How Catholic social teaching improves all 'four Americas'

How Catholic social teaching improves all 'four Americas' 

The four Americas roughly correspond to the cultural typology of Mary Douglass and Aaron Wildavsky, with Free America correspondence to high group, high organization hierarchy, Just America to high group, low organization egalitarianism, Smart America to low group, low organization libertarianism and Real America to low group, high organization authoritarianism.

A healthy society has room for each way of life. Indeed, too much or too little of each culture is dangerous, even and especially the egalitarians (see the Terror and Pol Pot).

The Church could use a bit of cultural analysis. University theologians correspond to libertarian free thought, the hierarchy to the clergy, authoritarianism to the desire for the people to pay, pray and obey and egalitarianism with social justice and communal (read Franciscan) egalitarianism. Each way of life has its dysfunctions as well. Especially in the Church.

How each Pope fits into these dynamics is pretty obvious. Note that the same Pope who started Catholic Social Teaching also condemned Americanism and the right to strike. St. John's council overthrew the authoritarianism of Popes Pius IX and X and embraced respect for religious diversity - with Francis continuing in that Spirit (not using the royal We in his letters). The right of conscience is libertarian - including the right to form one's conscience as well as to deal with how one deals with moral dilemmas.

When it sheds its asexual bias, ordains women and embraces sexuality for its own sake, I will concede it has made progress. Francis is moving the organizational culture in the right direction, but the Church has a long way to go, especially in respecting the rights of others. Not firing gay people who get married would be a good start. 

Will Texas voter restrictions backfire?

Will Texas voter restrictions backfire? 

The Department of Justice still reviews election policies. The only change was that there is no more preclearance. When (not if) they do so, will there be Republican backlash against the Democrats when Biden's Justice Department steps in? Will it be greater than Democratic backlash for the original law. I suspect that the mutual indignation will cancel out any advantage. Most rank and file voters don't really care. Activists, however, will be motivated. They had to be, because the Trump Justice Department did not do its job. Not this time.

Next year, we will be in the start of a Depression (asset values below loans owed). The current housing market will explode, but not quite yet. Unless the White House is pro-active, Biden will get the blame. The other wild card is Yellowstone. It has been having frequent earthquakes of a size that is worrying. If Biden handles the recovery from a super volcano well, the effect will be like 2004 post 9/11. If he does not, it will be like 2006 post-Katrina.

Links: Trump's coattails, flipping the Senate and corporate tax rates

Links: Trump's coattails, flipping the Senate and corporate tax rates 

In 2012, 3 rabid Tea Partiers went down to defeat in Senate races - one against Harry Reid. The best way to flip the Senate to the Dems is to give money to Trump supporters. Of course, Trump may be in a correctional treatment facility (for criminally insane) or his eternal resting place by 2022 (or 2024). He may be bankrupt next week. This kind of takes the shine off his brand.

Zucman and Wezerek's tax reform would legitimize speculative wealth. Wealth and liquidity are not the same thing - and much of wealth is a mirage. To get at luxury spending, a value added tax is a better bet. If the subject reform also includes higher family income payments (child tax credit) paid through other benefits, employers or the IRS directly (the current method), the system would not be regressive. To get at wealth, salary surtaxes and an asset value added tax (with no exception for mutual funds) will do a much better job than a wealth tax.

There are many ways to slice America into political or social tribes based on both wealth and culture/race/class. Authoritarianism is a lot more popular than you think. Many people who identify as libertarian are actually the former. If money buys your obedience or the obedience of others, you are an authoritarian. Authoritarians who are also in the working class (bottom 3rd of total adjusted gross income) generally vote GOP or Dem based on ethnicity. Working class AGI is about $3Trillion total. 

The middle class (from 6% to 20% - income up to $85,000 AGI)  They get $4.5T. They are hardly decadent and split their votes - although this time they voted for Joe. The upper class get the top $4 Trillion. They are mostly white and they split their votes. Only to top 0.1% is entitled this is the line where more than half of income is from not-working. Rich authoritarians are in both parties, although many in the middle and upper class are more motivated by duty (hierarchists) or creativity (libertarians) than obedience. Rich egalitarians usually have trust funds.

I went to a American U., a top 10 school of Public Administration (my year we were #4 for MPA programs). I worked for my money and was paid to go - any debt I held was because stipends were inadequate to pay all expenses. Scholarship and most loan students do not feel entitled. That would be those who are rich - and being rich is all about luck, not merit.

To dis meritocracy while dishing on Prada is the very essence of cognitive dissonance. 

Pope Francis' latest lesson in ecclesiology

Pope Francis' latest lesson in ecclesiology 

The lesson of Francis is his example. He no longer uses the royal "we." By omitting one word, he has abandoned the Magic Magisterium of Pius IX through St. John Paul, all without saying a word. This preserves the myth of continuity while simply ignoring what came before. This is both inspired and understandable in any analysis of the very human institution, which is the Church. He is our beloved Pastor. Sadly, the prayers for his health are not universal, regardless of what the old order says outwardly (which he is outlasting).

Links: Stagflation, judicial review, living out American ideals

Links: Stagflation, judicial review, living out American ideals 

Some people with mental illness or differing abilities need more expensive care. Until Medicaid is entirely federalized, state governments will resist expanding services to more expensive residential settings.

Congress rarely rules federal laws unconstitutional, especially under Chief Roberts. Conservatives generally object to rulings that set aside state laws. Shifting these cases to congressional action would essentially end the ability to do this, essentially bringing back Plessy v. Ferguson. Not a chance.

Stagflation happens when a recession is mixed with inflation. If money is poured into the consumer sector to make the economy go faster, the danger is hyper-stagflation. This is why there is a move to end COVID subsidies, which keep the economy deliberately idle. Prices are already increasing, so giving people loans (such as easy term mortgage loans) or more payments looks like an easy solution. It is not, although retirees and the disabled, as well as TANF and Food Stamp recipients, need more money to get by. If people go back to work, quantity supplied will increase and prices will go down.

Critical race theory gets beyond the assumption that everything is fine now that legal segregation has ended. Racism is both baked into the system and into human DNA. Neuroscience shows that our automatic reactions to those that are different are fear and hate. It takes deliberate mental effort to bypass our automatic reactions and doing so takes training in critical race theory.

The founding guaranteed capitalists the right to have their legislators close at hand. It was a triumph of the authoritarian system which allows one person to control the labor of another, even if cloaked in the "free market." If money buys obedience, the transaction is not entirely free. Opposition to critical race theory is an attempt to keep workers from uniting and keeping people of color to adopt a more radical economic program. 

Don't get me started on how the Catholic Church has failed on this front as well, although Francis shows promise. Most popes hated the Enlightenment, even after its embrace at St. John's Council. They also hate Marx, although the feeling is mutual. This also keeps real reform at bay. Critical theory holds that all things are to be held up for reexamination. The Church should welcome that, rather than stand on tradition, and use any such analysis as an examination of conscience.

This Fourth of July, let's see if we can keep our democracy

This Fourth of July, let's see if we can keep our democracy 

The lesson of Independence Day is that rights are more important than governments. Things go wrong when governments don't respect these rights and when the government drops the ball in deference to tyranny. 

The Civil War happened because the tyranny of the slave power, which punished or killed abolitionists within its borders, went unchecked. 

COVID spread because the symptoms which people confused with just a cold or just allergies are precursors to the serious illness (with a break in between for the virus to grow before the body fights back). 

The powers that be in the White House, knowing that Trump was insane, did not have the courage to remove him. I don't blame Trump. It is Pence's sin. He had promised Melania he would not ever remove him. That should have been his first clue. 

People who can act, must act. Don't expect the peasantry to do it - they vote for people like Trump.

Links: GOP donor pays to deploy troops, heatwave shows rise in climate events

Links: GOP donor pays to deploy troops, heatwave shows rise in climate events 

Biden will federalize the SD Guard and send them home (unless the NGB beats him to it). Noem and Kapenga have learned the lesson of Trump and Ryan, that stupidity is good at rallying the GOP base. That GOP states do the bidding for Koch industries is not news.

Yellowstone National Park is having earthquakes and magna buildup (the ground is rising). We may not have to worry about warming much longer - or eating our veggies. That kind of eruption could trigger the Cascadia fault and San Andreas. It is not gay marriage that is bring the wrath of God, it is the accumulation of wealth. 

Sectarianism includes Protestantism, especially the Evangelicals who are now in the GOP bed with the Evangelicals. The pending letter is about all pro-choice politicians, especially precinct workers. That is why they are rushing it to this November. November 2022 is too late for this purpose. 

It is incumbent on Biden not to make this about him or about women. It needs to be about the law in relation to state government power and the impossibility of recognizing any rights for the unborn without also holding mothers vulnerable to both investigation and punishment. The only answer to abortion is the Biden tax proposals. He needs to get the bishops to make these an essential pro-life vote.