[Politics] What do you think of this question from Quora and some of its answers

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Please be wary about reading this, I don’t want to harm, damage or scandalize anyone’s Faith but instead get answers but not at the expense of anyone. I know this is a toxic topic but I want replies.

I’m not practicing right but I wanted to present this link from Quora which provides multiple answers (I didn’t read it band really give it a look) that seem critical of Catholics and Christians who vote Republican, I take the site seriously so the answers get to me (despite myself not exactly being a staunch or ardent conservative) and rhetoric like this makes up conjure up the thoughts that the Republicans seem like the villains and bad guys. What would you say to someone who feel self-conscious because of they see the Republicans as evil and voting for them means the voter turns into a villain himself (this person, me, takes things too personally and seriously, gets emotional invested)? How do you answer for yourselves?

And what do you guys think of Quora, the people seem slanted and biased but they do explain themselves. The answers from there get to me and affect me.

And don’t they have a point and a basis to argue from, the Republicans might agree on a few issues but it seems like the broader or more holistic theme seems to be attuned to the Democrats; for example, they seem more for the poor specially since they are not so keen on austerity measures cutting resources that the needy depend on, historically, they seemed to be the party that was less keen on foreign adventurism, and other issues that make them out to be humanitarian?
 
What about concerns that conservative Christians turn into pharisees (judging people instead of focusing on helping the poor, those in need and disadvantaged) or worse, sell-outs like they support President Trump thus compromising their values, ethics, morality and decency and tarnishing their image (people won’t be converted or leave because of the conservative image)? And how American Christians specially among people outside the U.S seem like a contradiction with their support for a more conservative agenda than a progressive and humanitarian one. And then there is the Border Crisis, ideally, shouldn’t it have been dealt with in a more humane and pastoral manner and what about the fact that the Holy Family was in a similar situation? Why does it seem like the Republicans are so far from what Christians ought to be (from my view and possibly very well the view of many others) and more like pharisees?

I know that conservatives and libertarian Christians and Catholics say they support charity but what about the problem of the non-profit sector getting overwhelmed and a concerns about the ends; will lukewarm people be able to contribute enough and what about the examples of people failed by their Church and community? Realize I’m being judgmental myself but I do buy into these things and want to see a response as slanted as it sounds (prove to me that you’re not really a villain).
 
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RCIAGraduate said:
I’m not practicing right but I wanted to present this link from Quora which provides multiple answers (I didn’t read it band really give it a look) that seem critical of Catholics and Christians who vote Republican, I take the site seriously so the answers get to me (despite myself not exactly being a staunch or ardent conservative) and rhetoric like this makes up conjure up the thoughts that the Republicans seem like the villains and bad guys.
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All politicians are insufficient. And so what if many Christians vote for Republicans? Are the Democrats any better? Of course, not. They’re just different poisons.
The problem right now is so many people want to see politicians and parties as their saviours, rather than sinners, many of whom, regardless of party, are in open and proud rebellion against God.
RCIAGraduate said:
And what do you guys think of Quora, the people seem slanted and biased but they do explain themselves. The answers from there get to me and affect me.
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I’d take anything on Quora with a pinch of salt. Popular opinions aren’t always right.
RCIAGraduate said:
What about concerns that conservative Christians turn into pharisees (judging people instead of focusing on helping the poor, those in need and disadvantaged) or worse, sell-outs like they support President Trump thus compromising their values, ethics, morality and decency and tarnishing their image (people won’t be converted or leave because of the conservative image)? And how American Christians specially among people outside the U.S seem like a contradiction with their support for a more conservative agenda than a progressive and humanitarian one.
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People, particularly non-Christians but increasingly many Christians, throw around the term “Pharisee” without knowing who the Pharisees were and why Jesus condemned them. The Pharisees helping or not helping the poor wasn’t the main criticism. I don’t recall where Jesus condemned the Pharisee over not helping the poor so the Pharisees likely helped the poor but hated them for being “below” them.
The Pharisees were condemned for hypocrisy, not having love for God but act devout to look good.
Doing good isn’t good enough. So actually, both Republicans and Democrats are Pharisaic in this respect.
 
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To provide a fuller reply to some of the more interesting stuff:
However, when I vote I do so as an American and not as a Catholic.
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I don’t really get this mentality. Sure, there’s no official list of must-vote stances from the Church (don’t bother citing unofficial ones because I know they exist), but as Catholics, our primary duty is to God and Church, not America. At some point, your vote should be taking into account Catholic morality. For instance, in the abortion case, if you actually believe the aborted child is a living human, as the Church teaches, it doesn’t make much sense to vote in such a way that plays loosely with that. Would you let others who think killing adults get away with it because you don’t want to force your morality on others?

And I don’t think there’s that many issues where this applies unambiguously, and all the ones I can think of are right-to-life related. But even on the ambiguous issues, we should be taking into account what God would call us to do if it weren’t a vote and more our time to speak up for something/someone.

Granted, I’m pretty sure if anyone were to do a thoughtful Catholic analysis of both parties where they weren’t simply trying to justify their own previous decision, they’d come out frustrated.
RCIAGraduate said:
And what do you guys think of Quora, the people seem slanted and biased but they do explain themselves.
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I’ve got low opinions on Quora in general. Some tech discussions are occasionally serviceable, though I would say StackOverflow, Medium, and a few subreddits are far superior, to the point I just mentally ignore Quora results on Google searches. And that’s at its best. A lot of other topics just make me go:

 
My more cynical self would say that the Democrats and Republicans are not even as good as the Pharisees, because at least the Pharisees did help the poor albeit in a hypocritical way, whereas neither major party does much helping in any manner.
 
Sir, I heard you’re a professor, if I may ask you out of left-field, but as an professor, what is your take on the whole idea that the way to end poverty or the cycle of poverty? Do you think that holds even for a rather developed place like the United States, can we really retool and equip our schools with the resources to gradually, naturally and sustainably alleviate poverty over the generations?
 
I have no magic-bullet solution to ending poverty. In the U.S., LBJ launched the war on poverty back in the mid-1960’s and we still have poverty. There are so many variables and influences at work: family cohesion and culture, religious and moral values, neighborhood crime, racial tension, gender inequality, availability of educational resources, corporate investment, technological tools, the burden of student debt, to name a few. With regard to school, I will say that targeted programs can help place students into good-paying jobs that are not fast becoming obsolete, such as computer science, business administration, nursing school, veterinary school, and the like. Not everyone wants or needs a liberal arts education. And for those students who want to major in fields such as English, foreign language, philosophy, or the social sciences, career counseling would be beneficial so that they gain some knowledge concerning which professions can use the skills they have learned.
 
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RCIAGraduate said:
I don’t want to harm, damage or scandalize anyone’s Faith
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This is kind of a regular refrain from you.
I would gently remind you that you are on an apologetics forum.
Most people who come here are not going to have their faith disturbed by reading some random crowdsourced Quora question, which is just another flavor of Internet popcorn.

Quora is pretty much garbage; the only time it’s marginally useful is getting a perspective about history from a bona fide historian, or about something going on in a country from a resident of that country (example: asking how the Queen is perceived by people in the UK and getting some responses from educated UK residents). For the most part, I don’t waste my time with it. One reason I don’t is that as someone else said, you can find the same stuff or better on Reddit, or if like me you know some historians or people from UK in real life, you can just ask them.
 
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What is Quora and why is it relevant? (Rhetorical)

More has been spent studying poverty than on eradicating it.

However, poverty is largely (not completely) a symptom - a result if you will - of poor personal/moral/lifestyle choices. The problem is that government, being amoral, is loathe to broach those subjects, thus rendering aid programs ineffective at best.

Those fitting into the ever-revised definition of poverty generally live in cities where the cost of living is quite high. Opportunity may be sought in the cities, but an untenable cost of living is the usual discovery.

Fixing “poverty” in America, although immensely complex in nature, is substantially fixing morals - and we are roundly condemned for making such suggestions.

I have found two Catholic charities in Africa that do radical things such as dig wells, provide rudimentary medicine, basic nutrition and other essentials so that the affected populations do not die of things that are not even on our radar.
 
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RCIAGraduate said:
What would you say to someone who feel self-conscious because of they see the Republicans as evil and voting for them means the voter turns into a villain himself (this person, me, takes things too personally and seriously, gets emotional invested)?
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I’d say stay away from anything political. Mixing politics with emotions is an explosive combination.
RCIAGraduate said:
How do you answer for yourselves?
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Historical Fact: Democrats were the party of KKK, Jim Crow laws and eugenics.

It may come as a shock to you but the Republicans want the same things as the Democrats. The only difference is how we get there. Democrats favor doing it with big government and more government control. Remember… every time Congress passes a law you loose a little of your freedom.

Republicans prefer less government control and support of the public sector.

As for the immigration laws, it is the job of the President to enforce all laws and not cherry pick which laws he will enforce. Congress has the power to change immigration laws but do you see that happening? No, because the Democrats can’t afford to fix immigration laws because they need that issue to win the next election. It’s all about winning the next election. It’s much easier to blame the current administration than to acknowledge their party did the exact same thing when they were in power.

That’s the real hypocrisy of politics.

I remember when Johnson began his ‘war on poverty’ back in the 60s. Throwing money at poverty doesn’t end poverty. There are 3 things that enable people to escape poverty.
  1. Don’t have a child out of wedlock
  2. Get a high school diploma
  3. Get a job.
None of these are the responsibility of the government.
 
Voting is just a way of saying that I know how you should spend your money better than you do and I’m going to use lethal force to prove it.
 
po18guy said:
I have found two Catholic charities in Africa
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I would also recommend the Sisters of Notre Dame in India. They run schools & clinics for girls (of any religion). Perhaps the best thing is that in India, it’s the Indian nuns who run things.
 
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