Links for 1/3/19

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-1319
The problem is not Marsh, it is capitalism and the fact that what Marsh did has not been made illegal. If Marsh were employee-owned, the employees would be the shareholders, provided the ESOP debt had been paid, although if such companies and their debt were insured, everyone would get paid. Until there are enough such companies, the needs of the workers will always be secondary.

Dignitatis Humanae Institute is another horrible misnaming, like Acton and Susan B. Anthony Fund. If your name is a lie, chances are everything you say is as well and you are best ignored. That they have linked to Ray Burke shows their partisanship (and his). Raymond Arroyo is simply best ignored. Except for broadcasting Masses and Rosaries, EWTN should also be ignored (not just here, but the world over). Then again, so should Burke. Francis does a good job of that. We should follow his lead.

The Catholic Golden Age was the period of Triumphalism where the American Church could impose its values in censoring dissent, which it did within the Church in its fight against Modernism (the ideology that never existed), as well as modernity. Vatican II put the kibosh on that, although they likely were following the trend in society that fits nicely with the emergence of the baby boomers as a cultural force. Triumphalism also explains the ability of the Church to cover up the rape of children. There is nothing golden about that age, although it did get a reprise under St. John Paul. (Makes you wonder if canonization is simply identity politics).

The Catholic Herald will have a naming problem in the U,S., since that is also the name of the Arlington Diocese' newspaper. Stay tuned for a trademark fight.

Globalism is part of Capitalism. It was so when Marx penned Capital and it still is. The only antidote is employee-owners in the U,.S. acting in solidarity with the workers in their foreign subsidiaries and supply chains. Internationalism will follow. This is another way that Marxism beats Liberalism.

The New Republic(an) has no idea what identity politics is. It is actually a form of the old ethnic politics and it usually targets economically disadvantaged groups. Once the Irish were not the poor Irish, they ended their usefulness as a voting bloc. That the African-American vote is monolithic shows that, even among their middle class, they face real discrimination, from being suspect (and shot) to voter intimidation. They were Republican by and large, but became Democratic with the emergence of workers from the white working class, who constantly vote against their economic interests by voting Republican, due mostly to endemic racism.

There used to be a Catholic vote. The Democrats did not lose it, rather Catholics became economically, socially and even morally diverse. Accept for the hierarchy's affect on the mushy middle on abortion, they are no different from society a large (although this is likely true with many Protestants). Jews are no longer monolithic for the same reason, although they are almost universally zionist, although some of us have a decent respect for the rights of Palestinians.

Identity politics is simply an attempt to take care of groups that identify with your brand. Women are becoming an identity group, although to a lesser extent. That they have forced both parties to have equal representation by gender is primarily due to NEA members in the Democratic Party, with the Republicans trying to keep up. Why any woman would vote Republican, save for economic class, is vexing, since the women's movement (misnamed the sexual revolution) can be seen as the cause for economic empowerment, although there is much work to be done. Hillary was a symbol of this and might have won had she taken care of the Black vote and not ticked off the mushy middle Catholics by arguing for partial birth abortion rather than attacking the pro-life movement as the GOP at prayer and a scam.

As for the Christian Left, we ar hardly monolithic although we do reach across faith boundaries. We are economically liberal and socially libertarian (although the last point is not true for many Black pastors). If (ok, when) the GOP becomes the KKK voting, we are assuredly to follow the Bernie crew, who may go for Warren or someone else. It could be that younger voters have also begun a monolithic phase, since life for them is worse for their parents and worse than their parents.