Scratch Virgil Goode

He’s another member of the Rubber Hose Right, eager to restore America to her former glory as a torture state (see the second question from the bottom).

What is it with the Thing that Used to be Conservatism and its fascination with brutality (always, of course, done by ordering somebody else to do it) as a substitute for courage, wisdom and reason?

One of the marks of mortal sin is a high and noisy self-regard for one’s own courage in advocating evil and a denunciation of all warning voices as weak, prissy and effeminate. This is, curiously, true especially for pro-abort feminists. Nobody is harder on pro-life women for their alleged spineless submission and “cowardice” than some butch pro-abort with a bullhorn shouting about how proud she is to have had an abortion. False courage is one of the sure markers of evil. And false courage is one of the sure markers of support for torture.

Look for it all to return in spades–and nowhere more loudly than from “prolife conservative Catholics” should Romney win. They supported torture in percentage large than the ordinary American population during the Bush years. And because they had to muscle down an awful lot of obvious Church teaching and obvious objections of conscience to do it, they were particularly loud about how much courage it took to advocate for torture and how prissy, weak, effeminate and pharisaic opponents of torture were. Once Romney is in, they is absolutely no evidence that one thing will have changed–which is why I insist that one of the main things we need to look at is the impact of the vote on the voter. Nowhere more than in the prostitution of the “prolife conservative Catholic” to the will of the GOP on torture, and its active and energetic subversion of the Church on this point, is the corrupting effect of our politics on our faith more clearly seen. “Prolife” enthusiasm for torture and unjust war has done irreparable harm to our witness to the next generation. And for what?

Meanwhile, I think I’ll vote for Joe Schriner, a Catholic pol who actually seems to believe Catholic teaching and not just cannibalize it for use in manipulating demographic blocs.