First, is there really such a thing as an official list 5 Non-Negotiables for Catholic voters? Who said so? The pope? I hear and see this list a lot. But is it just a tool devised for electing politicians who claim to be Pro-Life?
Secondly, are the following NOT on a list of Non-Negotiables?
(1) Denial of religious liberty for persons of all religions. (Presently the presidential administration is being sued for denial of religious liberty in forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives in their insurance plans)
(2) The Catholic Just War Doctrine (using that doctrine Blessed Pope John Paul II unequivocally condemned the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US and the UK; if Pope Pius XII had spoken out the way Blessed John Paul II did, maybe WWII and the Holocaust would have never occurred.). Why would this NOT be a non-negotiable. It DIRECTLY involves the KILLING of human beings.
(3) Racist legislation, or ending of legislation that makes racist discrimination illegal in hiring, housing, etc.
(4) Denial of lifesaving health care to Americans lacking the funds to pay for it. [at a political rally recently conservatives in the audience infamously chanted “Let them die!” for people without health insurance]
Even worse, all parties have consultants who advise the party leaders on how to win election. It has been reported that these consultants have advised professedly pro-life politicians to make only token efforts to criminalize abortion, since if abortion ever is criminalized, that will make it very hard for some politicians to get elected on the basis of conservative religious voters for whom lower taxes and less regulations on big corporations is not a galvanizing issue.
Some people have been puzzled about why professedly pro-life presidents have nominated people to the Supreme Court who turn out to vote pro-choice on abortion. Some have said that this was planned, so that abortion would remain legal and thus a constant campaign issue to be used to get the votes of conservative religious voters. In short, the conclusion is that politicians who claim to accept Catholic Pro-Life Doctrine but who dissent from Catholic Social Doctrine, on the basis that the Pro-Life Doctrine is a more grave matter, are, in fact, in some cases, just manipulating conservative religious voters.
Former Senator John Danforth, who ran as a pro-life politicians for his who career, after he retired wrote a book in which he confessed that he was not really fully pro-life and hated going to churches full of evangelicals in which he had to pretend to share their views. He said that the disagree with Roe vs. Wade, but only because he said he thought it had no solid basis in the Constitution. Rather, in his true view (kept secret during his career in politics, by his own admission) was that abortion laws should be decided by each state government, and he is okay if some states keep abortion legal. I cite him as just one example of a pretend pro-life politician. In my view, there are MANY more like him.
In politics, as in war, the “divide and conquer” strategy is one of the most effective. Dividing Catholics into those who vote only the basis of Pro-Life issues from those who give much value to Catholic Social Doctrine is way for both Godless Socialists and Godless Capitalists to get elected and to work together to lead the nation and the world further and further down the path to a Godless, Brutal Society.
At least, that’s one way of looking at all this.
) Party “A” and Party “B”. I really wish there could be a third party in America (e.g Christian Democratic), but there won’t ever be one that will work.