I have to admit to being amused--just a little bit--by the crestfallen reaction of some of the usually blustering and jowl-shaking anti-Obama Catholic commentariat to yesterday's Supremes decision about "Obamacare." At the America "In All Things" blog, the blustering gentlemen are surprised.
Very, very surprised.
And so they're all downloading the entire sum'-bitchin' Supremes decision, by gum. They intend to go home, kick back, and read it in its entirety. So they can, don't you see, find some way to pretend it's a big win for their anti-Obama Catholic club and a defeat for the president.
As a delightful comment by someone called Gan Ainm responding* to Michael Sean Winters at NCR re: the USCCB reaction says, the Catholic club (and the bishops in particular) are still doing their darndest to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with the Supremes' "Obamacare" decision.
The gentlemen in miters still want to pretend that they ♡ healthcare coverage for all citizens, especially the least among us. But they continue to expose--and quite shamelessly so--their real agenda through what they say in response to yesterday's ruling. And that agenda is unabashedly all about subverting the current administration in any way possible, trying to overthrow it by any means fair or foul, trying desperately to install their party in the White House and Congress in the fall elections, no matter what the cost in terms of suffering inflicted on the poor or further loss of their own moral credibility as bishops.
Have a look at Dennis Coday's "Morning Briefing" column in NCR today, and note the number of bishops already announcing that they oppose the Affordable Care Act--despite the Supreme Court's upholding of the act. This is pretty downright shameful, this continued overt partisan politicking on the bishops' part, which makes mincemeat of their claim to be all about seeing basic healthcare provided to all.
(And I can understand the surprise and the assumption of the USCCB and the blustering Catholic old boys' club about yesterday's Supremes' decision: after all every single one of the justices who voted nay is a Catholic. All it would have taken to torpedo the ACA altogether was one more Catholic vote. And yet the bishops want us to imagine that Catholics are an embattled, persecuted minority in American culture . . . .)
Meanwhile, leave it to the non-Catholic--to the non-Christian, in fact--to provide the authentic moral voice about yesterday's Supremes decision that we Catholics can no longer expect to hear from our GOP-all-the-time-all-the-way mitered gentlemen. Paul Krugman writes in today's New York Times,
He's correct. And to their total discredit, the U.S. Catholic bishops continue to stand, at this endangered moment of history in which the poor become much poorer and the rich far more ruthless, with the 1%. Against the poor. No matter what lip service they pay to ideals like universal healthcare coverage.
History will not judge the mitered gentlemen gently for their betrayal of core Catholic, core Christian, principles at this turning-point moment of history. If, that is, there's any history left after the men of God get through with trying to engineer things to secure the total control of the super-rich of everything in the world.
*If you're like me, when you try to read NCR articles this morning, you'll get a message that the site is unsafe and that visiting it will run the risk of getting malware installed on your computer. Since I doubt that this message is bona fide (and I may be foolish in assuming this), I have been clicking through to go to the NCR site, and have emailed the journal to tell them that this is happening. I did want to mention to you, though, that you may get such a message if you click on the links to NCR above.
Addendum, later: NCR has kindly responded to my notice to them about the warning message, and they say that they have fixed a hole in their ad server, but it appears Google hasn't yet caught up to that news, and if I understand correctly, Google is the source of the ad appearing at the NCR site warning about malware. The NCR response to me assures me that the site is clean and not a source of viruses or malware.
(And I can understand the surprise and the assumption of the USCCB and the blustering Catholic old boys' club about yesterday's Supremes' decision: after all every single one of the justices who voted nay is a Catholic. All it would have taken to torpedo the ACA altogether was one more Catholic vote. And yet the bishops want us to imagine that Catholics are an embattled, persecuted minority in American culture . . . .)
Meanwhile, leave it to the non-Catholic--to the non-Christian, in fact--to provide the authentic moral voice about yesterday's Supremes decision that we Catholics can no longer expect to hear from our GOP-all-the-time-all-the-way mitered gentlemen. Paul Krugman writes in today's New York Times,
But what was and is really striking about the anti-reformers is their cruelty. It would be one thing if, at any point, they had offered any hint of an alternative proposal to help Americans with pre-existing conditions, Americans who simply can’t afford expensive individual insurance, Americans who lose coverage along with their jobs. But it has long been obvious that the opposition’s goal is simply to kill reform, never mind the human consequences. We should all be thankful that, for the moment at least, that effort has failed.
He's correct. And to their total discredit, the U.S. Catholic bishops continue to stand, at this endangered moment of history in which the poor become much poorer and the rich far more ruthless, with the 1%. Against the poor. No matter what lip service they pay to ideals like universal healthcare coverage.
History will not judge the mitered gentlemen gently for their betrayal of core Catholic, core Christian, principles at this turning-point moment of history. If, that is, there's any history left after the men of God get through with trying to engineer things to secure the total control of the super-rich of everything in the world.
*If you're like me, when you try to read NCR articles this morning, you'll get a message that the site is unsafe and that visiting it will run the risk of getting malware installed on your computer. Since I doubt that this message is bona fide (and I may be foolish in assuming this), I have been clicking through to go to the NCR site, and have emailed the journal to tell them that this is happening. I did want to mention to you, though, that you may get such a message if you click on the links to NCR above.
Addendum, later: NCR has kindly responded to my notice to them about the warning message, and they say that they have fixed a hole in their ad server, but it appears Google hasn't yet caught up to that news, and if I understand correctly, Google is the source of the ad appearing at the NCR site warning about malware. The NCR response to me assures me that the site is clean and not a source of viruses or malware.
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