A reader writes

God bless and thanks for your blog. It is a blessing. Your insights have helped me maintain an appropriate distance from adhering too closely to any “party” affiliation. I consider myself a simple Catholic always seeking to obey Christ’s Church (failing miserably a good bit of the time, however). In looking at the current political situation in the USA; how would you describe yourself in relation to a political party- Independent? Does it even matter ultimately?

Thanks for your kind words!

I think I’d pretty much describe myself as “Catholic”. Political affiliations hold no interest for me at all and never have. If a party holds (and more important *practices*) a tenet in accord with the Faith, then good for them. I will support the party to that degree. When a party insists, out of “party loyalty” that I sign off on something stupid, imprudent, or evil, I say “Screw ’em.”

The Dems have done that for years with getting Catholics to wink at the sacrament of abortion. The GOP has done the same bit of bamboozlement in manipulating prolifers into becoming mouthpieces for the End to Evil crowd and their program of Salvation through Leviathan by Any Means Necessary while giving them peanuts with respect to actual prolife legislation. They care as much about unborn babies as the Dems do. They’ve simply figured out another way to exploit the issue to their advantage.

Bottom line: Both parties are essentially about the acquisition and maintenance of power, and only secondarily about the common good. They are somewhat useful blunt instruments by which a Catholic, interested in the common good, can ocassionally sting like a gadfly here or there and try to get the horse of the state moving in the right direction. But the notion that either party has in mind the interest of the ordinary person is sheer moonshine. We effectively live in an aristocracy ruled by a few rich men and women. At present, those men and women are raiding us for as much money as they can take before the ship goes down. Whoever thinks they care about us more than about saving their own skins is delusional. This is an aristocracy that has, for forty years, cared not one iota for the sacrifice of 40 million babies. Why should they care about sacrificing you and me? The moment our utility to them ends will be the moment they turn their backs on us.

So, no. I’m not much of a political joiner. 🙂

FWIW, I’m also not much of an ecclesial joiner. However, I make an exception for the Catholic Church, because Jesus has ordained that salvation be mediated to the world through it and I have this notion that one of the many joys of the world to come will be that, in the new heaven and new earth, there will be no politics.