Folks have been complaining
about the tone of this 2012 campaign in the US. First of all the Republican Party needs to reform its act if they want to survive as a viable
voice of democracy. I say this because it seems that the whole process in this
election cycle has been poisoned by the obscene amounts of anonymous money
flowing into the campaign. The more important issue for republicans is the
level of ignorance and hate that has been directed at President Obama.
The US Catholic bishops have
been complicit in the debacle of the 2012 election. I would hope his eminence;
Cardinal Dolan will be polite and try to be even handed at the Al Smith Dinner
tonight where both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will be his guests. There
should be no partisan prayers.
Dolan and his cohorts deserve
to lose the tax exempt status for the catholic church for the way they have
acted and inserted themselves into this election. The US bishops under Cardinal
Dolan need to reform. The US bishops under Cardinal Dolan bear some
share for the ignorance and hate that have marked this campaign. The bishops
talk about freedom, but they have really shed no light on this election other
than to posture to take away others’ constitutional freedoms. Their scream for religious liberty is a move to take away freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. The bishops have not acted like shepherds concerned for all the flock. They want
to be politicians. They have succeeded. They may say they are following the
lead of Pope Benedict. Yet bishops have a lot of freedom to speak out in
their own dioceses. Mostly they have spoken to aid and abet the worst of republican hate. If the bishops cannot change, they need to be
replaced by real shepherds.
The bishops for their part have
fueled the level of ignorance and hate that has specifically been directed at
the president. This account is from a person who attended a Mitt Romney
campaign event. The event involved watching the second debate between the
presidential candidates around a large screen TV. The writer comments on what
he heard. This is what he reported. My question
is have the bishops tried to bring any kind of civility or honesty to this
debate and this election? No. They might as well been some of those gathered around that tv screen.
Now, I remember I was not
happy with George Bush when he “won” the election in 2000. I recall that I cut
him slack after 9/11. The worst that I think I ever said about him after Kerry
lost in 2004 was that Bush was not my president.
I have a very difficult time
understanding the level of ignorance and hate directed at President Obama in
this election cycle. A person just has to listen to the republican minority
leader of the Senate who said his main goal was to make Obama a one term
president. Then, there is the obstruction led by John Boehner in the congress
against any kind of movement to create jobs which was the so called republican
alarm call for 2010. Why don’t the US bishops call this out? I mean, Mr.
Boehner is one of their sheep.
Given all this, I really
wonder about the sanity of people taken in by all the republican hate. I wonder
about the pastoral instincts of the US bishops who have aided and abetted this
mess. It may be getting a little late to save democracy or sanity. Maybe the UN
can offer the US a rescue mission and some mental health counseling. The US
bishops could be the first in line.
