Rove reveals what led to victory(credits president's win to strong turnout of churchgoers)

Houston Chronicle ^ | 11-10-04 | BENNETT ROTH

[cricket]

Thanks, Karl. . .

[NYer]

A CATHOLIC VOTER’S GUIDE -
THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those which fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.

1. Abortion

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.

The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child's, who should not suffer death for others' sins.

2. Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

4. Human Cloning

"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through 'twin fission,' cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).

Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

5. Homosexual "Marriage"

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.

"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).

ABBREVIATIONS

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church

CPL Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Notes on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life

CRF Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family

EV John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

RHL Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation

UHP Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons

---

Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[ClintonBeGone]

Rove is an absolute genius.

[NYer]

Ping!

[xJones]

"It will be left to somebody else who has a little bit more energy and interest than me," he said. "This will be the last presidential campaign I will ever do."

Say it ain't so, Karl!

[ClintonBeGone]

All those non-negotiable points and yet only 52% of Catholics voted for Bush. That's sad.

[Coldwater Creek]

I am sure that the turnout of Christian voters was a big factor in winning this election, but please do not discount the value of good, honest and moral conservative non-church goers. We should not be prideful and be gracious to towards all who helped to bring victory to the Bush/Cheney campaign.

[TXBSAFH]

Won due to high turn out of church goers, well isn't that just a hot, creamy, steaming five gallon bucket of duh.

[joesnuffy]

Would our system have been better off without the 527s? I think so," he said.

Would our system be better off without McCain Feingold? (this includes the bill ;))

[ConservativeDude]

Well this is a good time to say that the cup is half full...indeed more (52%) full. (GWB took 61% of evangelicals...this could be improved also).

In terms of those who identify themselves as Catholic or evangelical AND those who really are (you get the idea...true believers), I think Bush gets most of those votes.

The important thing is that the numbers are inching upwards on those who vote their faith, or put better, those who truly adopt their faith and apply it to all areas of life including the vote.

There are roughly 50 million Catholics in this country and 16 million Southern Baptists. Let's assume that half of that is registered to vote. That's 33 million.

The GOP should understand that if they EVER nominate someone who is pro abort or pro gay, and if the D's simultaneously nominate someone who is anti gay and at least for some restrictions on abortion, then the GOP will lose. I remind myself of this, because just last week I was wondering if only Rudy could take out Hillary. I have come circle on that. Also, when in doubt, don't calculate...just do what's right. That means sticking with life and marriage. Let the D's go down in destruction.

[wideawake]

Remember that a person who attends Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, prays the Rosary and searches the Scriptures daily and scrimps and saves to send his children to parochial schools is counted as a Catholic by the pollsters.

So is the guy who says he's Catholic because he was baptized Catholic, even though the last time he saw the inside of a Catholic church was back in '97 at cousin Jimmy's wedding.

That 52% is more like 70% of practicing Catholics.

[wideawake]

That's fine.

America would be in great shape if the Democrats actually wanted to restrict abortion and ban sodomite "marriage" and the Republicans actually wanted to ban both.

Let Nader get a meaningless 10% of the vote and expel the hard left lunatics from the Democratic party.

I can have a conversation with a person who wants nationalized health care, but I can't have a conversation with someone who thinks murdering babies is great.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Rove said one of the big surprises of the 2004 campaign was the amount of soft money spent by 527 political groups, which he said had circumvented campaign finance laws to help presidential contenders. Rove named a number of Democratic donors to 527 groups, such as billionaire George Soros, as chief offenders of laws limiting campaign contributions.

When pressed, he also faulted independent groups working against Kerry, such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran ads questioning Kerry's Vietnam service. He said the Swift Boat group, whose leaders included Houston attorney John O'Neill, had an impact on the race.

"Would our system have been better off without the 527s? I think so," he said.

The Democratic Party nominated a Massachusetts liberal who had no other identity that as an opponent of American prosectution of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan's success in the aggressive prosecution of that conflict should have made such people as John Kerry a laughing stock. It should have made the Democratic Party which nominated him uncompetitive outside Massachusetts and environs. But Rove and Bush elected to avoid fighting that battle and, without the SVBT whom Rove presumes to criticize, might even have lost the election.

Bush signed the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold law which institutionalizes the obvious fallacy that journalism is objective. There is no reason, other than the massive propaganda campaign of institutional journalism, to think that journalism would be objective.

In fact, nobody enters journalism without a desire for political influence. Indeed to understand the phenomenon of political liberalism it is only necessary to assume that a journalist (like all celebrities) thinks that nothing actually matters but PR.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

The American people better wise up and realize the current Democrat Party needs to be totally destroyed. In its majority, with few exceptions, it is a godless, secular, anti-war, anti-American Party. With the the ilk of Michael Moore, George Soros, Harold Ickes, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Julian Bond, at its head, this party will cause the eventual destruction of the USA and its freedom.

[Happy2BMe]

"Thanks, Karl. . ."

______________________________

Has it ever occurred to you the 'thanks' for John Kerry remaining powerless has much more to do with God's interventions and much less to do with Karl Rove's?

[Liz]

ping

[OldFriend]

I believe Karl Rove worked on Phil Graham's election. He's been around a long long time and by sticking to principles has proven that this country does indeed admire honor, integrity, and basic decency.

[loborojo]

Tell me about. An incumbent who favors gay marriage in my local state senate race garnered 65% of the vote even though running in an overwhelmingly Catholic district.

[ishmac]

But it's better than the approx 48% he won last time. It helps that some bishops are speaking out on abortion. If the majority of bishops would do so, 60% would be attainable.