Some final reflections on the election

In light of the fact that several Catholics (yes, Catholics) have recently, repeatedly, and definitively informed me there is "no threat" to our religious liberty or conscience rights in America by the Democrats, I thought I'd repost Why Trump Will Get My Vote. Just hours after I posted it on October 4th, it became the most popular piece on this blog, ever. And it didn't slow down for weeks.

The points are still valid as we approach the final hours of the most horrid election in my lifetime, and as you read it again or for the first time, here's one more specific to keep in mind:

Of the 13 appellate/circuit courts in America, four were considered "liberal" when Obama came to power (including the notorious 9th Circuit), and nine were considered "conservative" (i.e., less likely to infringe upon the basic rights of life, marriage, and religious liberty/conscience). Today, after eight years of Democrat appointees, those numbers have been reversed. There are now nine left-leaning circuit courts, and only four that lean conservative. We are rightly concerned with the Supreme Court, but many thousands more cases are adjudicated in the lower courts. Dear Catholics, think long and hard about the future of our religious liberty before you cast a vote to put the Democrats in charge of our land.

Here's the post that made the rounds:

Why Trump Will Get My Vote

I believe that retention of religious liberty is the most pressing political issue we face, as that is the natural right we are most rapidly (illegitimately) losing. Whenever I quote Pope Benedict's words to the concerned US bishops, that we Americans face a "grave threat" to religious freedom here at home, those on the "Catholic left" instantly dismiss me and inform me that it is actually I and other Catholic Trump-voters who are "the biggest threat to religious liberty" -- to foreign Muslims.

What I try to explain to these politically left-leaning Catholics goes something like this:

"At this moment, though, it is your own brothers and sisters in Christ, both Catholic and Protestant, who are being legally persecuted. Right now. This moment. In America. And with a revamped Democratic Party platform that promises much more of it. That is the immediate fire, the one I'd like to try to put out. So you can speculate about non-citizen Muslims based on a hypothetical, but meanwhile your fellow Christians are already afoul of the law thanks to Democrats and their core beliefs and legislation. Your co-religionists, including moms and pops and Little Sisters, are the legal "discriminators" today, fighting our government in the courts, losing their businesses and livelihoods, shuttering long-standing charitable agencies -- in this nation, now. That means something to me. Does that mean anything at all to you?"

The answer always comes back, No.

It means nothing to them.

Because they deny it's happening at all. "There is no threat to Christians' religious liberty and conscience rights from the Democrats." Nothing to see here, move along.

It makes me wonder: If the Democrats do get into power and make good on their Party Platform promises to double-down on the legal persecution of Christians who wish to refrain from participating in gravely sinful events or activities, will our left-leaning Catholic friends finally stand up for us when we begin to go to jail?

Or will they continue to say, as they do now, that it's our own fault for "not following the law," and that we "need to learn to get along in an increasingly diverse (read: post-Christian/secular) society."

I have my suspicions. But personally, I hope we can keep the Democrats out of power for at least a few more years so that I don't have to find out the answer anytime soon.


Lord, have mercy on the crazy experiment called America. The way things have been going, we surely don't deserve Your mercy, but we will take whatever cross you allow us, and we will be sanctified by it. 

And for any anxious readers, just remember that whichever way the election goes, Jesus is bigger.

Can you tell?

I know some of you can, and you've told me. You can tell that I don't feel much like blogging. I've been through this before, and I'm sure I'll go through it again.

After the Democratic National Convention, I'd just had it. I was so horrified by what I saw, with the celebration of abortion, the redefining of marriage, and the attempted elimination of God, the class wars, race wars, gender wars. The speakers who sought to inspire (?!) by telling stories of how government social programs nurtured them, carried them, made them who they are today.

We were supposed to feel that the federal government, an impersonal set of bureaucracies which has the power to fine and jail and punish and ruin and even execute, is our "family". (When the human heart that is made for God does not admit to God the Father, the void must be filled, and there is the authoritative, ever-expanding state ready to fill it.)

And after hearing Ms. Fluke, and Ms. Kennedy... Lord forgive me, I had many un-Christian thoughts. It was so hard to watch my beloved nation turn into… this. Whining, angry, petty, divisive, intolerant, entitled, envious, selfish, punitive. Some people attacking everything the Church stands for, and then other people using the Church -- Christ's Church -- to defend the greatest of evils!

Culturally, we are on a great decline, the rapidity of which takes my breath away. In twenty or thirty more years, there will be few left who understand or care why this nation was founded and why she is (or was) different. The great experiment will be over, and we'll be just another bankrupt welfare state among many others -- dogmatically secular, utilitarian, amoral, bored, and dying out.

Anyway, obviously, watching the Convention left me disgusted and disheartened. I love politics, and I am a political animal down to my toes, but politics has a way of corrupting every good thing and can easily corrode the soul (this goes for both sides of the spectrum, I might add). I felt a pull away from it all, like I needed a good cleansing. I didn't want to debate anyone anymore, I didn't want to think and worry about where we are headed.

I wanted to be with my family, go on dates with my husband, hug my children, read spiritual books, and sit in the sun.

I wanted to pray.

I wanted to detach from the things of this world, in order to attach to God. That's His plan anyway, you know. Politics doesn't much concern itself with truth, goodness and beauty, and governments can't save us.

Only Jesus Christ can save us. Only He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Only He is the Alpha and the Omega. And only He is the King of all nations.

As pessimistic as I feel on a temporal level about the future of the America I love, I am buoyed by the fact that on the only level that counts, it is all for good.

All things work for good for those who love God. (Romans 8:28)

A decade ago, when I was immersed in an incredibly fruitful spiritual program (why did I abandon it??), we memorized the following foundational truth:

Nothing happens accidentally; everything is gifted providentially.

Everything is gifted providentially! My goodness, think about that.

Every suffering, every joy, every encounter, every labor, every tragedy, every persecution, every triumph. Everything is a gift from God, intended for our sanctification. We can "grab the grace" and use it to become holy, or we can reject the opportunity; it's our choice. But God wills that we should take what is presented and offer it back in love and sacrifice, in imitation of Christ.

America may not be America one day, and that is bitterly sad to those of us who love her so dearly, but it's not the ultimate tragedy.

In the end, the only tragedy is not to be a saint. The only tragedy is not to make it to Heaven. Nothing else matters -- truly nothing.

I thought I'd do a lot of political posts leading up to the election, but I am not so sure anymore. I'll throw in a few, but mostly I'd like to concentrate on and post about some of the higher things, the things that last infinitely longer than any nation or political system.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Queen of Angels, by Bouguereau

Why I cannot be a Catholic and a Democrat

Please notice that this post is not entitled "Why I Have Never Been a Democrat." In fact, I was a registered Democrat in 1992, and I voted for Bill Clinton. My dear husband (now a conservative Republican) has a long history of being a Democratic activist, starting with his work on Harry Reid's very first campaign, continuing with his internship at The Carter Center at Emory University under Jimmy Carter, and interning for Democratic Senator Wyche Fowler at the Capitol.

Weeks ago, Rebecca was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post on why I am a Catholic and a Republican. Or, perhaps more accurately from my perspective, why I am a Catholic and cannot be a Democrat. This is a slightly edited version of that post.

My reasons are pretty cut and dry.

The last two popes and the bishops have taught that there are certain “non-negotiable” issues for Catholics involved in politics, issues which trump all other considerations. The non-negotiables come down to these:

• Abortion is intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned.
• Embryonic stem cell research and human cloning are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned.
• Euthanasia is intrinsically evil and must never be promoted or condoned. 
• The traditional understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman must always be upheld.
• The right of parents to educate their children must always be upheld.

All other issues (for example, immigration, education, affordable housing, health and welfare, etc.) are considered policy issues, about which Catholics are free to disagree. As Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix has clarified in a guide for Catholics called, Catholics in the Public Square: 

On each of these [policy] issues, we should do our best to be informed and to support those proposed solutions that seem most likely to be effective. However, when it comes to direct attacks on innocent human life, being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter.

Indeed, Pope John Paul II wrote:

Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with the maximum determination.  (Christifideles Laici, 38)

In his letter, “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,” Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) wrote:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

In a 2006 speech to European politicians, Pope Benedict XVI said the following:

As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today:

• Protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;
• Recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;
• The protection of the rights of parents to educate their children.

In light of that crystal clear teaching, consider the following:

On Abortion

Today’s Democratic Party supports abortion unequivocally, to the point that even the word “rare” (as in “we believe abortion should be safe, legal and rare”) was finally and purposefully removed from the 2008 Democratic Platform. By contrast, the 2008 Republican Platform affirms that the “unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.”

On Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning

The Democratic Platform champions taxpayer funding for the destruction of human embryos to be used as research material, denouncing those who oppose it as putting “ideology” (i.e., their Catholic Faith) above “science.”

Compare that to the Republican Platform: “We call for a ban on human cloning and a ban on the creation of or experimentation on human embryos for research purposes" and a "ban on all embryonic stem-cell research, public or private.”

On Euthanasia

The growing push for the legalization of euthanasia at both the state and federal levels also comes from Democrats (who often refer to this type of killing as “death with dignity”).  The Republican Platform, however, explicitly condemns this intrinsic moral evil: “[W]e oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society.”

On Defense of Traditional Marriage*

Today’s Democrats are much more likely to promote homosexual rights and push for “gay marriage” than Republicans, whose Platform calls for protection of traditional marriage, in the form of a Constitutional Amendment.

On the Right of Parents to Educate Their Children


Democrats (and the liberal teachers’ unions to which they are beholden) go to great lengths to deny parents a choice in their children’s education, not only opposing school vouchers for private schools, but also opposing secular public charter schools, which often deviate from the leftist model. Laws that seek to limit the rights of homeschooling parents also come overwhelmingly from Democrats. By contrast, the Republican Platform states: “Parents should be able to decide the learning environment that is best for their child.” 

On every non-negotiable point for Catholics, the Democratic Party takes the wrong side. It is no wonder that it has become known as the Party of Abortion or the Party of Death. 

Catholics should take note that it is also the Party that is most hostile to traditional religion, and becoming more so. 

I want to make one thing clear: I am a Catholic before I am a Republican. In fact, I am not overly thrilled with the Republican Party these days and may become an Independent if the Republicans ever change course. But the one thing I cannot do is align myself with the Democrats. Catholics must evaluate candidates and vote based on the non-negotiable issues. (I have heard tell of a mythical creature called a “pro-life Democrat politician” but I have never actually seen a voting record that would confirm its existence). 

It’s a sad truth that the Democratic Party of today is nothing like the Democratic Party of our grandparents, which still had a moral grounding. We must not confuse the present with the past, and yet many Catholics do. They are either unaware or unwilling to admit that the Democratic Party (once supported overwhelmingly by Catholics) has become little more than a mouthpiece for secular materialism, an extremely anti-Catholic ideology. 

Finally, to the Catholics who have not left the Democratic Party: Please consider that the Democratic Party has long ago left you.

*Update: In 2012, the Democrats made acceptance of gay "marriage" a part of their Party platform. They considered the move "non-controversial."







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