Another Conservative Catholic Folk Hero Implodes

Last year we were led to believe that Paul Ryan was a Catholic Political Hero of the first water. We were all morally bound to vote for his boss (and even to lie to ourselves that his boss had had a “prolife conversion”) because–the ends justifying the means and all–voting for Romney would eventually ensure that Paul Ryan would run for Prez and Save Us All. To doubt this was to hate God and babies and unmask oneself as an enemy of the Church and of all that is good and true. When it was pointed out that Ryan himself regarded enemy of God Ayn Rand as his muse (right up until his “Makers and Takers” class warfare rhetoric and Rand’s hatred of God started to cost him points) the Faithful Conservative Coalition for Missing the Obvious swung into action to declare that Rand was a diamond in the rough like Aristotle (!) and Ryan was her Aquinas: baptizing the basically good-hearted ravings of this Enemy of God and turning them into Solid Catholic Social Teaching. The substance of this analysis boiled down to “Subsidiarity is the only part of Catholic Social Teaching that matters. So screw Caesar. Up with corporate profits and if the poor be like to die they had better do it and help decrease the surplus population, as our Lord taught. All that Solidarity stuff is just another word for communism.”

Meanwhile, the great prolife Catholic hope who was Ryan made one contribution and one contribution only to the national conversation on abortion during his run for Veep: he ceased being prolife and accomodated his stance to Romney’s, agreeing to be only anti-abortion in cases where the victim could not harm his chances of gaining power. Nobly done.

And now, in the same interest of placing political gain over alleged principle, Ryan has declared himself in favor of gay adoption.

Another triumph for the Faithful Conservative Catholic Anti-Charism of Discernment.

Look. I get when people say, “It’s a crappy choice but it’s the least crappy choice.” The problem, so often, with the Faithful Conservative Catholic Anti-Charism of Discernment is that that’s not what happens. Instead, we are told that some Folk Hero is God’s Anointed and that to doubt him is to disobey God. Doubting Romney/Ryan was not doubting or disobeying God. It was common sense, now borne out–yet again–by the implosion of yet another Faithful Conservative Catholic Folk Hero. Stop trusting these people. They don’t care about you and they sure as hell do not care about children or the unborn (who can’t vote). They care about power.