ProLife Democrats

Paul Wellstone was my friend and mentor, but he was not my candidate in Minnesota's 2002 senatorial campaign that brought about his tragic death. I supported Norm Coleman, an erstwhile Democrat who had been driven out of the party because he's prolife. Coleman ultimately was elected in a close race with Wellstone's successor, former Vice President Walter Mondale. Mondale aggressively championed abortion rights, and Coleman won with heavy and highly visible Catholic support. "Catholics for Coleman" signs were prominently featured in the campaign.

In recent election cycles, polls have shown Catholic voters frequently migrating from their traditional Democratic allegiance to cast Republican votes. The trend is not driven by a loss of Catholic social-justice concerns. It has everything to do with abortion-rights absolutism in the Democratic Party. I'm a representative Catholic voter who exemplifies this trend.

I was a student in the first political science classes that Paul Wellstone ever taught at Carleton College. I enjoyed hours of competition with Paul in the Carleton wrestling room (he had been an outstanding college wrestler, and I was the captain of Carleton's team). Paul's eloquent social-justice advocacy influenced me to join the McGovern presidential campaign and later to serve as a VISTA lawyer after graduation from Harvard Law School.

For nearly three decades, I described myself as a prolife Democrat. I voted for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, wincing at their prochoice views, but swayed by their advocacy for working people, the poor, and the environment. I applauded Paul Wellstone's championing of those causes in the Senate. In Democratic Party caucuses, I argued the prolife position year after year with little effect. I was always baffled at the capacity of Democrats to denounce economic libertarianism and then to embrace libertarian positions on abortion. When it came to so-called reproductive choice, Paul Wellstone and his protégés all abruptly started to talk like Milton Friedman.

Minnesota was one of a handful of states where prolife Democrats were long a genuine political force. Large Catholic populations in farming areas and on the Iron Range made economically progressive, anti-abortion candidates viable. Even today, prolife Democrats represent two rural congressional districts. State party officials and the activists who dominated endorsing conventions were adamantly prochoice, but prolifers were sometimes able to beat the party's endorsees in primary contests.

In 1993, Coleman, a charismatic prolifer, won the Democratic primary and subsequently was elected as the mayor of Saint Paul. This development gladdened the hearts of those of us who had fruitlessly labored for years in the party's urban precinct caucuses. It seemed possible that we could link Coleman's urban base with farmer-labor votes in rural areas to elect a prolife Democrat as governor or senator.

Those hopes were dashed when prochoice cohorts drove Coleman out of the party. He was booed and shouted down at party meetings, including the 1996 state convention when he spoke to endorse Wellstone and Bill Clinton. When Clinton campaigned in Saint Paul, party organizers spitefully snubbed the mayor by not inviting him to attend. Months later, Coleman joined the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, Clinton, Wellstone, and most of the Senate Democrats took prochoice ideology to new extremes. They opposed attempts to outlaw partial-birth abortion—a practice in which a late-term, fully sentient fetus is pulled alive through the birth canal until only its head remains undelivered, then killed with a stab of a surgical scissors. The American Medical Association (AMA) certified that this procedure is never medically necessary. Still, leading Democrats demanded a "health" exception to any ban—a loophole that would allow abortionists to use their own "medical" judgment to provide and employ the procedure whenever they chose.

The partial-birth abortion issue and its sequelae have led me to put aside the "prolife Democrat" label. I'm now a political agnostic. I take no delight in voting Republican, but I'm likely to do so for any office that deals with abortion legislation or judicial nominees.

The prolife Democratic position is growing untenable. Those who still maintain it should read the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Carhart v. Stenberg (2000), including the dissents. Then look at the Web site of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) (www.democrats.org).

Carhart v. Stenberg struck down a partial-birth abortion ban that had passed the Nebraska state legislature by a vote of forty-five to one (a ban that had been replicated in Congress and in twenty-nine other states). The decision is jarring not just for its outcome, but for its inhuman, desensitized tone. The Court calmly assesses the relative merits of dismembering late-term babies in the vaginal canal by tearing off their arms and legs or by sucking their brains out and crushing their skulls. The discussion is utterly dispassionate and utterly Orwellian.

Carhart exemplifies the "darkening of conscience" of which Pope John Paul II warned in Evangelium vitae. When this sort of nihilism is handed down as constitutional law, all human values stand in jeopardy. In tone, in principle, and in cultural ramifications, Carhart and similar cases embody the law of the jungle.

The Democratic Party is intent on maintaining Carhart and the whole panoply of current abortion rights, without stint or moderation. Here's the lead feature on the DNC Web site as of November 15, 2002 (a few days after the midterm elections):

Republicans are planning to endanger women's lives and attack their right to choose as soon as they take control of the Senate, according to Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who will be the new Majority Leader....Lott announced that criminalizing certain life-saving medical procedures used in abortions was his top legislative priority....The criminalization of so-called "partial-birth abortions" is just the tip of the iceberg for the Republicans, as right-wing, antichoice activists plan a full agenda of legislation designed to restrict a woman's right to choose (emphasis added).

This is Orwellian mendacity. Again, the AMA has stated that partial-birth abortion is never medically indicated, let alone a "life-saving procedure."

Support for unrestricted abortion rights has been a litmus test for judicial appointments throughout the past two years, when Democrats controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee. If Democrats control the Senate, no judge with any openness to trimming back Roe v. Wade in any respect will be allowed near the appellate bench.

Support for unrestricted abortion rights is mandatory for Democratic Party endorsement for virtually any office in most states. It's nearly impossible to run as a prolife Democrat in many states with large Catholic populations—Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York. The party simply won't allow it. Catholic sensitivities are not accommodated to any extent whatever, but are held in open contempt. (California Democrats recently passed a bill compelling Catholic hospitals to train doctors in abortion.)

A striking example of contempt for the teachings of the church is enshrined, despite vigorous protests, on the DNC's Web site. The site includes a link to Catholics for a Free Choice (CFC), an abortion lobby (until recent protests, it was the only "Catholic" listing on the site). CFC is a sham, and has been denounced repeatedly by the American bishops. It has no membership base, no theology, and no ties to the church. It is funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from large secular foundations—Ford, Rockefeller, and the like. Outrageously enough, it has accepted money from the Playboy Foundation. No serious Catholic should lightly support a political party that promotes this sort of cynical imposture.

I freely grant that the Republican Party has great flaws of its own. I don't like tax cuts skewed to benefit the rich, and I don't like drilling for oil in wildlife preserves. I'm an agnostic and not a Republican. Yet at this point in our nation's history, I'm more afraid of Hollywood and its values (Hollywood being a principal financier of the Democratic Party) than I am of the oil companies and theirs. With nihilism widespread in the courts, and with the brave new world of biotechnology heaving over the horizon, few things seem more urgent than keeping judicial appointments and other key cultural levers out of Democratic hands.

I have an undiminished desire for a party that embodies Catholic social-justice teaching—one that is both prolife and propoor. Neither party provides a good prospect for this, but conceivably it could develop from Republican "compassionate conservatism." It can't arise where people are bent upon preserving Carhart v. Stenberg. When Democrats declare "choice" the highest value, they forfeit their ability to critique coherently free-market arguments and to advocate for the poor. The Republicans at least know that life is sacred. Every social-justice initiative ultimately depends on that. [end]

Catholic Senatorial Jungle

The conspicuous obstructionism of the Catholic Democratic Senators and their collusion with others who express a strident but stealth campaign to undermine the basic tenets of their purported faith is both disingenuous and immoral, while it also leans near the brink of heresy. With vociferous tenacity, bolstered by the silence of weak-kneed bishops and pastors who acquiesce responsibility, these supposed Catholic Senators and several House members lead the vanguard of a rebellion which threatens not only the Catholic Church, but the nation as well. The most prominent of these pretenders have apparently been seduced by their own selfish interests and concluded that God’s Law as well as Natural Law was not intended to include the U.S. Senate. In contrast, the Catholic Senators appear conscienceless and seem to act on instincts with less civility than the Law of the Jungle, where only the strongest survive. Surely, when a Democratic Catholic Senator supports abortion, even at its most barbaric stage, partial-birth abortion, it is clear that the Senator condones a cruel and painful death to the most helpless of all Americans, an unborn baby.

One might conclude that by being elevated to the U.S. Senate, the individual Senators assumed they achieved powers by which without legislation; rather by their majestic ascendancy, they decreed themselves plenary indulgences, coupled with the delusion that they simultaneously received the power promised Adam and Eve by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. However, if in fact, the Catholic Senators have sustained delusion by power, it might do them well to recall a primary tenet of not only Catholicism, but Christianity as a whole, that it is most important for one to save their own soul above everything else. These Senators fail to realize that their legislative powers and extraordinary perks are but a fleeting moment of personal glory. They might ponder exactly who legislates eternally and whether or not one of the aborted souls might be called as a character witness when the various Senators are brought to account on their Day of Judgment.

While these Catholic Senators, led by Tom Daschle, Teddy Kennedy, and Thomas Leahy lead this near-heretical insurrection, on the pretense of separation of church and state, the unborn babies destined for abortion have worse odds than the Christians that were thrown to the lions. During the present time, the slaughter of babies through abortion is not done by barbarians; rather, they are being violated with the help of Christians who purport to be the “Great Protectors” of those unable to defend themselves. In what could be called collusion of ignorance, the Catholic voters in the respective states of the anti-Catholic, Catholic Senators continue to vote them back into office, essentially enabling them to further harm the Catholic Church and the United States of America.

The Senators, those dastardly princes of self-importance may well be known one day as the group held responsible by historians for the momentous turn of events that deformed forever the national character of the United States of America. The Catholic Church has survived for more than 2,000 years, while the United States of America has only been around for slightly more than two hundred years. Until recently it would have been inconceivable that the Church’s greatest threat would emerge from within its very ranks.

The arrogance of the Senators is further bolstered by the apparent apathy of Catholic voters, particularly well meaning, but uniformed members of the clergy, including many Catholic Nuns who have a propensity to blindly vote for Democrats, despite the outrageous anti-Catholic platform of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party’s National Platform supports partial-birth abortion, which happens to be the murder of an unborn child, no matter how elegantly the words are disguised. As they proclaim the right of a woman to choose, they neglect to include that the choice is singular and pernicious. Pro-choice leaves no choice for the murdered child. It is not perfectly clear that Catholics are totally cognizant of their passive participation in this national disgrace, due in great part to the fact that so many of the pulpits are silent about the subject of abortion or even sin in general for that matter.

Too often, although not always, these same Senators are treated royally by the clergy. The Senators aware of the strategic value of a photo opportunity with a bishop or cardinal maneuver in a variety of ways to appear to be stalwarts of the church. Meanwhile, some of the bishops treat them royally, ignoring their own responsibility of speaking out against all including senators who defy the church’s teachings. It is time for the church leaders to draw the line and expose the fraudulent representatives who purport to be Catholics. The bishops must decide once and for all that it is mandatory to inform those alleged Catholic Senators that it is impossible to support abortion and be a practicing Catholic. And it must be proclaimed from the pulpits from “Sea to shining sea” in the strongest of terms. Otherwise, the Church, too, might be construed as enabling abortionists.

The Catholic Church survived the barbarians and it survived the Moslems’ attempts to eradicate it. The Church, founded by Christ upon Peter survived corrupt popes, persecution throughout the world including America during earlier times and in the more modern world, it survived the Communists and anarchists who tried to liquidate it in Spain during the 1930s. Ironically it was Hitler and Mussolini who inadvertently rescued the Catholic Church from destruction in Spain.

The Catholic Church will survive, but the question remains, will it survive in the United States when it is under such strong attack from within? In addition to supporting abortion, the Catholic Democratic Senators also seem to subliminally oppose the candidacy for the judiciary of practicing Catholics who might one day have to rule on the subject of abortion. To state on national television that a Catholic candidate is unfit to be a judge because he might be pro-life is outrageous, but the silence of the Catholic Church on that candidate’s behalf is more frightening. It is discrimination in its most ugly stage, and most unfortunately, it is being implemented by Catholics against Catholics.

The proclamations by Senators Kennedy, Leahy, Durbin, Daschle, and others who portray their personal disdain for abortion and their determination to protect a woman’s right to choose (death for her baby) is a grand illusion; however, still it can fool some of the people and some of the clergy, but never will it fool all of the people. The combination lacks integrity and logic, while it defies common sense. The denial that the abortion kills a baby also lacks credibility, based on my experience. Never, have I heard a mother who lost her baby in the womb, claim that she lost a fetus. Never have I heard a member of a family, in which a baby was lost in the womb of a family member, claim that the fetus was lost. No never! Always, the response was similar, to paraphrase, “We lost the baby.”

In the old fashioned America, from 1776 until “Roe versus Wade,”abortion was illegal. It wasn’t a “Catholic thing.”Abortion was also forbidden in Europe among Catholic and Protestant countries alike. But in America, during the time some would call the “Enlightened period,”God’s law, was ambushed. The elite preferred a new governing power, that of those who focus on the destruction of the family. Although possibly unwittingly, these Catholic Senators have joined forces with the enemies in perpetuity of the sanctity of life. Apparently, they have become permanent and fiery members of this infamous group.

Protests must be mounted to preserve the principles of the United States. If these Senators are able to continue to halt the candidacy of Miguel Estrada, the nation takes a giant leap backwards, a step that might never be recovered. This movement to stop Estrada is actually the first new step by a small but powerful group of anti-Catholics and anti-Christian principles. If successful, their conquest will include the right to confer upon themselves the right to select only judges that meet their anti-life specifications. The right of a president, any president, to select judges of his choice will forever be gone, ending a practice of “Advise and Consent” of the Senate and giving it new power, to offer the president, “Take it or leave it.”

At present, that small group of Senators who will hold the power includes: Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. Ironically, the states in the northeast which contain high numbers of Catholic voters continually elect Senators who have a propensity to oppose the principles of Christianity. They include New York (Clinton and Schumer), Massachusetts (Kennedy and Kerry) and New Jersey (Corzine and Lautenburg). Catholics seem to inadvertently enjoy self-inflicted wounds. They have a propensity to elect people who usually stand in opposition to most Catholic principles.

The majority of Democratic Catholic Senators are about as helpful to the unborn as the French and Germans are to the United States at the United Nations. Only a massive outcry will halt the agenda, which seems to include the elimination from the courts of any future practicing Catholic or Christian who believes in the sanctity of life. If they are not stopped, there will be no one to blame but ourselves for lacking the courage to oppose tyranny by those who seek to usurp the Constitution.

The opposition to Miguel Estrada roars, while the populace barely notices. They claim Estrada has no experience. They proclaim he doesn’t answer questions. They claim he is hot tempered. It goes on eternally, without reprieve. Meanwhile, they neglect to state that they oppose him because he is a practicing Catholic who might be pro-life. It is devious, dishonorable and evil, but evil unopposed simply becomes accepted.

When this country was founded, Catholics were not especially welcomed. As time evolved, Catholics contributed to the country and still were not accepted. Like others, they sustained punishment from the Klan and they were attacked from many fronts including the Know Nothing Party. Nonetheless, they persevered and eventually received acceptance. It would be a genuine tragedy if Catholic candidates who actually practice their faith were prevented from serving in the judicial system because of the devious actions of other non-practicing Catholics.

It is not too, late. The Vatican has finally begun to challenge Catholic politicians. Now is the time for everyone, Catholic or Protestant to speak out and call their respective church leaders encouraging them to speak out about the travesty and discipline the offenders. Pro-abortion is incompatible with being Catholic and it is not negotiable. Those who say otherwise are in Senatorial denial.

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