I regard the GOP Cult of Trump as the gravest domestic threat the US has faced since the Civil War. It is a cult of malignant and cruel sadists who hear “We’re going to build the wall, and Americans who have lost their homes in natural disasters are going to pay for it!” and *orgasms* over such cruelty. It is wilfully stupid and wasteful, as well as treasonous and a toxic force in the life of the Church and American civil life. And it has ruined the witness of the Church in this country by empowering an evil pack of white nihilist “prolife” racists and worshippers of a dimestore antichrist to take center stage and trumpet themselves as the Real Christians while actual disciples of Jesus Christ are routinely shouted down. The most pressing public need we face in this hour, both as Americans and Christians, is its defeat and total dismantling.
Now in order to achieve that, Prudence says that the only political force in American civil life at this hour with a prayer of defeating that evil, malignant cult is the Democratic Party. Ergo, I support the Democratic party in this hour as the tool for getting that vital job done.
Now the Dem party is not the perfect tool. It’s the tool we have. Democrats and I have several points on which we disagree, chief among them abortion. It is, like all political things, a blunt instrument at best and is unwieldy, wayward, and prone to display of dumb. But since the GOP favors abortion as much as the Dems (being, in fact, 100% responsible for the creation and entrenchment of our abortion regime, as well as refunding Planned Parenthood eight times since Trump took office, as well as utterly corrupting and ruining the prolife movement into a cult that spends its days defending, not the unborn, but this shit. Almost the entirety of the “prolife” movement is now committed to the use, not the defense, of the unborn as human shields for Donald Trump. And when you call them on it, this pack of liars who have literally spent every election for the past 39 years shouting, “IF YOU VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT, YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!!!” now has the ever-loving gall to say, “Why am I responsible for condemning everything Trump does just because I voted for him?”
That kind of filth from the Party of Personal Responsibility is one of the countless reason I feel, not merely free, but morally obliged to do what I can to help Democrats drive this vile cult from power. I want them to succeed.
So I want them to not be dumb. Last month, we saw such a display of Dumb as Senators Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono decided to attack Judicial nominee of being a member of an “extremist” organization called (gasp!) the Knights of Columbus.
Look, dummies: You can stay focused on the mission of destroying Trump and his criminal syndicate and preventing another Great Depression and/or World War or you can fritter away a lot of goodwill by going off on search and destroy Inquisitions about organizations most Americans identify with pancake breakfasts and soup suppers. Focus, you dolts.
Yeah, I get that the Knights leadership have stupidly played the “Vote GOP or the baby gets it” card. Dudn’t matter. It’s one thing for Catholics to criticize the Knights for their stupid right wing cheerleading. It’s another thing for Dems to waste time leading Crusades on such culture war trivia. Politics is optics. What matters is perception, not reality, in that game. It shouldn’t oughtta be that way, but it is. So while it is important for Catholics who know the score to say–loudly–“Shut up” to the KoC leadership as they labor to make the Knights a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cult of Trump, Democrat pols in DC are the absolute worst messengers for calling these guys out. Because the Knight leadership will successfully paint themselves as victims of persecution every single time and most Catholics–who only know the Knights from their local chapter of nice men who hold pancake breakfasts and give the proceeds to charity–will buy that narrative hook, line and sinker.
It’s just not the job of Dem pols to police the Knight of Columbus. It’s our job as Catholics. Fight smart, Dems, not dumb. Tulsi Gabbard gets this.* So should the rest of you.
* Note: Not an endorsement of Gabbard’s White House run. You guys figure out who you are nominating. And again, don’t be dumb. Find somebody who will beat Trump and crush his evil cult.