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| Hugging the flag is no guarantee you won't betray your base. Hold politicians accountable, including former President Trump. |
Catholic philospher, Edward Feser, has a thoughtful article at Catholic World Report assessing the dilemma Trump has created for his pro-life, conservative base.
Donald Trump has put social conservatives in a delemma
I recommend reading the article in full, but will post a few selections here beginning with this sober assessment:
Let’s begin with the obvious. No social conservative could possibly justify voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. They are pro-abortion extremists, as Ryan Anderson shows in an article on Harris at First Things and Dan McLaughlin shows in an article on Walz at National Review. Their records on other matters of concern to social conservatives are no better. It goes without saying that they are absolutely beyond the pale.
Despite his recent betrayal of social conservatives, Donald Trump remains less bad on these issues. Indeed, his appointments to the Supreme Court made possible the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It is understandable that many social conservatives have concluded that, his faults notwithstanding, they must vote for him in order to prevent a Harris/Walz victory. The argument is a serious one. But the matter is not as straightforward as they suppose, because the problem is not merely that Trump will no longer do anything to advance the pro-life cause. It is that his victory would likely do positive harm, indeed grave and lasting damage, to the pro-life cause and to social conservatism in general.
Feser makes the case that one can decide not to vote for either ticket. I doubt if I can come to that conclusion in light of the seriousness of the situation and the fact that I think Harris/Walz will bring Communist tyranny closer for my children and grandchildren. I won't be here that much longer; my grandchildren and great grandchildren will. I have a big stake in helping protect their future and the kind of country they grow up in! They are worth fighting for.
I can't deny that Trump has actively betrayed us. Feser points out that Trump hasn't just decided to refrain from action on controversial matters like abortion, IVF, easy availability of the kill pill mifepristone, and same-sex "marriage". He has not only abandoned these issues quietly, but has actively advocated for them. That is serious indeed and a threat to his eternal salvation.
Gutting the Republican platform was shocking and unnecessary. Trump could have just left it alone and ignored the things he didn't like. However, he not only gutted the platform but did it in a reprehensible way as Feser describes
The manner in which these changes were made is an outrage. As reported in First Things, the platform process was rigged in a shockingly brazen manner so that the changes could be rammed through, with social conservatives prevented from having any input or even a chance to read the revised platform before voting on it....If Trump’s victory is seen as vindicating his decision to throw social conservatives under the bus, then the national GOP will be far less likely in the future even to pay lip service to their agenda, much less to advance it. Opposition to abortion and resistance to other socially liberal policies will become primarily a matter of local rather than national politics, and social conservatives will be pushed further into the cultural margins.
The danger, as Feser points out is that Trump is transforming the GOP into a second pro-abortion party. Many Republican stalwarts are following his lead and embracing fundamental and morally intrinsically evil issues.
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| Pray the rosary for Mary's intercession! |
Feser tells readers how he plans to vote and why. Read the article if you're curious to find out. And pray hard before you go to the polls that God's will be done. That prayer will definitely be answered no matter who wins and loses. And never forget that "ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love the Lord and serve according to His purpose." Never get depressed over the results of an election. God uses all things to work His Providence and, as I said, are salvation is not in politics. It's prudent to treat all politicians with a courteous skepticism.
Pray the rosary every day and seek the help of our twelve star general, the Blessed Mother. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.
I'm probably going to sit this election out. My reasoning is: Trump won last time and we still didn't get him. Warp speed vaccine. And he, like all politicians in higher government are beholden to TPTB, aka the Jews/Freemasons who are in charge of virtually everything; media, entertainment, education and even "The Church"....
ReplyDeleteIf you sit out this election, that reduces by one the votes that Harris-Walz will need to win the election. That is the simple mathematic reality, beyond denial. Trump has disappointed, but Harris will be infinitely worse.
DeleteThe can only cheat when the margins are narrow. The strategy is to make the win so large they can’t cheat
DeleteThey can only cheat when the margins are narrow. The strategy is to make the win so large they can’t cheat
DeleteYou had warning about Trump. And Dobbs is revealed to be a cynical finger crossing as I have said. By allowing states to decide, it strips the winds of inalienable from the sails of created equal. Warp speed knew what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has to make the best decision he/she can based on his/her conscience. I don't try to force anyone's conscience; I just try my best to pursue the truth. Rohrbachs, I never put a religious trust in Trump, like you seem to do in yourself. You apparently know everything about everything and get nasty when people dare to disagree with you. I suspect you get up every morning and tell God how perfect the world will be if He just follows your instructions.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thoughtful commentary, Mary Ann. Thank you and may God bless your writing efforts.
ReplyDeleteKatie
Fr. Ripperger has a talk in which he explains our duty to vote. We do not have a perfect presidential candidate but one is of the party of death and we have the need to vote against that. This does not mean voting for someone with no chance but the "lesser of the evils" so that any good that might come from it may happen. We know the agenda of the left: continue destruction of the country, a greater persecution of Christians, the censoring of free speech, the open border, the forcing of the demonic sexual agendas on children, and so forth.
ReplyDeleteThere are two kingdoms in this world:
ReplyDelete1: the “City” of God.
2: the “City” of Man.
Christians are at home in one, while living by the Providence of God in the other.
Pagans are at home in the other, while also living by the Providence of God in the other.
Christian’s are tasked to convert the entire world to Christ and to His Celestial “City” of God. Yet they do this from within the enemies’ “City” of Man.
So how do we live, with our feet in both “Cities”? That is where the *virtue of Prudence* comes in. We make judgements, about life in an imperfect world, as we try to be perfect, make the world perfect, and try to reach Perfection Himself (the Beatific Vision) - *to the best extent we can given the circumstance allotted to us by Divine Providence*.
Constantine converted to the Catholic faith under the Arian Bishop Eusebius. But he was a pagan by birth, not Christian. He was friendly to Christians, more so as time went on during his reign, but he was Roman by birth. And Christianity thrived, by God’s Providence, throughout the world as a force of civilization because of this pagan Emperor’s cooperation.
Julian the Apostate tried to kill the Catholic religion. Constantine nurtured the Catholic religion, facilitated its growth, its pride of highest place. Both pagans - one an enemy, one a friend.
In this election we have a man who takes some policy positions I disagree with fundamentally - head scratchers. He cannot make a cogent case for life. He is, essentially, pagan. Yet he, he alone, gave us Justices who ended the moral travesty of Roe and national mandates.
On the other side we have the Party of hell that promises to reimpose Roe, and beyond to mandate abortion legal up to birth itself. They promise to mandate behaviors and regulate our thought and speech. They will guaranteed persecute Christians in a way not seen since the French Revolution.
You tell me what is the prudent choice:
1: allows me to raise my family and practice my Catholic faith and facilitate a society of freedom and prosperity:
2: mandates the laws of hell in a Marxist dystopia.
I don’t see how there can even be a question among Catholics. We are not required to commit suicide. A vote for Marxists - which a failure to vote is … a choice - is a vote for the suicide of our traditional practice of Catholic faith and the raising and nurturing of our families in traditional culture and law.
Constantine was a pagan friend. Then he converted. Take and support our friends where they can be found, to the extent they can be found, and then try to convert them, as a Eusebius did with Constantine.
I think one of the mistakes many Catholics make is to think that a vote for a candidate is an expression of religious belief.
DeleteI disagree.
My vote and participation in civic society is nothing more than my out participation in St Augustine’s “The City of Man”. And I am dead to that world, alive in the other. I want to convert that world. I want that world to allow me and mine to thrive so that we can fulfill God’s will while time remains.
Voting for Trump is not agreement with all of his stated policy. Voting for Trump is a practical calculus - he is the choice that will best allow me to accomplish that which God has set before me. In my case I am raising children with disabilities. Imagine the suffering in our family under the Marxist tyrants who promise to take my material means from me and persecute my spiritual patrimony.
I like what you say here Aqua, I just cannot get on board with voting for Trump. IMO, he's as dangerous or even more so than the party which openly admits who and what they are. We know from Tradition that the Jews will convert en masse one day. And why is that? Because they have passion...hatred for God. God can work with either hot or cold, but not lukewarm. I see the Republican party as a party of deceivers...and I just can't. The older, and wiser people at my chapel disagree with me and believe Trump will at least slow the rot....I just don't know. If elections were today, I'd sit out. If I'm wrong, God forgive me and give me wisdom to do what I should.
DeleteThinking in terms of a "city" is literal retardation. Our problem is government is too big. If only it were but a "city" it could be easily fixed because being local you would be able to persuade its leaders by time tested methods that don't work in an empire.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDebbie,
DeleteMy previous comment can be boiled to 👍
Jason,
DeleteSorry. I assumed that the reference to St Augustine’s Magnum Opus book would be understood. His work was based on an assumption of constant, never-ending conflict between the things of the world and that of heaven; the “flesh” warring against the spirit at the scale of persons and also nations.
The City Of God Complete Edition: Book I-XXII. Description:
- quote -
“The City of God is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome and is considered one of Augustine's most important works, standing alongside The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Christian Doctrine, and On the Trinity. As a work of one of the most influential Church Fathers, The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, expounding on many profound questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin.”
- end quote -
The reference to “City” (and why I put it in quotation marks) is a shorthand way of saying the world Catholics live in and have true allegiance to is not the same as the world of everyone else. They are of a different kind (genus) and going different directions for fundamentally different purposes: spirit (City of God) or flesh (City of Man); (Romans 6:19; Galatians 5:17; James 4:1; 1 Peter 2:11 … etc).
I do not say this in order to make anyone feel bad but to give perspective for long term planning. If you had known what you now know about Trump would it have affected what you did in 2016? 2018? March 2020? July 2020? September 2020? (When he redeclared the quack emergency?. And pumped hard to watchdog early voting?) October 2020? (Proud boys) December 2020 (Rudy and Sidney and the kangaroo cops plus trump invites public to j6 with "be there. It will be wild!") January 6 (it was!)?
ReplyDeleteGay parties at maralago? New perspectives greenlighting Abortion? IVF? These are the same ideas that of the person who said, so long ago, that you have you have to grab them by the p****. And then said "when youre the star, they let you do it"
Maybe the reason he's never apologized for that last is because he's never essentially changed and has always been the bought reality actor who only *pretended* to be the most prolife president ever
Does it matter?. Considering the damage he's done to the GOP platform, I think it matters. I am sick of being told he's the lesser evil . And I sure don't want to to find ourselves back in March 2020 again. Biden may have pulled the trigger but Trump loaded the gun... And has *never* apologized.
Maybe one thing to do is pray and facilitate for trump to step down (to deal with his own legal issues some of which are his own fault) and let Vance advance back to his own original prolife stance .I realize this would be against Mr Globo s wishes. But something tells me that the"seasoning" trump got in his presidency did not do us any good.
A vote denied to Trump means that there will be one less vote that Harris/Walz will need to go to the White House. I notice that with all the recitation of Trump's faults that you have done, you haven't uttered a peep about Kamala's evil promises. Do you have any sense of perspective? And what about March 2020? What do you think Hillary Clinton would have done? Again, do you have a sense of perspective?
DeleteCatholics love to commit political suicide.
ReplyDeleteI remember when the candidate of a major party was a narcissistic womanizer who said he wanted abortion to be safe, legal, and rare, all while he moved his party to the left. Back then it was Clinton. Today it is Trump. Frankly, Clinton's Don't Ask / Don't Tell policy, though it was still a move to the left, is arguably more conservative than anything you'll get from Trump.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
DeleteExcept he was the one who ended Roe - his Justices ended national abortion mandates.
Maybe instead of demanding Trump do something about abortion, we Catholics should get off our duffs and start converting souls? Maybe we can start making the case for life more effectively and meet these young women where they are and meet their suffering needs.
What are you doing, you, yourself, to stop the scourge of abortion? One thing you can do for sure is adopt a child of an unwed mother in distress.
Don’t want the child aborted? Then offer the child a home!
Don’t want the mother to choose “her body” and consider the unborn life? Well, evangelize the pagan soul with the Gospel of Christ.
Instead of demanding “Superman” do everything for us - the perfect President/King - do what you, yourself can do in your own corner of the world for the cause of Christ and life, that you obviously believe in.
"Salvation is not in politics and Trump is no Savior of the Republic." Very good, but you should also add that the United States is not the New Jerusalem, nor was it ever promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it.
ReplyDeleteNot the new Jerusalem, but Created equal (and gop) promised to abolish abortion as it did slavery. Until trump came along. There actually appear to be a lot of analogies between the infiltration of the GOP and the infiltration of the church.
Deleterohrbachs,
DeleteAbortion will end when Catholics and others of good will make the persuasive case for life and when we convert souls from death to life through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
IOW: the fault is not in the GOP platform; the fault is in Catholics who have failed to convert pagans to the Catholic faith.
Pagans do what they have always done. Killing babies and child sacrifice is part of the pagan bête noire.
Catholics are not doing what Catholics have always done. “Going into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” is the Great Commision.
It would be better if Life was at the center of the GOP Platform. But it would be best if we, ourselves, as individual Catholics - personally - and collectively as a Church converted souls to God such that Life is as natural as breathing the new spiritual air.
So instead of just sitting on your hands while the Marxists take our country away in a bloodless revolution, at the very least do something tangible yourself for life. Which means prayer, of course, but also tangible, physical assistance to unwed mothers and unwanted babies that might otherwise have been murdered.
Catholics should act in accord with our beliefs. At our judgement God will not judge us so much which
Political and religious positions we took. He will judge us on *what we did, or failed to do*.
“Hungry, thirsty, naked, in prison ..” God’s children meet those needs in to the extent we can because it is God Himself who we are meeting in these suffering, unfortunate and often lost children of His.
*Matthew 25:31-46*
And also preach the gospel converting souls (Mark 16: 15-20). Both things at the same time.
And as for the election: vote for the one who will best facilitate our mission and commission to spread the Gospel and live our Catholic faith and not the Marxists who are avowed and mortal enemies of Christ and His Church.
Democracy does not work. It, along with socialism is a rotten fruit of freemasonry. I am an absolute monarchist and yes, I totally get it that the U.S. has no history of monarchy and the likelihood of it happening here is zero percent. Well, let me say without one iota of shame that I don’t consider the U.S. my home and do not pledge allegiance to the freemasonic government and the freemasonic principles on which it stands. Don’t get shocked and don’t waste your time getting angry with me cause…. Heaven is our true country and our true home, and that should be our focus. We can’t live in the U.S. forever. At some point, our time is going to come and it will be decided for us where our eternal home will be. One will be an absolute monarchy under Christ the King; the other will be an absolute monarchy under satan. And if you wind up in the later, you can’t vote for a “lesser evil” demon to replace satan.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Dunn,
DeleteYour views, if they prevail, will cause multitudes to die … and to die unnecessarily because their deaths could have been prevented, had good people resisted evil *and at the same time* worked to make the good, even better.
What you say here is not bravery. It is cowardice. It is laziness. Nor is it holy and righteous. You will see suffering under a Marxist dictatorship you can’t even imagine.
While you are waiting for someone to deliver Catholic Monarchy, the Marxists are busy little bees …
DeleteThis is how they roll -
Marxist/Maoist Struggle Sessions:
https://youtu.be/aS8c6hLj7uA?feature=shared
https://youtu.be/GTxBodxAYAk?feature=shared
Aqua… Please. I’m using my own name here and not some other name like aqua to hide my identity. If my posts here are cowardice, then you may want to examine your own online presence.
ReplyDeleteI wasted years of my life being a good little republican, getting “conservatives” elected who went straight to Washington and gave the democrat wing of the freemasonic party everything they wanted. I enthusiastically voted for Donald Trump twice and got covidism along with a murderous fake-vaccine that so far has killed 16 people I was in school with (and those are the ones I know of). I’m still angry about that and still waiting for Mr. Trump to show some humility and say he was wrong for operation warp speed and for not stopping Fauci, Gates and company.
Democracy and socialism are both rotten fruits of freemasonry and that’s a fact. Who was behind the French Revolution that eliminated a Catholic monarchy for “democracy”? Freemasons. Who was behind the Russian revolution that eliminated an Orthodox monarch for socialism? Freemasons. Etc., etc., etc. Freemasonry is the worship of man and at the highest 33rd degree, those involved learn that their god is Satan himself. Death to freemasonry!
No, I’m not going to fall for this ruse anymore. Yeah, Kamala is a psychopath, bloodthirsty feminist. If she gets “elected” which she probably will, she won’t be my president and yeah, you’re damn right I’ll resist and I won’t hide my face or name while doing it.
Heaven is my true country and Christ is my King. No apologies, none!
Heaven is the true country of all Catholics. True enough.
DeleteYet while we are here on earth we men, particularly we men, have a duty to protect innocent life, particularly that of our own family. And I am telling you that if the Marxists win in November, they will win forever - at least in my lifetime. *And* Marxists will harm me and my special needs family in very real, tangible, comprehensive ways. I have a duty to protect them from that. And I can easily see how they will take everything from me, even if it doesn’t get as far as the famous Marxist/Maoist *Struggle Sessions* I linked above (see the examples, linked above?).
And I just can’t comprehend how any rational person can look at the options before us and say: “MAGA = Marxism - both are equivalent threats”. That is pure baloney.
A main reason that Christians tithe to the church is to support the widows and orphans of the martyrs who *refused* to pinch incense to the emperor, thereby emboldening Christian men to testify to the truth going forward, realizing that the church had their back. We should all be making sure that the church does have our back. A good way to do that is to annul the priesthood of scandalous and oxymoronic homosexual priests and demand that remaining priests preach Humanae Vitae every week for the 50 years that they didn't. Remember that HV prophesied what totalitarian governments would do once certain sexual transgressions were permitted.
DeleteIf maga is just another mask for Marxism, as is increasingly suspect, in other words, if *Kamala and warp speed are actually on the same team*, then there needs to be a new calculus. If they are collaborating in a good cop bad cop way meaning that they are one and the same entity, then a lesser evil needs to be sought elsewhere.
One thing is clear about maga though: it doesn't stand for make America created equal again which it should because abolishing abortion would be the obvious way to match the best other thing in history that America has done that is to free the slaves and abolish slavery. I think a lot of people at least I did originally think that that's what Trump was intending to do and are tremendously disappointed that he didn't and won't.
What great are we againing if not abolishing the transgression of an inalienable right.
We can’t think we can vote ourselves into a better situation. We’re in the mess we’re in because of sin. Our sins. Imagine we had a serious Catholic running for president who miraculously won. Great. Now imagine the populace continued to have drag queen story time, abortion-on-demand, pride day/week/month/year, and toleration for every false religion and vice on earth.
ReplyDeletePray for the conversion of this nation into something new. Something Catholic. Something worthy of the promises of Christ.
Anonymous,
DeleteActually we can vote ourselves into a better situation.
And we can also fail to vote ourselves into a Marxist dystopia.
We can pray. And we can vote. Both at the same time.
This election is going to decide whether we live in freedom or under tyranny. Anyone deciding not to vote is making their choice
ReplyDeleteAnonymous:
Delete“Freedom” means right to life for all, not just some.
Trump *might get away with neutrality* on the question.
Trump can *not* actively support the advance of the death agenda.
You cannot murder just a little bit. It is either murder or it is not.
The foundation of “Freedom” is the right to life as given as a gift by God. It is sacrosanct. From conception, life is sacred.
Trump’s acceptance of programmatic death is completely unacceptable. He has to change that, if everything else he says is tainted.
I think that Trump can make it better for the prolife cause, defunding planned, and abolishing FACE, that would be a better result, for the prolife voters, probably trying to gain some right will democrats. As you stated he is the lesser Bad,vso catholics, have to considero voting for Trump, and pray for he to defund planned and abolishing FACE
ReplyDelete