Catholics must vote Dem. ... this time

All Catholics should be independents. Voting Democrat or Republican cannot for Catholics be a matter of ideological affiliation. To quote Pope Francis, the only acceptable ideology for Catholics is the ideology of the gospel. And these days there is sadly no doubt that the ideology of the gospel indicates a strong preference for the Democratic Party. It may not always be this way, but for now it is undeniably true.

If the phrase “the ideology of the gospel” inspires fear or anxiety among those who are understandably wary of what Evelyn Waugh so memorably labeled as “heavy-arsed Christians,” it only goes to show how the message of Jesus has been hijacked by one fundamentalist vision or another. Jesus in the Christian understanding is the face of God in history, and his message is one that calls on Christians to promote genuine human fulfilment in a world for which we are ultimately responsible. The Catholic Church has no more important purpose than to unite believers in solidarity with God’s will for a sane and compassionate world. And to put this vision into action. To accept, as Western religion does, the Genesis conviction that human beings are “made in the image and likeness of God” is a way of expressing a belief in the equal dignity of all human beings, in the power of love and in the strength of creativity.

Do not expect here a focus on the current president, or on what appears to be the craven political opportunism of the Republican Party in Congress. Just as Catholics are enjoined not to be ideologically aligned, so they are also required not to judge. God is the one who will call all of us to account.

Let’s leave aside the coronavirus pandemic, because even though it has been disastrously badly handled, it would have been devastating whoever was president. European countries who handled it much better than us are seeing the virus surging again. Instead, take a look at the most pressing problems of our time, human and cosmic, and ask what action the ideology of the gospel requires of Catholics. In particular, what does this ideology have to say about choices about the fate of the earth, the value of human life and the shape of the human community of the future? All political choices can be subsumed under one of these headings. Catholics are going to have to vote Democrat for these three reasons, knowing that a Democratic president is much more likely than a current Republican contender to craft a platform that puts these three critical priorities ahead of all others.

Catholics, like many other religious folk, believe in the goodness of creation and the human responsibility to care for it. We have done a terrible job, so that right now the health of the world and the future of all animal species within it, including us, is on the line. Who is going to make this the No. 1 priority? Because if we don’t, everything else becomes irrelevant. On this issue, this time around, the only hope is with the Democrats. A vote for a Republican candidate is a vote for a dying planet, and Catholics simply cannot make that choice. Willfully ignoring climate change and rising sea levels can only bring the demise of our species closer, and Catholics are pretty sure that this is not what God wants.

Catholics are determinedly pro-life and, yes, we Catholics wish the Democratic Party did not seem so antagonistic to those who don’t share the pro-choice position. But there is so much more to pro-life than the abortion issue. Healthy living is pro-life, care for the poor and the wounded and the migrant and the refugee is central to a pro-life agenda. Opposition to the death penalty is a pro-life position. The world’s food and drinking water supply is a pro-life issue. Stack them up and you will see clearly that the Republican pro-life position on abortion, even if we reject the strong suspicion that for the party it is primarily a cynical political maneuver, is the only part of a pro-life position that they can support. This time around a vote for Republicans is a vote for what the current president has made of ICE, for the horrors of the execution chamber, for assault weapons and against a consistent agenda of promoting human dignity. The Democrats aren’t saints and maybe next time it will be different. But this time around there is no doubt in my mind that Jesus would vote Democrat.

So where are we heading when the election is over, to a society of increasing suspicion, higher walls and utter political cynicism? This is not the reign of God that Jesus envisioned. He began his public ministry by proclaiming the rule of justice, peace and compassion. He wasn’t a liberal or a conservative, a Democrat or a Republican. He wasn’t even a Christian. His message was one of promotion of full and rich humanity in a world which is our home. This is the message that Catholics have to live by, and this time around it doesn’t leave them any option but to vote Democrat. On balance, this time around, whether they know it or not or care about it or not, the Democratic candidate for president, whoever it is, will be closer to the message of the gospel than whoever it is that is on the other side. So Catholics need to go to the polls to vote Democrat because this time around there is no other option for the world’s future.