“America is great because America is good. If America ever stops being good, it will stop being great.” Recently, it has come under scrutiny as to whether or not Tocqueville actually made this comment. Nevertheless, is it not true? This generation has witnessed the shrinking of American influence. Economic might can only stretch so far for the country which is 30 Trillion dollars in debt. Meanwhile, anyone familiar with the fall of the Roman Empire knows that when military might is squandered in far off regions, too often and with nothing to gain, it cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Just as the military machine of the Romans can be compared to these last days of the expansionist American Empire, we too seem to have lost our moral compass. Roman life, left unchecked, deteriorated to vomitoria and Bacchanalian rituals, complete with gluttonous consumption of wine and women. And men. Not unlike the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, the embrace of orgies, for every appetite, signified the downfall of the culture.
In the United States of America, so many things are now countenanced that were unimaginable a generation ago.
During the Biden/Harris administration, religious communities have come to be concerned with their freedoms. Observers watched as the Attorney General and FBI Director cultivated sources and spies in traditional Catholic communities. Watchers have read US government documents which state that the FBI has “enlist[ed] the assistance [of congregations inside Saint Pius X chapels] to serve as suspicious activity tripwires”. This revelation is a chilling reality for anyone who, simply by virtue of being a traditional Catholic, may find himself on a government watchlist. As noted by anyone who watches the news, each Catholic who now stands, quietly praying, at an abortion clinic places his or her freedom at risk. As we watched in horror during the venerable George Floyd fires, especially in Governor Walz’ Minnesota, some Americans have license to riot, to loot and to burn cities to the ground. Catholics cannot. Jews cannot. Christians cannot.
On the preeminent issue of our time, abortion, the 2024 Democrat Party platform says it all. “Democrats want to codify Roe v. Wade into law to protect women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions, while extreme MAGA Republicans are working to ban abortion nationwide.” … “Joe and Kamala took action to protect and strengthen reproductive health care access amid ongoing MAGA Republican attacks. This includes signing three executive orders to strengthen reproductive health care access, fighting for a woman’s right to emergency medical care, defending and expanding access to medication abortion…Joe and Kamala are fighting to restore the protections of Roe—and they will never allow a national abortion ban to become law.” For the uninitiated, “reproductive health care” means unrestricted abortion on demand, up to the moment of birth…and beyond. Look no further than to Harris’ partner on the ticket.
In 2022, Walz’s state health agency published an abortion-statistics report. It reported that on his watch, five infants were “born alive” in 2021 during failed abortions, and none was provided life-saving care. Three other infants were “born alive” during abortions in 2019, Walz’s first year as governor, and they too perished without life-saving care. In 2023, Walz worked with the Democrat-controlled Legislature to eliminate the reporting requirement and the state’s legal obligation for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to administer life-saving care to infants born alive during an abortion procedure. His barbaric policies, specifically changed to accommodate his ghastly views, leave children, born alive, to die alone on a cold sterile table.
On issue after issue, the Harris/Walz ticket pushes the boundaries of American moral authority. For how can a country take seriously an American condemnation for the way it comports itself when we take part in envelope stretching activities? Consider. Former President Trump, for his part, has vowed to stop the mutilation and sterilization of children in the name of gender affirmation should he be re-elected. This path leads to lunacy. As was witnessed repeatedly during that sacrilegiously woke Olympics, it is wrong for men to be competing in women’s sports. Trump has vowed to do away with that. Recall when a female Italian boxer threw in the towel a mere 46 seconds into the first round of her fight with her overpowering and misgendered opponent. This Forced surrender brought this brutal reality to international attention. As women competitors are waking up to the dangers and unfairness of their plight, they are beginning to speak out. On a different occasion, a stunned Bulgarian boxer, after losing in a decision to an athlete with XY chromosomes, looked at the crowd and signaled two X symbols with her index fingers. Her message, a direct allusion to the uphill battle faced by female athletes, and hopefully it becomes a rallying cry.
On the other hand, Ms. Harris’ running mate placed feminine hygiene products in boys’ bathrooms of public schools and is strongly in favor of whatever Frankenstein measures the warped imagination of man can concoct in the name of transgender care. This is crucial in a time when California has just enacted laws banning schools from any disclosure of a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to any person without the child’s permission. If that isn’t terrifying enough, in 2023, Governor Walz signed sweeping legislation guaranteeing access to transgender care.
The bill affirms that his state of Minnesota agencies will:
• coordinate to protect people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking, or obtaining gender affirming health care services.
• Will decline to help other states that try to penalize individuals and entities seeking gender affirming health care services.
• To the maximum extent possible, the state will refuse requests to extradite individuals accused of committing acts related to, securing of, or receipt of gender affirming health care services.
One must ask, is there any state that is trying to restrict the actions of adults? In the absence of that, it appears that these actions are being taken to ensure that children have access to these grotesque procedures. And what happens to parents or guardians who try to prevent their children from being folded into this web? They risk separation from their children. The state shall determine the rights of parents.
Moving on, “All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.” [CCC2308] “Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to pray and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from that ancient bondage of war.” [CCC2307] “The production and the sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them. The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order. [CCC2316]
The pursuit of war for the sake of war profiting is wrong. The inability to bring about peace is a serious flaw in a leader tasked with such solemn responsibility. The equivocation of an administration which denounces terror, but also financing regimes which employ terror as a means of foreign policy is a defect. The Democrat Party is guilty of each of these failings.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden’s unwillingness to state, with moral clarity, that the reprehensible actions of cells like Hamas and Hezbollah – at the behest of the state of Iran – are terror, and not political efforts is despicable and it allows to continue a festering pattern of conflict in the Middle East.
And by failing to force an end to the Russian/Ukrainian conflict, which it could, this administration has allowed or promoted war. By financing the war, and providing weapons to a side with little hope of victory, Biden/Harris has extended the war needlessly, causing countless deaths. And, this country and its arms manufacturers have profited from the sale of weapons to Ukraine, like a drug peddler.
Now, at the late stages of this campaign, the Catholic voter is hit in the face with a ticking clock. He must choose to vote to advance the slipping of American moral culture, or not. He will someday have to answer for what he supported. The Church has provided us with millennia of encyclicals, passages from the Catechism, and comments from Popes. This is Holy Mother Church telling us what to do. The Catholic vote, roughly a quarter of the American population, may tip the balance of this election. Time will tell how the bloc votes. Regardless, the Catholic must vote in a manner which allows his conscience to be clear. If the Catholic can understand the platforms of the Democrat candidate and still pull the lever for her and her policies, he may have trouble sleeping at night.
Louis Biad
Catholics for Catholics
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