Distinctly Catholic

Last week, I attended -- and wrote about -- a panel discussion on the Catholic Vote in the upcoming midterms sponsored by Catholic University's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.

A video of the panel is now available here.

I have asked the presenters to do what I have been doing the past few weeks, pick a race and comment on it. Today, we hear from Robert Jones and Daniel Cox of the Public Religion Reasearch Institute as they analyze the Colorado Senate race and the significance of the Tea Party in that race. Jones is the CEO and Cox is the Director of Research at the PRRI.

While the Catholic hierarchy, from Maine to Minnesota to California, seeks to prevent same-sex marriages from gaining legal recognition, one conservative Catholic commentator, Fr. Robert Sirico, has special expertise on the subject, although in recent years he has said nothing about that expertise. In Washington state and Colorado in the 1970s, Sirico performed some of the first same-sex marriage ceremonies in history.

Sirico is most known as a regular commentator on EWTN’s “The World Over” with Raymond Arroyo. There, Sirico frequently excoriates those whose understanding of their faith differs from his own. Sirico also is the head of the Michigan-based Acton Institute, an organization that is dedicated to laissez-faire economics. His commitment to libertarian ideas in economic matters may lack any precedent in Catholic social teaching, but they echo a libertarian commitment from earlier in his career.

The Ohio Board of Elections has agreed with Congressman Steve Driehaus that ads by the Susan B. Anthony List saying he voted for taxpayer-funded abortion are factually inaccurate. State law prohibits such ads.

This issue is contentious and regular readers will know that I agree with Driehaus that the health care reform law does not provide federal money for abortions as groups like Susan B. Anthony List allege. The USCCB also reached the same conclusion and I think they were mistaken also. Indeed, I think the bill that passed is even better than the Stupak Amendment the USCCB supported because it will result in fewer private insurance policies that cover abortion.

Politico's Jonathan Martin claims that last night's debate in Nevada "fizzled," and it certainly had fewer fireworks than one might have anticipated. Sen. Harry Reid did fall in to Washington-speak at times, and he unaccountably failed to note that the immigration reforms he supports are much like those proposed by former President George W. Bush.

Still, the dominant fact of the evening was that Sharron Angle's way of speaking was halting at best. There were long pauses between words in simple sentences. A friend said it was like listening to the crazy woman on the block, the one you try to avoid because listening to her makes you feel like you are going crazy too. It was literally painful to listen to her.

Democracy sometimes yeilds unfortunate results. Nixon won twice. But, I just can't bring myself to believe that the good people of Nevada will vote to catapult Angle into a position of power.

Sometimes, midterm elections are a big yawn and, sad to say, for most Americans they still are. It is safe to assume that a minority of those able to vote will actually make it to the polls on November 2 to help decide the direction of the nation. It remains one of the most inexcusable facts of our political life that elections are not held on a Sunday, or that Election Day is a holiday, or that the entire nation has not shifted to mail-in voting to increase turnout. It is an even more inexcusable fact of American society that so few Americans see politics as important enough to get interested, get involved and make a difference. But, there it is.