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In yesterday's Washington Post, Michael Kinsley makes the case that Donald Trump is a fascist in the clinical sense of the word. How many people who voted for Trump expected the titans of corporate America to be running the government? How many care provided Team Trump gets "results"?
In this morning's Post, an analysis of the fight within the GOP about repealing Obamacare. Turns out it is easier to talk about "repeal and replace" than it is to figure out how to replace the Affordable Care Act without totally disrupting local communities, the insurance industry and the health care industry. As a political matter, if they Republicans do not move quickly to dismantle Obama's signature achievement, there will be hell to pay with the base. If they move quickly, and fail to fix the problems repeal will create, they may face a different kind of electoral challenge four years hence. It couldn't happen to a nicer party.
My colleague Joshua McElwee reported late last week on a letter from a group of academics challenging Pope Francis on the subject of Amoris Laetitia. I note that one of the signatories, Mihcael Sirilla, Ph.D, is the director of graduate theology at the University of Steubenville, a school that advertises itself as faithful to the magisterium. I suppose they will need to change their promotional literature to indicate that they are faithful to the magisterium when the magisterium agrees with them. This is rich.
Speaking of schools that advertise their orthodoxy, the misnamed Cardinal Newman Society keeps a watch on schools that invite speakers the Society thinks have no place speaking on a Catholic college campus. I deplore their witch hunt mentality and would hope that if we RCs are doing a good job educating the students entrusted to our care, those students can handle hearing arguments from people who disagree with the Church. I see that the Napa Institute is advertising a talk by Charles Koch at an event at the Catholic University of America in the autumn. Mr. Koch not only champions an economic philosophy that could scarcely be more opposed to Catholic social doctrine, but he also supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Will the Cardinal Newman Society raise a ruckus? Or is it okay if the objectionable speaker is sending big checks?
