MAGA Back to Work Zealot in Right Wing Media:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou politically correct liberals\u00a0claim<\/em>\u00a0to care about the lives of people threatened by COVID, but you refuse to face the fact that the economic impact is, as our great President says, a cure that is worse than the disease. We have to get people back to work or they will run out of money! This isn\u2019t about Mammon worship! Our president is far more concerned with the Little Guy than you limousine liberals! It\u2019s because<\/em> I\u2019m prolife that I want people to go back to work. Your problem is that you fear death more than God. If you really loved God, you\u2019d care that they are running out of money.\u00a0 Sure, some may die.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just the price we pay. It\u2019s either maintain the lockdown or save the economy.\u00a0 That the only choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Right. Sure. Definitely a believable argument. And it goes without saying that my true motivation is that I am a coward who fears death more than God. We phony Social Justice Warriors always think only of ourselves, never God or the least of these. We are just brimming<\/em>\u00a0with bad faith, cowardice, and insincerity. So different from Real Christians like Trump. You are right to call us out for our transparent sanctimony, lest the unwary be deceived. Trumpian conservatism is all about real<\/em>\u00a0concern for the poor and is definitely not self-serving.<\/p>\n And since you don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0care about Mammon and you are so terribly<\/em>\u00a0concerned about the economic sufferings of the poor you are demanding expose themselves to COVID, you will be delighted<\/em>\u00a0to hear that, fake Catholic though I am, I too think they require the economic security you are clamoring for. In fact, they require it so badly that I don\u2019t think they should have to work for two weeks or a month before they see a paycheck. And if they get sick, they should not have to live in fear of immense medical costs if they have to go to hospital and need a respirator and round the clock care.<\/p>\n So, if you will permit a complete phony \u201cCatholic\u201d like me to speak for just a moment, here\u2019s what I think should happen: Instead of forcing the poor into harm\u2019s way unnecessarily. the $500 billion dollars Trump and the GOP just gave the 1% should be taken back and distributed to all American citizens, with disproportionately large sums given to those in the lowest income brackets. Why it\u2019s even biblical!<\/p>\n \u201cI do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, \u201cHe who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack.\u201d (2 Co 8:13\u201315).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s also patristic: \u201cThe rich exist for the sake of the poor. The poor exist for the salvation of the rich.\u201d \u2013\u00a0 St. John Chrysostom<\/p>\n Why it\u2019s even contemporary conservative Christian. It was, after all, Abp. Chaput who said, \u201cIf you neglect the poor, you will go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n I know. I know: \u201cMark, you socialist simpleton who know nothing<\/em>\u00a0of actual Church teaching: Charity must be from the heart, not forced by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n Correct. So it\u2019s a good thing we\u2019re not talking about charity. As the rich man who neglected Lazarus discovered the hard way, when you have something in excess that your neighbor needs and you do not give it him, it is you who are the thief.<\/p>\n No. Really. It\u2019s in the Catechism<\/em> and everything:<\/p>\n \u201cCCC 2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: \u201cNot to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.\u201d \u201cThe demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity\u201d:<\/p>\n When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So it turns out theft is a matter of justice, not charity. That\u2019s why you call a cop (that is, the state) not a priest when somebody robs you.<\/p>\n The reason you call the state is because justice is precisely what the state exists to maintain. So it is the job and duty of the state to take from the corporate thieves the $500 billion they do not need and restore it to the countless Lazaruses out there who\u2013as you yourself were so passionately saying a moment ago\u2013desperately need it.<\/p>\n This is why, in addition to taking back $500 billion from corporate thieves, those who have managed to make, say, $24 billion in windfalls from the pandemic (like Jeff Bezos) should have that<\/em> taken in taxes too.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t worry, he won\u2019t even miss it given the $143 billion he still has.) This will also help provide economic security for those whom you are so<\/em>\u00a0very concerned about that you are willing to risk their lives for it. And, of course, Medicare for All should also be provided so that the people whose economic security you are (suddenly!) so worried about have that security.<\/p>\n Surely, you will be thrilled by that, right? Best of both worlds, right? People saved from having to face sickness and death and<\/em>\u00a0able to face the future with economic and health security, right?<\/p>\n Because it\u2019s not all about mammon for you.<\/p>\n Right?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MAGA Back to Work Zealot in Right Wing Media: \u201cYou politically correct liberals\u00a0claim\u00a0to care about the lives of people threatened by COVID, but you refuse to face the fact that the economic impact is, as our great President says, a cure that is worse than the disease. We have to get people back to work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1121],"class_list":["post-115946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pandemic"],"yoast_head":"\n