Powerful institutions show their true nature

All in one week, we see two of America’s most reactionary institutions exposing their true nature, as the Republican Party debates removing Rep. Cheney from her leadership position and the Conference of Catholic Bishops debates denying communion to President Biden.

Cheney is an extremely conservative politician who is anathema to everything I believe in. On issues of policy and governance, she’s fully in line with the modern Republican party. Her only “sin” is her support for the democratic process and refusal to bow down to Trump and pledge fealty to the big lie that he won the last election. In removing her from her leadership position, the GOP fully acknowledges that it has abandoned all pretext of standing for any principle or policy and become purely the Cult of Trump.

The bishops threaten to deny communion to lifelong Catholic Biden over his support for abortion rights. In Church doctrine, opposition to the death penalty and opposition to unjustified aggressive war stand on fully equal footing with opposition to abortion. But we never have — and never will — see the bishops attack a Catholic politician for supporting the death penalty. Because the reality is that the opposition to abortion and contraception were never really about the sanctity of life. They are, in fact, about controlling women and the power of women’s sexuality.

It’s time for both of these institutions to be seen clearly for what they really are and what they truly represent.

— David Welch, Chico