Yes, James, to some on the Left, it really is scandalous if you
believe in the core teachings of the Catholic Church. Note how
quick the Left was to assert that the only reason the Supreme Court
refused to outlaw a law against partial birth abortion is that five
members of the Court are Catholic. Note how quickly Chuck Schumer
repeatedly says he worries about the "deeply held beliefs" of
Catholic court nominees while almost never using that language
about non-Catholics. Note how, in the battle over Bill Pryor's
nomination to the court, a very confused Dianne Feinstein was all
aflutter about a Pryor speech to his Catholic high school alma
mater because she thought Pryor was suggesting that American
government ought to be Christianized, when in fact Pryor was
quoting Thomas Aquinas to argue that the graduating students, as
Catholics, have a duty to participate in civic and political
life--in other words, to be good citizens. Hence the headline to my
first piece on the Jindal controversy, namely "No Catholics Need
Apply." It was a reference to a commercial run against the
Democrats for their opposition to Pryor --an ad led by the visual
of a big wooden door with that saying scrawled on a banner across
the door. The Dems had an absolute fit over it, and the MSM backed
up the Dems, saying that the ad was accusing the Dems of
anti-Catholic bigotry. No, that's not what the ad did: It said that
the EFFECT of the Dems' questions and their bizarre standards for
what disqualifies a nominee from confirmation would be that it
would keep all strict, traditional Catholics from the court. Not
the INTENT, but the EFFECT. And the ad was largely accurate. Now
the state Demo Party of Louisiana has gone further. Not only the
effect, but the intent, of their ad against Jindal is to inspire or
at least benefit from anti-Catholic bigotry. It is the single most
vicious and despicable American political ad since LBJ ran the
"Daisy" ad attacking Goldwater. Indeed, it is probably worse than
the Daisy ad. But the ad, and Kos' response to it, amplify an
underlying truth: To many of the elites of the New Left,
traditional Catholicism is indeed scandalous, not to mention
frightening. The national Democratic Party ought to be forced to
publicly state whether it stands with the New Left, and with the
Louisiana Demo Party, or whether it rejects such bigotry
outright.
topics:
Catholicism, Abortion, Law, Supreme Court
