The 2024 elections are now two weeks in the rear-view mirror, but the conversations (to use a polite word) over the what, why, and how of November 5, 2024, continue. While there is no shortage of opinions and analysis (or venting) in the secular press, I have not seen much about the interesting—again, a polite word—takes offered by some left-leaning Catholics. Since my preferred form of evil social media is Twi—er, X, that’s where I’ve mined for the nuggets that follow.
Let’s begin with a benign (or puzzling, as it may be) November 7th post by Rich Raho, who can fairly be described as a “social justice Catholic”:
Catholics, of course, did vote for Trump, to the tune of a 15-point margin: 56 to 41%, “a 10-point swing in favor of Trump from 2020 to 2024” (more on that in a moment). Author and professor Anthony Esolen, responding to Raho’s post, stated:
Author and reporter Brendan Hodge was also having none of it:
Ouch.
So, did the Catholic vote spring for Trump because of the economy and inflation? Or because of the Biden-Harris’s positions on abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, wokism, and related matters? Or because of illegal aliens, immigration, and concerns about security and safety? Or because of wars and foreign policy? Or because of worries over religious liberty?
The answer, I think, is … yes, absolutely. To all of the above. Mary Eberstadt, always an astute observer of culture and politics, argues that there were three main factors: “key Democratic party policies have been locked in combat with key Catholic moral teachings for a long time now…”, the “record of the Biden-Harris administration, for its part, pushed some voters rightward on its own…”, and “the addition to the ticket of Ohio senator JD Vance.” Kenneth Craycraft, writing here at CWR, pinpointed two (of many) factors: Harris’s “abortion absolutism” and the trans ideology of the Harris-Walz ticket.
However, many of our friendly left-leaning Catholics are having none of it. They, well-educated and cultured and erudite, are convinced otherwise. The clear reason that Catholics chose Trump, some of these regular and vocal X-users insisted, was misogyny:
And here is lefty Catholic journalist and pundit Robert Mickens, reposting a remark by a lesbian comedian:
(Dare I tell them that my wife and daughter both voted for Trump?) Mickens, who has been a Catholic reporter and editor for quite some time, clearly struggles to contain his frustration and anger over the election. His feed, for example, demonstrates a marked fear of and loathing for JD Vance. But, for our purposes here:
Ah! Not just misogyny, but also racism, stupidity, and nastiness motivated Catholics (and others) who voted for Trump! Mr. Lafferty, a Canadian Catholic who recently opined that masturbation is “a normal and healthy part of sexual maturation … that’s just the truth,” was clearly taken by Kamala Harris and is obviously annoyed that stupid Americans could not see how “competent, charismatic, blah, blah” she was. Let’s just say that his take on political candidates is about as good as his understanding of basic sexual morality.
As for Mickens, would it surprise you to learn that a decade ago “The Tablet, a British Catholic weekly, has suspended its Rome correspondent Robert Mickens after he publicly referred to Benedict XVI as ‘the Rat’ and anticipated his death”? Following that March 2024 incident, British journalist Damian Thompson wrote: “The truth is that Robert Mickens has never been able to hide his contempt for Benedict XVI. He should have been replaced by a more dispassionate correspondent years ago.” And to think this is a man who refers to Trump as “President-elect Hate Monger”.
David Gibson, a longtime lefty Catholic pundit and head of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture, is equally chaffed and angered, as evidenced by his reposting of this liverish X post:
Ah, yes, fascism! (Because we are all 1930’s Italian now!) How original. Gibson seems to possess a certain repressed characteristic that continually comes to the fore, as in this recent sneer at Mike Johnson fo rmaking a 101 observation about reality:
Brilliant! Devastating! Articulate! And did I mention that Gibson is the author of an embarrassing, half-baked screed of a book attacking Pope Benedict XVI? Shocking, right?
Which brings us to British author Austen Ivereigh, who is known for his hagiograph—er, biographies of Pope Francis and involvement in piecing together various (dull and banal) synodal documents. The day following the election he offered this revealing remark:
In other words, if you voted for Trump (as I did) you are a racist, a fascist, and a hater who is opposed to the Catholic Faith and synodality.
It’s easy enough to be both annoyed and amused (as I am) by such infantile stupidity. But we shouldn’t let that distract anyone from just how obscene, insulting, and (again) revealing this is.
Ivereigh and Synodal Company like to act as if they are reading the signs of the times with the wisdom of wizened sages. However, I’m convinced that not only have they failed to read the signs of the times, they cannot even read the room. Nay, they aren’t even aware of where the room is or what the room is. This is due, in large part, to their reliance on the usual clueless outlets and their ignorance for what is happening “on the ground”. And that, I am also convinced, is because of their overt disdain for ordinary Catholics, their refusal to acknowledge the insanity of the past decade, and their thinly disguised dislike for much Catholic doctrine, morality, and tradition.
There is plenty to reasonably criticize and question about Trump, but resorting to whining cries of “Fascism! Racism! Misogyny!” is the epitome of toxic imbecility. To take just one example, Harris ran a campaign that was relentlessly pro-abortion, to the point that you had to wonder if she thought “democracy” could only be saved through the murder of unborn children. Most Americans, even if they hold somewhat incoherent views about abortion, are not fans of this sort of relentless, bloody nihilism. Meanwhile, Pope Francis “takes roses and chocolates to Italy’s abortion pioneer” and “praised her as an example of ‘freedom and resistance’.” Say what? And the papal hagiographer feels free to denigrate Americans as “individualists”?
The simple fact—and is a fact—is that Ivereigh and other synodal hacks are quite clueless about the Catholic Church in the U.S. The delicious irony is that everything they claim to be “synodal” is what the Church here, however imperfectly, has been doing for decades: listening, evangelizing. going to the fringes, helping the poor, creating vibrant apostolates, upholding the Faith, and so forth. But Ivereigh and Company are such myopic ideologues, they refuse to see; they certainly refuse to even consider what is really going on in the room.
Here are three things, in short order, that they do not get and apparently never will.
First, the 2024 election was not about Trump as much as it was about the past quarter of a century. This election was, in so many ways, a rejection of both Bush II (who fostered wars in the name of “democracy”) and Obama (who spurred on racial tensions in the name of healing racism). It was certainly a rejection of faux experts (here’s looking at you, Tony Fauci) and undoubtedly a rejection of the nastiness foisted on the citizenry via a vile mixture of ideology, sexual insanity, and anti-human perversity.
Secondly, most Americans have suffered financially in recent years under the inept leadership of Biden, and have chaffed under the technocratic tyranny foisted upon them by and through COVID measures, DEI mediocrity, woke nuttiness, trans-mutilation, homosophistry, manufactured racial tension, riots and destruction, cancel culture, endless insults from elitist phonies, and corruption that is moral, financial, and systemic. Middle America is done with it. (Not that I am an expert, but I live in rural Oregon, not Manhattan, D.C., or Rome, so…)
Finally, regarding the neo-synodality of the past few years: I’m convinced it is a failure and that it will soon be a distant memory. It is an idea not only unhinged from any real historical or theological premise (however desperately its proponents seek to manufacture connections and “processes”), but the strained and artificial attempts to make it everything have condemned it to be next to nothing.
Put another way, “fascism” in the U.S. is just about as real, imbedded, and powerful as is “synodality” in the Catholic Church. That is, not at all. And no amount of screeching, shouting, and shrill falsehoods are going to make it otherwise.
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Sore winners much?
You won.
This article is extremely childish and more than a little pathetic. It’s weak sauce that only further divides people.
If you want to foster in an era of unity maybe you shouldn’t act like the sorest, diaper rash babies around when you get exactly what you want.
More name-calling. Are you folks capable of any semblance of self-awareness, basic decency, or introspection? Any at all?
And Trump never named called! Veterans were loser and suckers, Sleepy Joe, crazy Nancy,he called everyone names, pizza gate, Haitians eating cats and dog, his sexual act on a microphone, convicted felon, I can go on and on. We were suppose to ignore his 32,000 lies while he was president. Character counts. These are plan facts! If you ever lived near NYC you grew up with a steady diet of Trump, you too would never vote for him. Guess I was suppose to forget all of that.
You’re missing the point.
“Sleepy Joe, crazy Nancy…” That’s simply descriptive. C’mon, man!
“Veterans were loser and suckers.” This is a lie that has been repeatedly debunked. Get your facts straight before posting please.
Well Nancy, I’ve Lived 75 years in New York and unlike the liberal fascists who hate him, I’ve known many people who benefited from his magnanimous kindness and generosity.
Seriously?
You are deceived as well as many others who vote without knowing the Truth. The Truth will set you free if only you believe. But the evil one is a master of deception the father of lies and those of you who follow him do not know Truth.
The comments of the pseudo-Catholic blogosphere not only reveal a hysterical hatred for the Eighth Commandment and a complete ignorance of Catholic social teaching, while presuming to apply it as a bludgeon of condemnation, but a complete ignorance of any sense of morality, religious or secular, given the indisputable incapacity displayed for their secularized minds to grasp that both human rights and moral obligations are divine endowments and not subordinate to sociological demand or political invention.
The irony of fascists calling people who disagree with them fascists is lost on your low acumen, emoting, head shaving, morally bankrupt cabal, pal.
Catholics voted the way they did because they decided to no longer stand around watching their mothers, sisters, and daughters being raped and killed. They refused to hand over the culture any longer to the armies of Satan. No further explanation needed.
Thank You! Satan and his army have been slithering around this country for a long-time spewing garbage under the umbrella of woke ideology for a long time. I think people are finally waking not woking up!
Yes, Biden was bad in many ways. So, Trump is going to save us? How about those cabinet nominees? Speaking of sexual morality,how about Gaetz? Hegseth? RFKJr? And of course, Trump himself? How do you handle the cognitive dissonance with these guys?
And what about Kamala? She’s no saint when it comes to her personal mores in that department. Do you think her appointees would wear halos? We don’t canonize Patton and Grant but they did have the courage to meet the challenge presented to them. Why do we focus on the sexual behaviors of people we don’t like yet ignore that elephant among friends in our own lives?
It’s a part of our shared fallen nature Karen.
I don’t really care about politicians’ behaviors off the clock unless those cross a line & make them ineligible to hold office. At that point we replace them. Until then I just expect them to properly carry out the duties they were hired to perform.
“So, Trump is going to save us?”
Did I say that? Imply that? Argue that?
The problem with far too many people–on both the left and right–is that they view politics in soteriological and eschatological terms.
More to the immediate point of my post: we are constantly lectured by the Synodal Church, Inc. that synodality is about dialogue, listening, going the fringes, respecting other viewpoints, etc., etc.
Except, of course, when it comes to the U.S. election and those who voted for Trump. Then it is nonstop slander, vitriolic sneering, and unhinged nastiness. No thanks.
Then you are engaging the classic “lesser of two evils” scenario. Well, that’s fair enough. At least you don’t espouse the imbecilic hero worship, that I see in this website and National Catholic Register.
By the way, I don’t care about synods. Very few of the people in the pews are even aware of them.
“Then you are engaging the classic ‘lesser of two evils’ scenario.”
Indeed. And that’s what Catholics have been doing for most (all?) of the history of this country. (Personally, I hoped DeSantis would be the GOP candidate; but, here we are.)
I have voted third party before and I understand/appreciate that approach.
But there’s also the fact that in my 34 years of living in Oregon, the state’s electoral votes have always gone Democrat (since 1988; I’ve lived here since 1991). So, in a real sense, local and state elections have more meaning for me.
“By the way, I don’t care about synods.”
Good. There’s not much to care about when it comes to the synods in recent years. But, again, my point was that the avowed proponents of synodality very often act in complete contradiction to what they claim synodality to be. That’s worth pondering for a few moments, in my estimation.
Carl, I’m searching for WHY the so called Catholic “Liberals” are unique spewing “slander”. I have read this article twice and the evidence is scant regarding the “liberal Catholic” use of SLANDER.
You appear to continue to glaze over the utter moral bankruptcy of a volatile and DANGEROUS creature. The most danger is the “in-your-face” Trump’s mental decline demonstrated by his utterly wild unqualified cabinet selections is evidence. Second, his possession of the nuclear codes at a time when the wars in Ukraine, (Trump will end that on day one), and the the Middle East are raging and widening.
I would not select a lIBERAL ideolog CINO. You preferred extreme right-wing Governor DeSantis? Maybe? But we recently moved from Fla. where we had some issues with his ideology.
PBS.org: He said “Don’t Say Gay” to cover all grades, banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. We will further fail with our outreach to the scorned by isolating them and prompting the crazies to threaten their lives. That must be left to the parents via PTA meetings and sessions with the administration, not by a politician. No liberal Catholics, please.
For the GOP the choices are tough. I would have selected a highly qualified, independent, nonMAGA, nonloyalist, and most of all a liberal Catholic. Can we hope that each liberal Catholic can be morally “recovered” and not wait for Extreme Unction?
Moreover, I believe when we rely on suspect politicians in either party to make moral judgments we lose. Even the “slanderous” lefties.
” I have read this article twice and the evidence is scant regarding the “liberal Catholic” use of SLANDER.”
Well, those folks don’t tell us why. But I think it’s several factors: laziness, group think, refusal to listen to or consider reasons given by Catholics who voted for Trump, ideological commitment over authentic curiosity, desire to be liked/part of the Left in general, virtue signally, etc., etc.
“You appear to continue to glaze over the utter moral bankruptcy of a volatile and DANGEROUS creature.”
Sigh. The only glazing going on is me reading years of your repetitive comments about Trump. The fact is, when I write a piece about left-leaving Catholics calling Trump-voting Catholics things such as “fascists” and “misogynists” and “racists,” I don’t have to do what you want me to do, knowing that you have no interest in reconsidering your committed state in TDSLand. Further, I have no interest in convincing you to vote for Trump or like Trump. That’s not the point here. There is more to life and politics than your narrow obsessions.
I voted for Trump but consider Gaetz to be an arrogant immoral young man and hope the Senate refuses to approve him. But there is no reason to consider Hegseth to be guilty of anything but a single case of fornication, not against US law last time I heard, and in other respects is a great choice. I’ll respect Catholic liberals concern for the sexual morality of Republicans on the day they are ready to take JFK down from his pedestal and remove his name from the many Catholic schools, some of them elementary, which were named after that highly immoral man.
I think it’s time to move on from shaming politicians for their personal failings, no matter which party. It’s just a way to manipulate voters and keep us distracted from the issues that really concern us. Like the economy, WWIII, etc.
Pretty much every political leader has a skeleton or two in their closet. As many voters do also. We need to give it a rest.The world is an increasingly dangerous place.This isn’t what we should be focusing on right now.
Yes, and let’s also not forget Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, and B. Hussein Obama. Quite a who’s who of incompetence, sexual immorality, racism, and antisemitism. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, and Democrats are the last group of people who should be lecturing anyone about morality.
There is no cognitive dissonance, and claiming that is manipulative and dishonest. We know who they are, but that isn’t the most important thing at the moment. Can they do the job? That’s all that matters.
As I recall the Clinton womanizing was met with dismissive statements about “bimbo eruptions” and comments about trailer park trash, or some such verbiage. IIRC there was the invocation of the “One Groping Rule.”
There is a difference between personal failure in morality and, regret for having done so, and reveling in moral nihilism and demanding and promoting moral nihilism as a cultural norm.
Catholics voted the way they did because they were fed up with agents of the Federal government breaking into their homes in the middle of the night, terrorizing their families and throwing them in jail simply because they had exercised their 1st Amendment rights to speech and assembly.
Rose-colored glasses? You may remember Trump enflaming his acolyte criminals Qanon, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to threaten the families of anyone he sees as an enemy. Don Jr. magnified that threat by saying “Watch out or we will be in your backyard.”
Oh. First Amendment rights? Trump has said he will call out the military to suppress a peaceful protest.
Not to worry. Trump said he intends to “clean house” with the DOD, DOJ and FBI. NPR: Federal workers await a dismantling under Trump. He will rely heavily on his nominee for AG, Matt Gaetz. He is charged by the Congress Ethics Committee with statutory rape of a 17yearold and sex traffing. Duplicits Evangelist Speaker Johnson said he does not want to “open Pandora’s box and the Ethics report should not be released.” WOW! He forgot to remember that we taxpayers footed the $10s of thousands to fund the investigation, and we can’t see it???
That all sounds good to me. I’ll take Trump’s firm and decisive agenda over your limp progressive ideology any day. Elections have consequences, so deal with it.
So said German voters supporting Hitler in the 30’s. Consequences indeed.Let’s see how you change your tune 4 years from now.
Didn’t your Sunday school teach you that it is a sin to lie? It is not only a sin, but it should dawn upon you that you embarrass yourself when you tell big whoppers publicly.
morganD: Well, you can rest easy about Gaetz. He withdrew from consideration. Now it’s Pam Bondi. Hopefully she’ll get fair treatment.
As for Trump using the military to suppress peaceful protests, he didn’t do anything like that during his first term, so I don’t think you have to worry. But radical leftists seem to think riots are somehow peaceful. Those types of “peaceful” protests should indeed be shut down by police or the military.
“But radical leftists seem to think riots are somehow peaceful.” WOW! You ignore the father of riots and lies, that incited the Capitol insurrection on 1/6! “Go down to the Capitol and FIGHT LIKE HELL”. Then 4 hrs later, after pleas by his family, he appeared to say “Go home in peace now, we know your pain and we LOVE you”.
GOP deniers and belivers: Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said, “There was no riot. It was largely tourists who got a little out of hand.” Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s blurring Jan. 6 footage so rioters don’t get charged. Earlier he filed a lawsuit to deny the 2020 election.
After the Capitol destruction and the attack on Capitol Police, GOP leaders McConnell and McCarty issued statements: “The President is MORALLY and DIRECTLY responsible for the riot. We have one law and it applies to everybody”.
I know you will have trouble “swallowing” this, but I must not tell a lie. George Washington. Research does wonders.
Are you equally upset about the 2020 “Summer of Love” riots that had a far greater loss of life, destruction of property, and duration? VP Harris worked on raising bail for these rioters. These riots preceded the Jan 6 riot. IIRC the Jan 6 riot didn’t even last one day.
“He is charged by the Congress Ethics Committee with statutory rape of a 17yearold and sex traffing.”
I’m charging you with digital graffiti.
Qanon, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to threaten the families of anyone he sees as an enemy. Don Jr. magnified that threat by saying “Watch out or we will be in your backyard.”
Oh. First Amendment rights? Trump has said he will call out the military to suppress a peaceful protest.
Not to worry. Trump said he intends to “clean house” with the DOD, DOJ and FBI. NPR: Federal workers await a dismantling under Trump. He will rely heavily on his nominee for AG,”… Matt Gaetz. He is charged by the Congress Ethics Committee with statutory rape of a 17yearold and sex traffing.” He was investigated at the time by local authorities who found no evidence of rape and was cleared of any/all charges. As for Mike Johnson’s statement the highly politicized charge was be investigated by the ethics committee but not completed at the time Gaetz left Congress. There was no report to release and to release a partial report after he left Congress would bring to the Ethics Committee the question of their own ethical conduct in such a matter. Innocent until proven guilty should always be the guiding rule when we speak of others.
Duplicits Evangelist Speaker Johnson said he does not want to “open Pandora’s box and the Ethics report should not be released.”
Amen!
Catholics voted the way they did because they were tired of their hard-earned tax dollars being used to fund a war in Ukraine bringing us to the edge of WWIII yet there was no money to send to the devastated taxpaying citizens of Georgia and North Carolina in the aftermath of the hurricane that hit them.
Thanks for calling out these phonies.
What do they have to offer that we don’t already get, ad nauseam, from the secularists?
Great piece – concise and to the point.
If some of the remarks quoted weren’t so pathetic, they would be funny. On the other hand, we seem to have reached the point at which they can be BOTH – pathetic AND funny.
Whoops – This comment was supposed to be just a comment, but my reply to your question, Cleo is – nothing.
Cleo, in answer to your query – nothing
Let’s just say that from now on, I will be cautious with my comments here at CWR lest I find myself in the crosshairs of Carl Olsen’s laptop. This article hit the bullseye with every point.
There is no requirement in life for people to like you. And their opinions of you are absolutely none of your business. They teach that to the drunks in AA.
Why would you post this an angry little screed that does nothing but further widen the gap between liberals and conservatives?
We should be reaching across the aisle and looking for a middle ground. You don’t lure bees with vinegar. Extending our hands out in good faith to work towards a better future that all of our children and grandchildren can exist in is something we should all strive for. Anything else would be a display of total weakness.
As the voters whose guy won the election it is on us to lead by example. Not engage in their miserable and immature fighting tactics. Acting like a sore winner and whining because people who are upset are saying mean things that you do not like is not being gracious or reaching out in good faith.
I expect better from us. Sadly, my expectations and faith were horribly misplaced.
Mike!
I could not possibly disagree with you more.
Evil is not countered by mealy mouthed niceties and craven, simpering plaints. Witness the ineffectuality of the behavior of the Republican Party for the past fifty years.
Think about it. Jesus didn’t ask the moneylenders to please move back a few feet.
He blasted them. And they hadn’t aborted or mutilated or sexually groomed a single child.
Honestly, Mike, I find your suggestion that we reach out across the aisle to such unimaginable evil to be untenable.
Even reprehensible.
Mr. Brineyman, we are not personal friends in a first name basis. You will refer to me as Mr. Bingham or not at all.
The rest of your comment is not worth my time to address as it’s nothing but childish blubbering that is not grounded in any sense of reality. Please grow up and learn to speak without resorting to hyperbole.
Good day.
So, Herr Bingham, this is you “reaching across the aisle and looking for a middle ground”?
I must say, I am greatly amused.
Right? A typical progressive with zero self- awareness. You can’t make this stuff up.
Besides, they still all believe the lies from the main stream media.
“And their opinions of you are absolutely none of your business.”
But, of course, that won’t stop you from sharing your opinions. Weird how that works. Sorry, but that sort of passive-aggressive crap is old, stale, and stupid.
Several of the people that I criticize in my piece are well-known, established Catholics with notable influence. Furthermore, they all have spent quite a bit of time and effort promoting synodality, by which they claim to mean dialogue, listening, showing respect for other perspectives, etc. But their childish (and very public!) responses to this election and—more importantly—to those they disagree with politically and otherwise reveal their hypocrisy.
“We should be reaching across the aisle and looking for a middle ground.”
You are either clueless or duplicitous. There is no “middle ground” with these folks, as I well know from personal experience. Do you think that people who scream “fascist, racist, homophobe, misogynist” like a tantruming child are really interested in the “middle ground”?
“Acting like a sore winner and whining…”
Again, you apparently missed the central point of my post. But, hey, thanks for the lecture. But, as someone recently reminded me, your opinion of me is really of no concern.
Perhaps the middle ground is Israel . It seemed to be a non-issue with the voters. No choice given!
Dear, dear Mike Bingham: To quote that famous leftist Democrat, Barrack Obama: “Elections have consequences.” No, we’re not going to stretch our hands across the aisle. The mandate is to govern on the platform that was enunciated. Only fools acquiesce when they have won a battle.
Please leave this fairy tale about peace, love, and harmony in the 1960s dumpster where it belongs. We live in the real world, not in a fantasy land of unicorns and rainbows 🙄.
“We should be reaching across the aisle and looking for a middle ground.” Where have you been for the past 50 years? What is the middle ground between “boys can become girls” and “genital mutilation and mental illness are bad things”? Where is the middle ground between “people should have free speech” and “everyone I do not like is a Nazi”? There is no middle ground with Democrats. When the middle is not sufficiently far to the left for them, they import illegal voters and fabricate enough votes to win the argument. They are perpetual children having dangerous tantrums in the adult world.
“…Clueless…”
“…Myopic ideologues…”
“…Vile mixture of ideology, sexual insanity, and anti-human perversity.”
“…Woke nuttiness, trans-mutilation, homosophistry, manufactured racial tension, riots and destruction, cancel culture, endless insults from elitist phonies, and corruption that is moral, financial, and systemic.”
Mr. Olson, I salute you! This is by far the most compelling, direct and insightful commentary on the recent election that I’ve seen.
And there is no close second.
More important, please accept my congratulations on having uncommonly wise and intelligent women in your family!
Finally, please allow me to suggest a topic for a Part 2 of the article:
“Is the Term, ‘Catholic Democrat,’ Oxymoronic or Just Moronic?”
I fully agree with the Democratic party’s analysis of why Harris lost in a landslide to that nasty, fascist, racist, mysogynist, adulterer, lying, brash, $&#@ Trump. Those who voted for Trump as exactly like him, totally depraved, deplorable, & stupid.
I wish the Democratic party continue their campaign for extreme abortion with no exceptions, transgender rights, LGBTQ rights, CRT, releasing criminals & rapists back to the streets, encouraging homelessness & drug addictions, taking away of parental rights in educating their children, & continue to call Trump voters as deplorables, stupid, calling Blacks who don’t vote Black as ain’t Black, Latino & Latina voters as LatinX, saving democracy from the fascist GOP.
I wish conservatives media encourage Democrats to continue with their political policies forever. This is the best political strategy for the GOP, encourage Democrats in their social justice hallu, er crusade. We saw how effective this was last Nov 5.
Kamala, is that you?!
Best quip of the month, Carl. Perhaps of the entire year!
I personally don’t think it was that much of a landslide It looks that way because of the electoral college, but the popular vote was pretty close. The House is controlled by the GOP, but not by a 2/3 majority. Dittos the Senate. This was not the overwhelming, crushing victory that the media portrays.
Kazoy;
Shouldn’t you have issued a ‘sarc’ alert? It is certainly de rigeur in such circumstances.
Good satire should be a tad more subtle.
Catholics voted the way they did because because they were frightened of a Federal government that was bloated, cost the hardworking taxpayer dearly while government employees “worked” from home and viewed those paying their salaries as mindless dupes.
Catholics voted the way they did because a majority of them believe that men are men and women are women and there are no other possibilities.
And DeaconEdwardPeitler, catholics also are tired of the fear produced and money wasted on the man-made climate change hoax.
On the mark !
Catholics voted the way they did because families could no longer afford putting food on the table.
First I congratulate editor Olson on a smashing comparison between Fascism and Synodality. What makes it so pointed a similarity is not exactly their embeddedness, or raw power, rather their raw imperviousness [Olson cleverly hints at this saying, And no amount of screeching, shouting, and shrill falsehoods are going to make it otherwise] to moral order and sanctity.
Who could think it’s possible to convert Joe Biden to Catholicism, or even less likely James Martin SJ to Catholicism?
Catholics voted the way they did because they were fed up with the hate, vitriol, name-calling, nastiness and lies of the leftist Democrat Party.
Catholics voted the way they did because they were tired of seeing the Democrats use the law in perverted ways to suppress the political voice of those in opposition to them.
I voted for Trump because of the Deacon’s reasons, and also why not!?
Not having to listen to Kamala’s insufferable whining voice for the next 4 years, along with that wuss by the name of Tim Walz is an absolute relief.
Trump is not the Savior of the world; Kamala wants to be, but sucks to be her,
that title belongs to the Christ.
Trump is the 47th President-Elect of the United States, and it’s time to rub that fact into the faces of the smug liberals who have wrecked this country, and basically bankrupted it by cutting numerous checks to a third world country mooching off our tax money and more importantly, our military’s equipment and artillery supplies. Biden may have deliberately started WW3 by allowing Ukraine to fire American made weapons into Russian territory. Thanks Joe.
1/20/2025 can’t get here fast enough.
Recognition of the moral dimension as a motivation for the majority Catholic vote cannot be lost. Catholics, however nominal nonetheless hold on to convictions of good and evil, the evil of transgender and mutilation of children is one. There’s too much evidence of brutal police tactics against right to lifers.
We have to seize the moment with a vigorous witness to the evil perversion of the family, the beauty and good of Christian marriage. This election result was more than economics.
Servant of God Father John Hardon SJ noted that there is no such thing as a “Liberal” or “Conservative” Catholic. You are either a Catholic in good standing who accepts the teachings of the Church, or you are not. As for the “Catholic” Left, based on the comments of it’s self-professed members the term is definitely an oxymoron.
Great article, Mr. Olson. I especially liked your phrase. “synodal hacks.”
So many people prayed that this election would result in the defeat of the Biden/Harris policies so evil and harmful. God heard our prayers and the intercession of the Saints and Angels in Heaven who were asked for assistance. Most notably, the Patroness of the United States, Our Lady. Now let us thank our God and convert. Time is of the essence!
Well said, Carl!
What makes a Catholic “liberal”, if , in this case a “liberal”, is no longer Catholic having defected from The Catholic Faith?
Catholic leftists have always benefitted from a swollen USCCB bureaucracy largely in bed with the Democratic National Committee. Abortion has always been the burr in the saddle, because it forces them to admit they are Democratic Catholics, not Catholics who happen to be Democrats. That’s why they’ve always minimized what Vatican II called an “unspeakable crime against God and man,” gaslighting us into believing that immigration control and ending people’s lives were just two variables to be considered in making election choices. It provided protection for Democrat politicians who happened to be Catholics who should have been thrown out of office by their fellow Catholics (Biden, Kennedy, Cuomo, Phil and Chris Murphy, Markey, Kaine, Hochul, Newsom, Brown, et al). The protection they received and keep receiving from members of the episcopal class (e,g, McElroy, Cupich) enables them to perpetuate anti-Catholic policies. One would think bishops might give thought to what they are preparing for themselves in eternity.
Excellent points, Mr. Grondelski.
It’s terribly upsetting that so many U.S. bishops appear not to believe in what the Church teaches when the elections come around.
Of course, over the past eleven or twelve years, it’s been a tad concerning that the pope himself doesn’t appear to believe in what the Church teaches all year round.
Brineyman, I say “MPCA” i.e. Make the Papacy Catholic Again.
But never has the damage by bad bishops been so pronounced and dramatic then when, charitably speaking, a confused mind ascended to the Chair of Peter.
Spot on Mr G; hopefully synodality will prevail to help us cooperatively clean up our own liberal house…nicely; but effectively,even if it means we have a smaller Church.(Pope B xvi).
Mr Olsen- A very fine article on all counts. Keep the wisdom coming!
Dan
Hey Grondolsi, what’s this thingy about “eternity”?
It’s almost as if we think there’s a sort of binary between time and eternity, when we really now know scientifically that even binary sexuality is a fiction, to be replaced by gender theory, and the blessing of irregular “couples” enamored by the anti-binary “third option.”
But, about eternity, here’s a reasonable insight from a noted scientist, some dead white dude named Oppenheimer:
“Our civilizations perish; the carved stone, the written word, the heroic act fade into a memory and in the end are gone [….] Yet no man, be he agnostic or Buddhist or Christian, thinks wholly in these terms. His acts, his thoughts, what he sees of the world around him—the falling of a leaf or a child’s joke or the rise of the moon—are part of history; but they are not only part of history; they are part of becoming and of process but not only that: they partake also of the world outside of time; they partake of the light of eternity.
“These two ways of thinking, the way of time and history and the way of eternity and of timelessness, are both part of man’s effort to comprehend the world in which he lives. Neither is comprehended in the other nor reducible to it [!]. They are, as we have learned to say in physics, complementary views, each supplementing the other, neither telling the whole story” (J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Science and the Common Understanding,” Simon and Schuster, 1953, p. 69).
*All Catholics are Democrats* Here in New York State (Upstate too), Catholics have been voting Democrat for at least 100 yrs. Historical fact. The Albany Diocese has been in bed with the Albany Democrat ‘machine’ for at least 100 yrs also. Habits are not habits, they are beliefs. Politics is very much a religion, it is a belief system. Here in NYS, the Bible-bases KJV churches and communities are stocked full of former Catholics. When I read the comments of “Democrat Catholics”, this is the Catholicism I have known all of my 60 yrs. As Fr James Altman said, “Former Catholic” is the #1 Denomination right now. People voted against Injustice. People voted agaisnt Disorder. People voted against Corruption. People voted against Institutions. The Catholic Church is indeed an ‘institution’ with all of the ‘legalese’, rules and regulations, etc. View the current schism this way, and you will understand the division.
The COVID lockdowns starting March 2020. For centuries, the Eucharist has been the centerpiece of Catholicism. As a boy, and as an adult, I would witness the priest pick up the Eucharist off the floor if it was dropped. Father was not concerned for his health or safety. He would consume the Eucharist. Didn’t matter if there was dog feces on the floor from someone’s shoe, road salt from the walkway outside, etc. The Transfigured Host is Jesus. Without earthly sin or perfect and clean. I have believed the Eucharist cannot possibly make you sick. We all were taught this to be true…until March of 2020. For the first time in centuries, earthly pox was deemed so terrible, all Catholic churches in NYS (upstate) were ordered to close. During a time of sickness and fear, lonliness and confusion, the “institution” slammed the door on the flock. The religious institution of the Catholic Church, and the Secular institution of Government, like Caiaphas and Pilate, worked together to deny Christ. When the Religious Institution is indistinguishable from Secular Government, the Church is now a social club. This may help some understand the schism with Catholicism. Paraphrasing Father James Altman, no Catholics voted Democrat…they’re not Catholic. If you truly learn Christ’s ministry right up to His sham trial and execution, you will understand that he was killed by the collusion of the Religious Institution and Secular government. You either believe in Jesus, or the teachings of the combined Religious/Secular institutions. The schism is crystal clear to those in Bible KJV based churches as to why there is a schism inside the Catholic Church.
The reason why Catholics voted the way they did is that they were sick and tired of leftist Democrats trying to give the impression that they are superior to everyone else. HINT: YOU ARE NOT.
It appears that you think you are above it all. Pay close attention to the next 4 years. It has been said when faced with the choice between two evils. Choose neither. The choice that was made may not be what you think.
Haters gotta hate!
Barney: Which is why we should never stop praying for Trump and the new administration. The devil never sleeps.
I have liked really much your articule and i support Mr.Olhson a spanish citizen that i were from United States i would have voted for Trump.
The forces of evil took a beating in this election, but the fight continues.Christ Our King, save us, Our Lady and All the Saints, intercede for us.Amen
Editor Mr. Carl E Olson, thank you for being the perennial voice of reason-(recalling God’s gifts to mankind of both faith & reason)- for your very fine points all! And comments from Mrs C, Athanasius, Fr Peter M, et. al.- music to my ears! Prayers for our blessed nation & our leaders continue.🎶M
Well dang! So many exploding heads and so few brains. Thank you Carl for reading this garbage so I don’t have to. Looks like you got a whole Lent’s worth of penance from one blog post.
Simple question, how can a Baptized Catholic , or a Pope for that matter, condone the destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter residing in their mother’s womb, and/ or the sin of sodom and remain in communion with The One Body Of Christ?
Thanks, Carl. These posts and screeds are amusing from a distance. In a saner era, these so-called liberal Catholics were simply called apostates and heretics.
This is not good news:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/scott-bessents-rise-through-finance-us-treasury-2024-11-22/
Outstanding work, Mr. Olson! There’s not a false note in the entire article. I agree with the commenter who said your article was best analysis of the election. It’s unfortunate that many commenters failed to see your point but as Scripture says in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, and Acts, one can have eyes but not see and ears but not hear.
My hope for the second Trump term:
Voter ID
Term limits
Eliminate the Federal Income tax
secure the border
cut government spending dramatically
invigorate USA manufacturing
reduce unconstitutional government regulations
world peace through strength and termination of world wide color revolutions
de-politicize the DOJ FBI CIA & etc
As I understand it – the above is the Trump agenda.
Let the haters hate his objectives and explain themselves.
On the moral issue;
It is the job of the Catholic Church to evangelize itself and turn the eyes of this Nation back to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Only then will the murder of Holy Innocents in the womb be defeated.
60% of ‘Catholics’ are pro-choice – a Satanic lie to justify murder. It is never said from the pulpit because the bitch-ups would fire the priest.
It is my humble opinion that Jesus would not be on the side of an “anything goes” social struture- which America is/was heading towards. This election was all about stopping this trajectory.
Then throw in the very real prospect of WW3 and folks woke from their slumber and voted for disruptive change.
Also, Kamala was an awful candidate.