MGB:_Senator Flake used to have some very flaky ideas when he and Pence were in the House advoctig the worst kind of fiscal conservativsm. Both have come a long way, but Flake has chosen the path of sanity. Pence still drinks the Kool-Aid of hyper-partisan idiocy.
For an AFL-CIO and Church partnership to matter, both need to be radicalized into something more than protectionism and a slightly better welfare state. Real worker empowerment and ownership would be a starting point. A stronger and more direct role for religious institutions to provide government services instead of the government would be a valid step, but it would require more democratization in the Church, including moving more managerial power from the bishops chair and giving it back to a mixed gender lay deacoate. The Church’s current culture warrrior stances, including resisting female ordination limit how much they can be trusted as a partner in a move to democratize the workplace. Right now, there is too much hierarchism on both sides for anyone to really care.
Tesla is taking its grid initiative nation-wide. It is a major attack on the power company monopolies and is why in some places they are pushing back on systems which require them to buy power. If Puerto Rico’s power company does not get their systems back soon, they may lose a huge customer base.
Ideology can be dangerous, but it can also lead to reforms like Social Security and affordable health care. The fight over how much of our life is public, how much is private and whether wealth (and more importantly power) and how are all matters of ideology. Frankly, the ideology of Catholic Social Teaching is a form of demoncratic socialism. It should admit it this and help become an organizing force, like with the unions, but it needs to its own house in order as well and become a bit more internally democratically socialist, including offering hierarchs an exit if they won’t agree.
LSN resisting Cupich is not news. The best hope for real progress on Life is to get it out of the Republican echo chamber. I suspect that the Cardinal’s opponent is part of the problem.
Fr. Z left me off the list. I am crushed, especially because I have the most damning criticisms of the pro-life movement and effectively communicated them to NARAL and the Obama campaign, which used them according to the NARAL Public Relations person who confirmed their impact, which was Catholics voting for Obama at the same rate as the general population. Of course, ignoring the opposition is often the best way to marginalize effective dissent. I wish my fellow leftists would not join them. Troll fighting keeps them too far under the radar. My attacks on the Dubia as the ranting of washed up former bishops provide the best defense of Francis. It is not that I am trying to get to Burke’s level but that he is sinking to mine. Lastly, to defend Francis is to defend Vatican II and the entire Church. All of us who do so wear that as a badge of honor.
No comments:
Post a Comment