and education. And aren't we doing a bang up job on all those fronts?
Nancy G Murdoch| 5.26.11 @ 7:42AM
IS for health, etc. Can't type.
Occam's Tool| 5.26.11 @ 3:17PM
In addition, most of the laws do not allow, for example, clearly insane and dangerous people to be medicated, even when their freedom has been taken away, until properly reviewed by the court. In Minnesota, that hearing can take 2 weeks to have, at the cost of $1400.00/day per patient, spent uselessly. The vast majority of patients like this, among those I treat, could be stabilized and discharged in the time it takes to get the hearing done. But only after the lawyers bloviate do we get to start making them safe---at an additional $1400.00/day.
Nick| 5.26.11 @ 2:26PM
Kenny,
Excellent post, sir!
I would contend that once one accepts the views of the left, one ceases to be Catholic. Or, Christian for that matter.
Your first point is proven in Saint Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, when he told the Church brethren NOT to feed the lazy bums who wouldn't work. And, to ignore them, until they changed their ways.
Occam's Tool| 5.26.11 @ 3:14PM
EJ Dionne is forgetful of much, including the major reason for Conservatism and process: let us recall the words of that great Catholic theologian Sir Thomas More:
"William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!"
EJ Dionne likes to cut great paths through established codes to get at "great objectives" that only a Liberal could love.
Nick| 5.26.11 @ 3:23PM
Occam's Tool,
Excellent quote, sir.
Is that from the play, or, the historical record?
Mike Walsh, MM| 5.26.11 @ 6:55AM
An aging cohort of sanctimonious boomer activists remains influential in the Church, notably in education. Their ideas date to the late sixties, and they remain mired there, having made a senile fetish of their youthful avant-gardism. The generation or so of Catholics damaged by appalling catechesis is their chief legacy. That they reduce the concept of “social justice” to the action of government comes as no surprise: they have always been distinguished by a craven need for validation by their mentors on the secular left, for whom the state is god. Small wonder they have such appeal for renfields like E. J. Dionne. Meanwhile, the same bunch ignores the vast act of inter-generational theft that's driving the looming debt apocalypse, no doubt because they themselves benefit from it. Their letter to the Speaker has nothing to do with taking care of the poor, and everything to do with taking care of themselves, their ideological allies, and the politicians empowered to engineer this crime. One day the price will be paid, but not by them.
Poof| 5.26.11 @ 12:34PM
This is an excellent post. These people who signed this letter are modern day Sanhedrin.
Appleby| 5.26.11 @ 7:32AM
I doubt people like Dionne even know any poor people. Lots of us Catholics have BEEN poor people, and as anyone could tell you who works as a waitress or hairdresser or taxi driver, its the middle class and working class that tips the best, because we know what its like to make a living.
I am appalled by Catholics who are always blowing trumpets about TheLessFortunate, yet spend their days fighting everything from Wal-Mart to education reform that would lift the poor out of their poverty. As anyone who lives under socialism, as I do in Canada, understands, socialist apparatchiks depend on an underclass to keep them employed. As long as the proletariat is miserable and downtrodden, socialism flourishes and the apparatchiks can comfort themselves with the knowledge that at least they are better off than the proles.
cuban pete| 5.26.11 @ 9:09AM
Appleby:
You are correct. They do not know any poor people.
I have lived, worked and sent my kids to schools in neighborhoods these guys wouldn't drive through in a Brinks' truck. But they know what is best for the great unwashed.
Dee See| 5.26.11 @ 7:51AM
DISINFO alert.
AS bankster/Globalist TREASON pulls itself
through the sticky wicket of final plunder
and simultaneous implementation of a full
spectrum police state (BTW--the entire cyber
grid is, and always has been, a surveillance
device) ---Tavistock has been up late designing
the latest reworking of their 'fave' conflict op
---poor vs. the middle class.
SEEMS American Spectator is using their
framework.
MEANWHILE, as David Rockefeller just months
ago publicly called for MASS extermination
---UH we mean 'easing' 'by any and all means'
----Fukishima crackles away in proper 'EUGENICS friendly',
unreported fashion.
Sort of like a Yule log for EUGENISTS.
REALLY----------------------------
------------------------------------TRULY
wbheff| 5.26.11 @ 10:54AM
Is the writer of this post a resident of a state home for the bewildered?
Dave Williams| 5.26.11 @ 12:43PM
Maybe not, but he surely is the reason that the "scroll down" feature was invented....:-)
davelnaf| 5.26.11 @ 8:05AM
One of the more amusing things about Democrat Party hacks, such as Dionne, is that these people honestly believe their opinions are taken seriously by people that get the bulk of their news from written sources. The dems and their minions can still influence the easily influenced that sit passively in front of the tube for their news—the granny-over-the-cliff ads in the recent election in NY attest to this too obvious fact. But even this Old Reliable isn’t what she used to be.
Roy| 5.26.11 @ 8:06AM
All of that is correct - and furthermore allows them to favor the "cool" Democrat party. It's for this same reason that they pretend to believe that government anti-poverty programs are on the same plane as the prevention of mass murder, something which literally anybody would laugh out of court on any other occasion.
Timothy L. Pennell| 5.26.11 @ 8:41AM
I would remind the Catholic Bishops of what CHRIST said, about the poor: "They will always be among us."
JESUS believed that it was up to US, as Good People, to help the poor. Not for the Government to USE them, as a Prop, or a Tool, or as an ARMY, come election time.
I wonder how mush E.J. gives to Charity. One hopes that it's more than USED UNDERPANTS, like Bill Clinton does.
And, how is it, that such a great mind, as Dionne's, doesn't have a gig on Jeffery Immelt's Propaganda Arm of the Democrat Party, in exchange for ZERO TAXES on $50 BILLION Profit?
Hmmmmmm?
richard ryan| 5.26.11 @ 9:14AM
I'm tired of these Catholic liberals. The author is correct-their protest is based on ridiculous assumptions. To imply that Boehner lacks a charitable spirit because he is trying to fix the number one domestic problem we face is absurd. Don't these idiots have some clear cut moral issues to address other than a percieved neglect of the poor?? "Poverty" in this country has a MUCH different meaning than it does in every other continent on this planet. It means an air conditioned home, automobile, flat screen TV, thoudands of government dollars spent annually on cigarettes, and of course, a flat screen TV. What a GD JOKE!!!!
Warrior | 5.26.11 @ 12:16PM
You cannot be liberal and be Catholic. The abortion issue alone ends that consideration.
richard ryan| 5.26.11 @ 2:51PM
..sort of what I'm implying here with "clear cut moral issues.."
Warrior | 5.26.11 @ 3:17PM
Didn't mean to imply anything. Thought your post was to the point and articulate.
Drunken Sailor| 5.26.11 @ 4:40PM
You forgot the goverment paid for cell phone.
Petronius| 5.26.11 @ 9:43AM
So much for the 10th Commandment. Oh. I forgot. The catholic Left repealed that one.
Pete| 5.26.11 @ 9:54AM
My memory is a bit shaky, but isn't the tagline for the Bible "The government helps those who won't help themselves?"
bill glass| 5.26.11 @ 10:31AM
Social Justice!!! If you don't overoverspend on lib programs, yer a RACIST!!!
Paul from SA| 5.26.11 @ 11:00AM
E.J. Dionne used a gay slur to describe a large group of Americans. He should be fined and suspended.
Bill Diebold| 5.26.11 @ 11:11AM
...Isn't the space in TAS a bit more valuable than to waste it on this sixties burn-out? ejloon and similar are the only ones interested in their own liberababble...most people have moved on and left these steamy piles in the septic tank of history.
Do America a favor and mail these dirt bags some greasy cheesburgers and cartons of Lucky Strikes.
Anthony| 5.26.11 @ 11:13AM
Hey, come on, civility is in the eye of the beholder. E.J. is a paragon of lefty civility when it comes to us right-wingers. Can anybody say Mr. Ed of MSLSD's Ed Schultz's fame? The true voice of rational mainstream leftism.
So, how's that new civility working out for you, eh?
Oh yeah, I forgot, that was the left's flavor of the month 2 months ago. Move on, as they say.
A black member of congress said recently, Obozo's problems are the result of right-wing racism. Ain't it the truth.
WE need McCain now, more than ever!!!!
Don Carlson| 5.26.11 @ 11:20AM
Mr. Neumayr's reference to the 'dominant media' probably means the left-leaning mass of the remaining print press and the television networks' so-called news divisions. It's not likely that these institutions are merely tuning Catholic leftists out---it's more likely they object to self-righteous religiosity like Mr. Dionne's because it is in some sense religious—leftist or not.
Leftist Catholics have marched themselves out on a tender limb which, when opportunity presents, our Bolshevik president and his millions of yes-men will saw off. To conservatives the idea that Christians would look to government to relieve them of the responsibility of ministering to the poor, the under-educated, and the disabled is disgusting. No doubt Mr. Dionne is struggling to reconcile his Stalinist political ideals with his God, but his God is a jealous God and will not be assuaged.
William| 5.26.11 @ 3:29PM
In this era of full disclosure, might it not be a good thing for columnists such as Dionne to have to reveal their financial information, so we can judge the quality of their self-righteous writings in support of the "poor."?
mahoneyct| 5.26.11 @ 4:18PM
The Church says to give to the poor. It doesn't say take money from others and give it to the poor.
Nick| 5.26.11 @ 7:27PM
Mahoneyct,
That's what the democrat party's anti-poor policies explicitly call for.
You are talking out of both sides of your keyboard. You speakum with forked tongue.
A little Indian lingo, for ya'.
mahoneyct| 5.26.11 @ 4:21PM
Due to GOP anti-poor polcies, 50% of Americans live below the median income. Under the Democrats, 100% of Americans will live above the median.
Drunken Sailor| 5.26.11 @ 4:42PM
Due to GOP anti-poor polcies, 50% of Americans live below the median income. Under the Democrats, 100% of Americans will live beneath the median.
Fixed that for you.
jacob | 5.26.11 @ 5:32PM
I think both you and Mahoneyct are correct. When the income is $0 we all will be equal, and everyone will be both above and below the median.
Won't that be great?
Replica handbags&wallet; | 5.26.11 @ 9:11PM
www.shop-bag.net
Replica handbags&wallet; | 5.26.11 @ 9:10PM
Thanks for taking this opportunity to discuss this, I feel fervently about this and I like learning about this subject.
http://www.shop-bag.net
Dee See| 5.26.11 @ 10:28PM
Minutes of a recent pow wow of 'perception
managers' within the esteemed, EUGENICS
programming Tavistock Institute in London:
"Let's see. Well, guess TREASON is the ultimate
programming challenge. Hmmmm. We're working the retro
'70's' '80's' and '90's Show' feedback dissonance loop to the max.
40 years ago who'd ever thought we'd be
able to take a nation from Calvinist naivte
to full blown collusion with the biz nihilists
and the most awesomely genocidal regime
history's ever seen. ----Amazing!"
Chuckles
"These recent pesky bloggers with their
insistence on using such terms as EXTERMINATION
for 'population easing' are becoming a bit of a nit.
The FOX News fakeout front seems to be
losing cred, even with the prime IT audience."
"Hmmm. Well, I guess there's always the
class struggle between the 'hard working
middle class' and the dispossessed.
----By the way, how's that EUGENICS
bracer from Fukishima faring?"
Yes, how is it faring?------------------------------------
Controse| 5.26.11 @ 10:38PM
E.J. Dionne flies under the cloud cover of intellectual discourse. He is undoubtedly the commentator easiest to refute. The subjects of his pieces are akin to non-migrant butterflies. They spring from his quiet moments alone, flutter around for a few paragraphs and disappear never having alighted on factual coherence.
Richard Baker| 5.27.11 @ 10:47AM
Ah, lefties. We have the richest poor and old citizens in the world and the bitch goes on.
CalMark| 5.27.11 @ 4:11PM
Exactly.
Where the poor live better than all but the super-elites in every country outside Europe and North America.
Where many of the 80+ year old crowd take expensive vacations and shop at Saks while complaining about co-pays for the 10 or 20 different medications many of them take to stay alive.
CalMark| 5.27.11 @ 4:08PM
The death-grip embrace of socialism, abortion, euthanasia, and gay "marriage" by faculties at "Catholic" universities seems to be getting stronger. As does their vitriolic condemnation of any Catholics who disagree with the enlightened thinking of "social justice."
Where's the Pope? Absent, silent, apparently not interested. Does he declare defiantly anti-Catholic "Catholic" institutions apostate? No. Does he unfrock such institutions' Marxist-cheerleader leftie "priests?" Nah.
To Euro-socialists like Pope Benedict, being "right on" about "economic social justice," like E.J. Dionne and a lot of other leftie Catholics in the USA, buys you a LOT of slack. That slack (see Pelosi, et al., smiling) apparently includes advocacy of moral atrocities like abortion and euthanasia.
Nick| 5.27.11 @ 7:33PM
CalMark,
Holy, Mother Church doesn't work that way. The Church is not the military, dispensing swift justice. Learn the history of the Church. See how long the Arian heresy lasted.
The Church is in the business of saving souls and bringing back lost sheep. She doesn't focus on what political system these souls live under, never has. She wants to convert all souls to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Also, the Church hasn't changed any teaching because of apostate clergy. Those clergy will have to answer for what they have done, if they don't repent.
Prayer is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. We all need to use it as much as possible. Only then will things change in the Catholic Church.
God Bless!
CalMark| 5.27.11 @ 8:46PM
So...driving money-changers from the Temple (metaphorically speaking) is NOT a good thing. You argue for surrendering to evil based on your seeming approval of the historically inaccurate notion that the Church failed to move against a major heresy.
You're saying the Pope's job is NOT to defend Catholicism from heretics, lunatics, and evil-doers, especially from within. The Church Militant, which would protect itself actively from those who wish it ill, is a wicked, un-Christian concept.
Charity, then, demands that Catholics stand aside, let the barbarians sack everything in sight, and pray for their souls as they slaughter us.
Not in my book. I'll continue fighting. You continue surrendering and praying. It'll all get sorted out at the Pearly Gates, and I'd rather appear there with my record than yours.
Nick| 5.27.11 @ 11:46PM
CalMark,
So....no. I don't how you got that from anything I wrote. You are arguing against straw men. I can rebut all your points, one by one, if you'd like?
You stated that the Holy Father is "[a]bsent, silent, apparently not interested." This is false. And, ridiculous.
Just because Pope Benedict isn't following your timetable, doesn't mean he isn't doing anything. How'd you feel about Blessed John Paul II?
And, I never said not to fight or defend Catholicism. I'm one of the strongest defenders of the Faith here, at AmSpec. If you don't think prayer is the strongest weapon in our quiver, try re-reading the Gospels again to see how many times Christ prayed.
What was He praying for? He was God! He was showing us, by example, how to serve God. God is still in control of His Church. He doesn't bend to our (your) will, we need to bend to His.
I think your criticisms of the Holy Father are uncharitable.
God Bless!
Marc Jeric| 5.28.11 @ 11:59PM
Charity in the Catholic faith is an individual responsibility. When the government steals the money from those who work and pass it on to those who do not - that's plunder with no merit.
shipley130| 5.29.11 @ 3:15PM
I think the poor disregard themselves more than any other class of society. Everytime they go buy a pack of cigarettes, they are disregarding their children. Everytime they have a child they cannot afford, they disregard the children they already have. John Boenher is not the problem. It the collective congress that is the problem.
ティファニー 通販 | 6.1.11 @ 3:32AM
oh no
weddingdress | 7.1.11 @ 1:00AM
Exactly.
Where the poor live better than all but the super-elites in every country outside Europe and North America.
Where many of the 80+ year old crowd take expensive vacations and shop at Saks while complaining about co-pays for the 10 or 20 different medications many of them take to stay alive.