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At Philly.com, the list of Trump's Catholic advisors is a mix of establishment Republican types like former Ambassador Jim Nicholson, and others who have caused great harm to the Church, the Republic or both, like Austen Ruse and Richard Viguerie. I wish Angela Flood had been identified by her current job, and not as a "Former Director, Secretariat for Communications, Archdiocese of Washington." Please leave my archdiocese out of it. The funniest name on the list, though, is Deacon Fournier, listed as "Chairman, Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance." I am dying to learn how a Trump presidency would further the common good. Bookmark this list. They are the Republicans with no inkling to resist and, Year of Mercy or no Year of Mercy, should be considered personas non gratas forevermore. And, the headline writers at Philly.com should know that there is not a "heavyweight" on the list.
At FiveThirtyEight, Milo Beckman on how religion and education are the key determinants in understanding the white vote this year. I hope the Clinton team realizes that if they alienate RCs, they are doomed, and takes some steps accordingly. As I noted in my morning post, if they are serious about reaching out to the disability community, they should have Clinton speak out against physician assisted suicide. It would be a twofer, attracting centrist Catholics too. Beckman's piece dovetails nicely, I think, with the point I made in my reviews this week, that you have to consider a range of analytical factors, not just one.
At RNS, Mark Silk looks at a University of Minnesota survey that indicates Americans are more divided by religion than by race. The key, very disturbing finding: "Specifically, the study showed that over the ten-year period the proportion of Americans who think Muslims don’t agree at all with their vision of America jumped from a quarter to almost a half and the proportion who’d disapprove of their child marrying one went from a third to a half," Silk notes. Yikes. Of course, this is not merely the result of Islamicist fanatics perpetrating violence. It is the result of Fox News and others perpetually dramatizing the threat posed by these terrorists out of all porportion to the actual threat they pose, and blaming all Muslims for the acts and beliefs of a few.
