To introduce this link, I'll once again defer to the junior editor, Jeff Gillenwater.
Number of times Joe and Josephine have voted for Democrats because the two of them believe the U.S. should implement a universal healthcare system: 23
Number of times any of the Democrats for whom they've repeatedly voted have actually supported the implementation of a universal healthcare system: 0
Number of times Joe and Josephine have insisted that the real problem with the country is a bunch of rubes elsewhere who are too dumb to vote in their own interest: 257
Is the chairman woke yet?
ON THE AVENUES: Dear Mr. Dizznee: Can you hear me now?
The hypocrisy keeps getting deeper, the metaphorical sewage is rising, and pretty soon coffee break will be over, and it’ll be back to standing on your head, counting the recent catastrophes.
As the young folks like to say, that Thomas Frank -- he's just killing it.
I can't help noticing that while the local Democratic Party hierarchy has kept me blockaded for more than three years, numerous "rank and file" Democrats continue to engage in conversation (rather like all those Catholics in Italy ignoring the Vatican's edicts on birth control), and many of them can't seem to come up with rejoinders to Frank's points.
Until they do, doubling down on failed comprehension seems unlikely to bear electoral fruit, but what does this apostate know, anyway?
The Democrats' Davos ideology won't win back the midwest (The Guardian)
And what I am here to say is that the midwest is not an exotic place. It isn’t a benighted region of unknowable people and mysterious urges. It isn’t backward or hopelessly superstitious or hostile to learning. It is solid, familiar, ordinary America, and Democrats can have no excuse for not seeing the wave of heartland rage that swamped them last November.
Another thing that is inexcusable from Democrats: surprise at the economic disasters that have befallen the midwestern cities and states that they used to represent.
The wreckage that you see every day as you tour this part of the country is the utterly predictable fruit of the Democratic party’s neoliberal turn. Every time our liberal leaders signed off on some lousy trade deal, figuring that working-class people had “nowhere else to go,” they were making what happened last November a little more likely.
Now, let's be fair - Pope Francis is leaving a lot of space regarding a couple's choice regarding birth control:
ReplyDeleteThe Headline:
"Let couples, not the Church, decide on contraception: Pope Francis writes in 'The Joy of Love'
AP, April 08 2016 17:23:07
Pope Francis insisted that individual conscience be the guiding principle for Catholics negotiating the complexities of sex, marriage and family life in a major document released Friday that rejects the emphasis on black and white rules for the faithful.
In the 256-page document The Joy of Love, Francis makes no change in church doctrine and strongly upholds that marriage is a lifelong commitment.
But in selectively citing his predecessors and emphasising his own teachings, Francis makes clear that he wants nothing short of a revolution in the way priests accompany Catholics, saying the church must no longer sit in judgment and "throw stones" against those who fail to live up to the Gospel's ideals of marriage and family life.
"I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion," he wrote. "But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness."
On thorny issues such as contraception, Francis stressed that a couple's individual conscience — not dogmatic rules imposed across the board — must guide their decisions and the church's pastoral practice.
"We have been called to form consciences, not replace to them," he said.
…in discussing the need for "responsible parenthood" and regulating the number of children, Francis made no mention of the church's opposition to artificial contraception. He squarely rejected abortion as "horrendous" and he cited the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which deals with the issue.
But Francis made no mention of the "unlawful birth control methods" rejected in Humanae Vitae. Instead he focused on the need for couples in their conscience to make decisions about their family size.
Citing the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes Francis said: "Let them thoughtfully take into account both their own welfare and that of their children, those already born and those which the future may bring. ... The parents themselves and no one else should ultimately make this judgment in the sight of God."
Francis made a single reference to church-sanctioned family planning method of abstaining from sex during a woman's fertile time. He said only that such practices are to be "promoted" — not that other methods are forbidden — and he insisted on the need for children to receive sex education, albeit without focusing on "safe sex."
Thanks for commenting. I'd seen this and stand corrected, although I'll concede that my mind often remains rooted in the eighties.
ReplyDeleteI really feel the current Pope is a realist - and someone who feels if you can eliminate the need for abortion upstream it's a much better choice than having to deal with having made poor choices earlier.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
ReplyDelete