1/28/07
In spite of the Democratic Party victories in both houses of Congress in November, 2006, social conservatives are still in the ascendancy and will be a force to be reckoned with in American politics for a long time to come. Democrats did not win because they have more appealing ideas. The Democrats had no ideas with pizzazz and the public largely believes, with good reason, that they are more likely to start calling U.S. troops torturers and oppressors than they are to prosecute the war on terror effectively. Republicans were punished with minority status for doing nothing about social conservatives' concerns, the main one being illegal immigration.
Senator Rick Santorum lost to a pro-life democrat in Pennsylvania because he spent too much time philosophizing and not enough time delivering the pork. Pennsylvania is pro-life, but it's even more pro-Medicaid.
Senator George Allen lost in Virginia because he was, financially, a very viable 2008 presidential candidate--way ahead of others in fundraising--and The Washington Post wanted to pick him off. They did so by drumming about his "makaka" remark for over a month. Then, to cost him some redneck support, they revealed his Jewish lineage. It's one thing to support Israel because it's going to start the cataclysmic war that must occur before Christ's thousand-year reign begins; it's another thing to have a Jewboy in your own senate.
Social conservatives are certainly going to have an impact, even in the Democratic 110th Congress, in the 2008 presidential election and afterward. Given the disgust with the well-known potential Republican runners, it is certainly possible that some hopefuls with lower profiles, such as Representative Tom Tancredo or Senator Sam Brownback have a better-than-usual chance of being nominated.
Same goes for the Democrats, by the way. If Hillary Clinton ends up heading the ticket, I will eat cold chick peas out of the can.
Sam Brownback seems to have become the Conservative-Catholic Hope. Can he win the Presidency? In asking so, we are asking, "Can a socially conservative Catholic win the presidency?"
The answer is "No." Brownback is starting out with two liabilities that will draw a lot of suspicion and ire. Parties don't want to support candidates who attract a lot of anger and other negative vibes, even if the candidates are way ahead and beloved in some quarters (why Hillary won't be nominated).
The first liability is what many of Brownback's supporters, I'm sure, consider a great advantage, the financial backing of Catholic dumb-luck-pizza-billionaire Tom Monaghan. ACLU types and other lefties such as "Father" Drinan fear Monaghan as a guy who will use his money to impose Catholicism on American society. Monaghan has lent credence to this apprehension by making unrealistic statements about controlling behavior in his Florida Xanadu abuilding, Ave Maria Town.
However, as I've said on this site before, libs need not fear Mr. Monaghan. Judging from the fiascoes, very un-Catholic behavior and ill-will surrounding his Ave Maria ventures, Tom is more of a danger to Catholicism than he is to civil liberties. With his beneficence seems to come a lot of grief. All he is is a guy with a lot of money, no college degree, a knowledge of Catholicism imparted by grade-school nuns, possible ADHD and a history of falling far short of carrying out the grandiose plans that he makes. Nevertheless, he will make a good pinch of gunpowder to toss in the flames when liberal Democratic rabble-rousers want to fire up the faithful. Brownback has already downplayed Monaghan's support.
The Kansas Senator's second liability is how he came to Catholicism. He was, in fact, converted by a priest of Opus Dei. Whether or not Brownback is a member of The Work I do not know. I doubt it, but he was brought into the church by Fr. C. John McCloskey III who once directed the Opus Dei-operated Catholic Information Center on Washington, DC's K Street, NW. The location of many lobbying firms, K Street is considered by many to be the real center of power in the U.S. In this post-DaVinci Code world, the Opus Dei connection is not only going to engender more suspicion, it is also going to have kooks chasing after Brownback like gulls after a cruise ship. Do a Google search using the terms "Brownback" and "Opus Dei" and see how many thousands of alarms are being raised in the blogosphere.
However, even without these liabilities, Brownback, and any other socially conservative Catholic, will not win the White House. And it won't be because of the anti-Catholicism of the left; it will be because of the anti-Catholicism of other social conservatives.
One must bear in mind that most social conservatives other than Catholics are Baptists, Evangelicals, Christians, fundamentalists, whatever you want to call those who've long been hearing from the pulpit that the Catholic church is the Whore of Babylon. If these people vote for any member of the Church of Rome, I'll eat two cans of cold chick peas.
And it's just as well that a conservative Catholic candidate can't win. People who put their faith in money and political power--as a lot of socially conservative Catholics, including high-profile ones, are doing these days--don't deserve to be in charge.
Copyright © 2007 by Neal J. Conway. All rights reserved.