Why are a handful of Catholic bishops and college professors wringing their hands and invoking the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ against Paul Ryan? Simple answer: because they are adherents of the politics of the far left. To be fair, lets take a closer look at what I think the dynamic looks like from the inside. What beliefs are driving them?
The first, albeit probably not the most most fundamental, belief is a belief in a large and powerful government. That is a fundamental difference between conservatives (who, by the way, are truly the classical liberals) and today’s liberals (who are in reality reactionary totalitarians).
Why this belief in a large and powerful government? Mainly, because it accompanies a belief that people who are rich will do anything they want to people that are poor, therefore you need a publicly elected entity of power that stands up against the rich for the rights of the poor. The problem with this belief is that it’s blind to the reality that the rich and powerful are the ones who inevitably control and run the government. There is no one under the heavens who is holy. No, not one, so you need to make the government, which is necessary, as small as possible because it will ALWAYS become a tool for one rich faction to suppress the less rich and powerful. They keep their power by handing out special privileges right and left to shore up support. This has happened since the day before dirt and we see it running amok under the current Obama regime. It will continue to happen. That’s why conservatives are so committed to small government. Government is necessary but it has to be kept small and in check, because it will inevitably be used as a tool by the more powerful to serve their interest.
Today’s liberals want a government that will pretty much have a say in how we live at every step of the way. They cannot concieve of a society where there are other ways to get things done outside of the control of government. That’s why these bishops who are sold on this ideology start screaming that Romney and Ryan are abandoning the poor… because, in their minds, the only way we can alleviate poverty is through an all pervasive and powerful state that literally has the power to take resources from one group of people and hand it out to another group. If anyone proposes a different solution to poverty than socialism, they start thundering from their pulpits about the “abandonment of the Gospel”.
This is not pure speculation on my part. Read around enough and you’ll find plenty of arguments in defense of so-called “humane” and “Christian” socialism, which it’s adherents are always careful to distinguish from “atheistic socialism”. The Christian Socialists in this country have been besides themselves with glee over the fact that Obama has pulled off the impossible: cement socialism into the very fabric of the American soul.
Well, I and a few other Catholics and Protestants are here to say “Not so fast, comrade.” Our voices and votes will be heard regardless of the level of bullying, deception, subterfuge and abuse being dished out by the left. We know thy name, and thy name is Simony…
