Remembering Mario Cuomo | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: No doubt Mario was an intellectual heavyweight. There is also no doubt,however, that he had talented speech writers and senior advisers who helped him hone his message for maximum political gain. The venue ironic, in retrospect and it goes to why some bishops were so averse to Obama going there. Is there a Catholic politician who could deliver this speech? Maybe Biden if it was written for him - indeed I wish he would do an abortion speech, but be less kind to the Church. Not sure Joe could do that.
The comments about consumerism being the enemy of religion are true to the extent that the pursuit of wealth is the enemy of faith. Of course, as a New York Governor, one could hardly expect a full throated attack on capitalism, especially from a possible presidential candidate. That takes money from capitalists. Consumerism is the one thing that makes capitalism bearable for most workers - without the outlet of consumer goods there would certainly be a revolt by workers - of course, many of us would not mind such a revolt at all. Indeed, I would have put this at the end and joined it to a call for much higher aid to families with children, irregardless of income, as a way to reduce the number of abortions. As it was, these remarks were simply throwing a bone to the hierarchy. It didn't work.
The Church as a whole has stayed out of endorsing candidates based on abortion, but they have spoken in code about the issue ever since more than one bishop has joined the National Right to Life Committee (you can see them at the March for Life every January 22nd). Anyone who has been to Mass during the 40 day for life before each election knows that the Church is playing favorites, even though abortion is not an electoral issue (unless Congress were to enact the status quo into law and end this controversy).
On the other side, the pro choice vote is important, mostly because the teachers unions are important to the Democrats - and the women who staff the political conventions, from counties to the nominating convention for President, are mostly pro-choice teachers. NARAL-Pro Choice America has a rather small staff, with a large group of supporters and Planned Parenthood staff at the local level are hardly a political force - its the teachers that make a difference. It is true that Alice Germond is a force in the Democratic Party, but that is because of her force of character, not her ties to NARAL.
The meat of the speech was Cuomo describing how he was personally pro life, but that he had to respect other organizations, especially churches, who were pro-choice. His call for a conversation may have been interesting, but it would not have been honest. The result of this speech was on out for every Catholic politician in the Democratic Party, up to and including Vice President Biden and a number of Catholic Supreme Court Justices. The counter punch are bishops like Raymond Burke who would and have denied these politicians Communion - although any and all Justices who this was tried on would have to recuse themselves from any and all abortion cases - essentially thwarting the GOP's stated strategy of overturning Roe in the Court.
Cuomo's slavery discussion is interesting, although legal slavery's end with the war did not really stop the bondage of black workers who were enslaved by southern justice and often sold to capitalist countries from the north. Indeed, until the sixties, some Catholic Communion rails were still segregated - but the difference is that the Church began taking a leadership role against segregation and is a partner in the Civil Rights movement of today. This is akin to some hierarchs coming out as pro-choice as a legal matter while pushing hard for an expanded child tax credit and higher minimum wage. Maybe in a generation.
There is an alternate scenario for Catholic politicians. It would be to tell the truth about legal abortion - not the usual dead fetus pictures, which are very rare, by the way - but a discussion on why abortion is and must be legal and the impossibility of overturning Roe in the Court while preserving much of the equal protection law now on the books. The bishops actually hate this body of law - as it mandates gay marriage and allows sodomy and birth control under the name of privacy - while keeping these issues federalized. Justice Scalia and his friends in the USCCB would overturn all of that - however this would also overturn the equal protection rights the Church absolutely needs in much of the South (where the Pope is still thought of as the ant-Christ) and this body of law is the best hope we have for overturning Blaine Amendments preventing pubic money for Catholic Schools.
A Catholic politician could also lay out how using other means to give personhood to the unborn would make dealing with miscarriage as a legal matter much more complicated, since every such case would become a public event. No one who has ever been married and had to face this wants such nonsense to happen.
A Catholic pro-choice politician could even administer the coup de grace and lay out the fact that the pro-life movement knows and understands these things (including the code endorsing a Human Life Amendment which really means that I am with you but I won't do anything that will pass) and makes the same arguments anyway - not to actually overturn abortion, but to keep it alive as an issue for their own electoral and financial well being. That would be something to see - although this is a high risk strategy because the USCCB is complicit in the scam that is the pro-life movement - and speaking that truth could alienate brainwashed Catholic voters who really believe that abortion is the issue of our times. Its not, taxes are and they always will be. Indeed, the GOP faithful supports the party on life issues for the interests of those who support it and control it for tax issues - those 400 families who support Americans for Tax Reform and their agenda.
I hope someone connects the dots soon. The anti-abortion sanctimony is about to make me hurl. If only Cuomo had had the political courage to make such an attack in 1984. If only Biden would today. Or Clinton (who is not Catholic but who could make most of the argument with a straight face in 2016. Or maybe even one of Cuomo's own sons. Now that would be ironic.
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