PRO-LIFE CONGRESSMAN TIM ROEMER WRITES ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CASE FOR JOE BIDEN

Catholic voters were instrumental in electing the past three presidents of the United States, tilting toward Barack Obama in 2008 and again narrowly in 2012, and subsequently siding with Donald Trump in 2016.

Catholic voters are going to help determine which candidate prevails in 2020, especially since they comprise a crucial voting bloc in key swing states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Here’s why I will be voting for Joe Biden:

As a former Democratic member of Congress from Indiana, I believed more along the lines of a pro-life voter. My role as a public servant and as a faithful Catholic were to work with others to reduce the number of abortions, not inflict my personal view of a complicated moral issue on my colleagues who represented other religions.

Biden was America’s first Catholic vice president, and might become our second Catholic president, the first being John F. Kennedy. He is steeped in our religious teachings and highly sensitive to the full scope of issues impacting life issues, from birth to prenatal care, from reproductive care to access to contraception.

Electing a Catholic who was vice president when abortions were reduced in overall numbers (during the Obama-Biden administration 2009-2017) by almost 25% is a positive sign.

While serving as U.S. ambassador to India, I personally witnessed the power of partnerships and alliances with other countries.

When we form these leveraged and effective coalitions of like-minded countries, we not only share the burden of these overseas programs cost to our taxpayers, we increase the proclivity for success. Whether it’s a program working on water security, schools for girls or disaster relief, we benefit from the collaboration, best practices from other cultures and more effective outcomes. We improve our image and increase our power abroad.

Biden believes in rebuilding our partnerships with friends and allies in the world to help America become more powerful and respected. He also intends to implement a new foreign policy to benefit our middle-class families and workers. Biden will return jobs to the Midwest. 

I remember when my dad told me when I was 12 that I needed to work to pay for college. My first jobs in Mishawaka, Indiana, included mowing lawns, watering yards for families away on vacation and shoveling snow from driveways.

I learned early in life that jobs were not only about making and saving money. They represented a sense of dignity and worth. Jobs represented values associated with personal responsibility, showing up on time, and working with other people from various backgrounds.

I continued in various jobs all the way through college and graduate from school while still taking out a loan.

Biden knows that his first job as president is to help rebuild the middle class, restore equal opportunity in our economy and make the American Dream more accessible to everyone.

Coming from Scranton, Pennsylvania, he has never forgotten what good jobs and hard work mean to a family. Furthermore, he fights for Medicaid expansion and protecting people with pre-existing conditions with coverage, issues that save people thousands of dollars.

Going to Catholic grade school, I tried to embrace the lessons of early morning Mass, occasional raps on my knuckles from a wooden ruler to improve discipline and memorizing scores of Scripture and hymns. We were taught the Ten Commandments and Stations of the Cross, yet the first two New Testament Commandments have always been codes I have tried to live by: “Honor God” and “Love thy neighbor.” I know Biden practices and acts on these words each day in his family life and in his public service. Character and truth are reflected in these actions.

He respectfully listens to others, even when he disagrees. Our American leaders, even when they make mistakes and are flawed, must be held up as positive mentors and role models to our children. I can do this with Biden to our four kids.

I will vote for Joe Biden for president, not only because he’s a Catholic, but because he’s a good man trying to do good things for our deeply divided country; good things that make America, our families and our friends in the world believe that the United States is an exceptional place and capable of serving as a beacon of hope to mankind.

Biden has the class, character and midwest common sense to be a successful president for the entire country, and especially for middle America.

Tim Roemer is a former Congressman from Indiana. He served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 2009-11.  The full article can be found here:  The Catholic Case for Joe Biden

TO STOP ABORTIONS, VOTE FOR JOE BIDEN OVER DONALD TRUMP

This Blog promised to give our views on the abortion issue. Because it is such an important issue, we decided to wait until closer to the election. Our readership has been growing and growing and we thought this issue deserves a larger audience.

We feel now is the time. Everyone on this Blog’s team is pro-life. We certainly admire and support those who take a broad view of pro-life. Our faith commands us to support life at all of its stages. But the bloggers here are firmly pro-life in the sense we strongly oppose abortion. Having carefully considered the issue, we have concluded that a JOE BIDEN administration would better protect unborn life than a TRUMP administration. Here is our reasoning:

The experience of nations across the globe show a strong co-relation of a robust safety net to low abortion rates. There is almost no co-relation of laws against abortion to the abortion rate. The Netherlands has one of the most permissive abortion laws in the world. It also has one of the lowest abortion rates of any nation outside the Muslim world. Brazil, the Philippines and Mexico have strict laws against abortion yet some of the highest abortion rates in the world. The Blogger Team here does support laws to restrict abortion. We disagree with Joe Biden on that issue (though we note Biden has voted for late term abortion restrictions). But we also reject the position that restrictive laws by themselves sufficiently protect the unborn. Those conservatives who oppose social initiatives while only advocating for restrictions are only half hearted in their opposition to abortion. They have compromised and negotiated down their anti-abortion principles. Here are the programs Biden supports that have proven to reduce abortion:

• The Affordable Care Act. The signature Obama-Biden legislation has resulted in ONE MILLION fewer abortions since enacted. Prior to ACA, the abortion rate had been declining by a steady 2% decrease each year starting with the Clinton administration and somewhat stalling during the Bush Administration. In each year since the implementation of ACA, the abortion rate has declined 3-6%, a remarkable improvement. The data goes up to the end of 2016. By 2017 the United States had an abortion rate of only 14.6 per 100,000 fertile women. On the eve of Roe v. Wade, it was 16.3. Thanks to ACA we now have an abortion rate LOWER than it was before the Roe decision. The data here is indisputable but it is open to discussion as what it is in Obamacare that leads to this sharp decline in abortion. Evidence suggests that women who have health insurance feel more secure with their future as are more likely to choose life. ACA also mandated coverage for the unborn in all insurance plans, something the Trump Administration is trying to eliminate. Prior to ACA almost all individual insurance plans included abortion coverage. ACA mandated that people buying insurance in the marketplace have the right to choose a pro-life plan and that states (which many have) could require all plans to exclude abortion coverage. ACA also greatly expanded access to birth control. The data only compares the abortion rate to ACA implementation. It can be expected that good maternal health care achieved through the reduction of the uninsured also reduces miscarriages, so here are additional unborn lives not counted in the abortion data.

• Paid Parental Leave. Laws that allow mothers to take paid time off after the birth of a newborn help women choose life. Biden supports paid parental leave. Trump made vague promises during his 2016 campaign but in four years has failed to follow through with a plan. Nancy Pelosi pushed through paid parental leave benefits for federal employees while Trump offered no assistance.

• Pregnant Worker Fairness Act. This was recently passed by the House of Representatives and supported by Joe Biden. Trump has not supported this important anti-abortion legislation nor asked McConnell to bring it to a Senate vote. This long-overdue bill would direct employers to provide reasonable accommodations for workers carrying an unborn child, much as they would for a worker with a disability – say, shifting them to an assignment with reduced heavy lifting during pregnancy, if available. A New York Times investigation of working conditions for women warehouse workers at New Breed Logistics (that’s right, the company founded by Postmaster General Frank DeJoy) and its successor firm, XPO found that multiple women there experienced miscarriages attributed to their work duties. In a particularly notorious incident, a pregnant warehouse worker who asked for light duty was told by a supervisor that she should get an abortion if she wanted to keep her job.

The above policies result in fewer women seeking abortions by significant numbers, likely greater numbers than a reversal of Roe would. Defense of the unborn must not only include threats from surgical abortions but abortions caused against the will of the mother, often politely called miscarriages. But when clear actions lead to the death of unborn life, it is morally an abortion regardless of what polite terms others prefer. We are speaking of the Trump rollback of EPA standards of dangerous chemicals in the workplace, agricultural fields and environment. Millions of unborn deaths will occur because of Trump rollbacks on the chemical Chlorpyrifos, Mercury, trichloroethylene (which causes fetal heart attacks), methane gas and other pollutants. These may cause health problems for adults but with fragile unborn life, it has been fatal for millions of unborn babies. Additionally, maternal health is a factor in a successful pregnancy. Programs for maternal nutrition face cuts in the Trump Administration but funding would be restored by Joe Biden. Biden supports abortion reducing initiatives such as prenatal care, postnatal care, and access to child care for working mothers.

The preceding speaks to positive program of Biden and the Democrats that could reduce the abortion rate down to the miniscule levels of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal. Now let’s look at the weak Trump record.

The Trump campaign appears to reprint a National Right to Life Committee flyer on his abortion stance. Since both groups use the same actions, let’s look at them:

• Defunded Planned Parenthood and issued the Mexico City Policy. Neither of these actions can be shown to have prevented a single abortion. Federal funds cannot be used to pay for elective abortions. The assertion by the Trump campaign is that monies are fungible. This is highly doubtful and the Administration has every right to review the proper spending of government grant money. As much as they want to claim this, certainly no Catholic has any obligation to believe that government grant money is fungible. That would be a matter of private judgment. In fact, many Catholics (including us) reject the claim by some secularists that aid to parochial schools is unconstitutional as it is fungible and could subsidize worship and evangelization. Catholics Charities and Catholic Relief Services receive millions in government funding and sign sworn statements that they are using the grants properly. Can the Church swear under oath that grant money is not fungible when she receives it but require Catholics to believe so when other organizations receive it? We also note that Trump carefully limited these proposals to only apply to social welfare programs, something Republicans show a hostility towards anyway. This is further evidence of a right wing deal between the RTL Establishment and anti-social welfare Republicans. The MCP was carefully written to apply only to overseas social welfare organizations. Had Trump not carefully written it but just applied it to all overseas aid, it would have cut off the largest recipient of US aid, the state of Israel, where abortions are paid for by the government.

• The second item the Trump campaign and NRTLC cite was Trump’s speech at the March for Life. Personally, we applaud his presence there, a first for an American President. But certainly this symbolic action does not bind any person, including Catholics, to vote for him. But in this, the right wing asserts that it is appropriate to consider intangibles. With that on the table, we believe Trump grossly fails the issue of protection of unborn life. His womanizing, general immorality, crudeness on issues of sexual morality all point to the behavior that promotes what St. John Paul II called a culture of death instead of a culture of life. Every Catholic and every voter has the right to make a judgment on the sincerity of a politician. From Trump's 1999 statement that he is "strongly pro-choice" to his womanizing lifestyle, Catholic voters might conclude in good conscience that he is not sincerely anti-abortion. Further, his comments that pregnancy is an “inconvenience” for employers and his comment "what are we going to do about it?" to his then girlfriend Marla Maples when she told him she was pregnant does not suggest a solid opponent of abortion.  We believe Donald Trump promotes an abortion culture.  

• As to the appointment of judges, some people may feel they received a "wink and nod" or have inside information. But few if any of Trump's judicial appointments have publicly said they would rule to repeal Roe. The GOP record on what were sold to the pro-life movement as anti Roe judges has not been good. Here again, each Catholic voter is free to decide for themselves how much value and trust to put in these nominations. It should be noted in the Presidential Debate, Trump suggested Roe was not in danger of being overturned.

Some readers, like this Blog Team, might believe that we should have both effective social programs and environmental health standards that protect unborn life AND legal restrictions on abortion. Given that neither of the two candidates hold both of those, such readers might ponder the question of which to give greater weight. We are convinced that the legal restrictions are less effective. Donald Trump himself stated that reversal of Roe would mean the question of abortion “would go back to the states,” to Lesley Stahl of CBS News during a conversation on “60 Minutes.” Ms. Stahl asked him what would become of women seeking abortions in states that banned the procedure. “They’ll perhaps have to go — they’ll have to go to another state,” the then president-elect replied. For one of our Blog Team, he only recently reached the conclusion legal restrictions have limited value. His mind was changed by Raymond Cardinal Burke, a churchman who speaks frequently on abortion. Cardinal Burke once wrote in a heartfelt way of his mother, whose doctor had indicated she could have an abortion when she was pregnant with the future Cardinal. Mrs. Burke of course chose life, explained her loving son. But what struck our Team Member is that he was born a few miles from where Cardinal Burke was born. Knowing that part of rural, conservative 1950s Wisconsin, populated by devout Catholics and Lutherans and at a time before Roe when abortion was illegal in Wisconsin, he found it an education to learn from Cardinal Burke himself that the laws at time didn't seem to stop the availability of abortion. 

This is our longest essay in the Blog. We might further develop it. But we believe our readers are due for the reasons why we think even being a single issue abortion voter, Joe Biden is the preferred candidate.

CATHOLICS FOR JOE BIDEN WELCOME PRO-LIFE EVANGELICALS FOR BIDEN

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Join Richard Mouw, President emeritus of Fuller Seminary, John Huffman, Board Chair emeritus, Christianity Today, Jerushah Duford, Billy Graham’s granddaughter, Ron Sider, President emeritus, Evangelicals for Social Action, Brenda Salter McNeil, Reconciler, Professor, Pastor, Richard Foster, author of CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE and others in signing this statement:

AS PRO-LIFE EVANGELICALS, WE DISAGREE WITH VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN AND THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM ON THE ISSUE OF ABORTION. BUT WE BELIEVE A BIBLICALLY SHAPED COMMITMENT TO THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE COMPELS US TO A CONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE THAT AFFIRMS THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE FROM BEGINNING TO END.

Many things that good political decisions could change destroy persons created in the image of God and violate the sanctity of human life. Poverty kills millions every year. So does lack of healthcare and smoking. Racism kills. Unless we quickly make major changes, devastating climate change will kill tens of millions. Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism and climate change are all pro-life issues. As the National Association of Evangelicals’ official public policy document (FOR THE HEALTH OF THE NATION) insists, “Faithful evangelical civic engagement and witness must champion a biblically balanced agenda.“  Therefore we oppose “one issue” political thinking because it lacks biblical balance.

Knowing that the most common reason women give for abortion is the financial difficulty of another child, we appreciate a number of Democratic proposals that would significantly alleviate that financial burden: accessible health services for all citizens, affordable childcare, a minimum wage that lifts workers out of poverty.

For these reasons, we believe that on balance, Joe Biden’s policies are more consistent with the biblically shaped ethic of life than those of Donald Trump. Therefore, even as we continue to urge different policies on abortion, we urge evangelicals to elect Joe Biden as president."

If you would like to add your name to this statement, go here: Prolifeevangelicalsforbiden.com

HOUSE PASSES PRO-LIFE BILL WITH ALL DEMOCRATS VOTING IN FAVOR

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass legislation protecting unborn life after the bill was brought up for a vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).  No Democrat voted against it while the Republican were divided between supporters and opponents of the unborn.

Joe Biden has announced his support for the legislation while Trump has not. 

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would require bosses to provide reasonable accommodations at work to pregnant women and their unborn children. The act is modeled on the 30-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to work with disabled employees to find reasonable fixes at work so they can continue to do their jobs. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) sponsored the bill, along with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee.

Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) took to the floor to oppose the bill.  She said the bill didn’t protect employers’ religious rights, though didn’t explain exactly how.  Perhaps employers have the religious right to consider their employee's unborn child to be nothing of value. 

Pregnant women have been told by their bosses, sometimes directly and other times clear but indirectly, that if they want to keep their job, they should get an abortion.  None the less, scores of Republicans who claim to be anti-abortion voted against the bill.  Thoughtful Catholics have every right to question their anti-abortion sincerity.  

The accommodations pregnant women require at work are fairly simple: a stool for a cashier to sit on while working the register, light-lifting duty for warehouse workers, a water bottle for a retail worker on the shop floor or a different-sized uniform for a pregnant police officer. Sometimes pregnant women just need a few more bathroom breaks or time to go to the doctor.  Other times, they need to be kept away from exposure to workplace chemicals that could cause an involuntary abortion.  However, without such accommodations, unborn babies are at risk of harm or death.  

The Democrats showed that women get fired or sent on unpaid leave for being with child. That means they’re left without income just when they really need a paycheck. The consequences can be devastating: Democrats mentioned a woman who wound up homeless when she was in her third trimester and others forced to apply for food stamps.

“When companies refuse to accommodate for pregnancy-related needs it doesn’t just hurt the person being discriminated against it hurts the entire family,” said Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on the House floor Thursday.

Many women have little choice to keep working, putting their lives and their pregnancies at risk. A few years ago at a warehouse in Memphis, several women had miscarriages after they were denied lighter lifting duties.  

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden applauded the bill’s passage and urged the Senate to take it up. “While President Trump called pregnancy ‘an inconvenience’ for businesses, Vice President Biden believes that pregnant workers shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their work,” said Mariel Sáez, the women’s media director for the Biden campaign. “He strongly supports the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and included it in his agenda to build America back better for women. The bill’s protections for pregnant workers are commonsense and vital — especially in the face of this pandemic.”

The bill passed Thursday would also prohibit employers from firing women simply for asking for accommodations or not hiring a woman because she’s pregnant and might need some temporary fixes to work.

BIDEN RESPONDS TO THE TRUMP RIOTS

"The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable. Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same.

Donald Trump has been president for almost four years. The temperature in the country is higher, tensions run stronger, divisions run deeper. And all of us are less safe because he can’t do the job of the American president."

"This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence — because for years, he has fomented it,"

"He may believe mouthing the words 'law and order' makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is. Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?"

"We need justice in America. And we need safety in America," Biden will say. "We are facing multiple crises — crises that, under Donald Trump, keep multiplying. COVID. Economic devastation. Unwarranted police violence. Emboldened white nationalists. A reckoning on race. Declining faith in a bright American future."

"The common thread? An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better. An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order,"

"We must remember the words of Pope John Paul, quoting Scripture, 'Be Not Afraid!'"

-- JOE BIDEN

ANOTHER PRO-LIFE REPUBLICAN IS VOTING FOR JOE BIDEN

 

MONA CHAREN: Why This Pro-Life Conservative Is Voting for Biden

Since I announced publicly that I will be voting for Joe Biden in November, I’ve received a few communications from puzzled readers. “How can you, a supposedly pro-life woman, support someone who believes in killing babies?” Others say, “What do you not like about Trump’s record? The tax cuts? The record jobs numbers? The conservative judges?” One reader summed things up with “I used to like you.”

I understand. I feel the same way about many people myself.

I will try to respond for the sake of those who, like me, find themselves alienated from the Republican Party despite some policy agreements with the Trump administration.

Let’s start with abortion. I have been pro-life my entire adult life. I haven’t changed. I continue to find the practice abhorrent, and will persist in trying to persuade others. But I’ve noticed a tendency among pro-life conservatives to forgive absolutely everything else if a politician expresses the right views on abortion. This is a mirror image of the left, as we saw when Bill Clinton was accused of sexual misconduct. Many liberals were willing to overlook his gross behavior toward women in the name of preserving abortion rights. Call it “abortion washing.” Both sides do it.

Abortion washing shuts down moral reflection. Rather than do the work of analyzing how one good thing weighs in the balance against other considerations, abortion washing permits the brain to snap shut, the conscience to put its feet up.

My views on abortion can’t be severed from the rest of my worldview. I oppose abortion because it’s morally wrong. I understand that women are sometimes plunged into terrible life crises by unplanned pregnancies, which is why I do what I can to provide help for them. Crisis pregnancies can present agonizing choices, but I don’t think killing is an acceptable solution because life is sacred.

That doesn’t settle the matter of how to place abortion within the matrix of factors that go into voting. There are prudential considerations. While I would prefer to vote for someone who upholds the right to life, I’ve never believed that electing presidents who agree with me will lead to dramatic changes in abortion law, nor is the law itself the only way to discourage abortion. The number of abortions has been declining steadily since 1981. It dropped during Republican presidencies and during Democratic presidencies, and now stands below the rate in 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided and when abortion was illegal in 44 states.

The Supreme Court, despite Republican appointments, has side-stepped many opportunities to reverse Roe. As David French noted, Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter were harsh critics of the decision, but chose, on the bench, to vote for continuity. So if the logic is to support presidents based on the kind of Supreme Court nominees they will choose, the chances that any particular appointment will have the effect of changing the law seem remote.

It has always been my hope to change people’s hearts, so that this cruel practice—like slavery, torture, and mutilation—can be put (mostly) behind us.

Being pro-life is part of an overall approach to ethical questions. It’s wrong to take innocent life. But other things are immoral too. It’s also wrong to swindle people, to degrade and demonize, to incite violence, to bully, and while we’re at it, to steal, to bear false witness, to commit adultery, and to covet. I don’t think Trump has committed murder, and he seems to have honored his parents (though perhaps in the wrong way). But as for the other eight of the 10 commandments, Donald Trump has flagrantly, even proudly violated them all, and encouraged his followers to regard his absence of conscience as strength.

Donald Trump is a daily, even hourly, assault on the very idea of morality, even as he obliterates truth. His influence is like sulphuric acid on our civic bonds. His cruelty is contagious. Remember how he mocked a handicapped reporter in 2016? His defenders either denied the obvious facts, or insisted that, while Trump himself might be “politically incorrect,” his supporters wouldn’t be influenced by that aspect of his character.

Alas, they are. Consider the incredibly moving moment during the Democratic National Convention when young Braydon Harrington, who struggles with stuttering, introduced Joe Biden. That night, an Atlantic editor with the same affliction tweeted “This is what stutterers face every day. I’m in awe of Braydon’s courage and resolve.” But Austin Ruse, author of The Catholic Case for Trump, tweeted his doubts that Biden ever stuttered, and replied to another comment with, “W-w-w-w-w-w-what?”

Casual cruelty has become the fashion for many Republicans. Trump acolytes have adopted the mob-boss style that Trump brought to the Oval Office. When former Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen was preparing to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Matt Gaetz, tweeted, “Hey @MichaelCohen212 — Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot.” (Gaetz was rebuked by the House Ethics Committee for this last week.)

Even U.S. senators and cabinet secretaries have aped Trump’s bullying tactics. During Trump’s impeachment trial, Senator Rand Paul (R., KY) repeatedly badgered Chief Justice John Roberts to reveal the name of the whistleblower—in violation of the spirit of whistleblower protection statutes, and despite knowing that it might endanger that person’s safety. When Roberts declined, Paul revealed the name himself on the Senate floor. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo permitted his aggression free reign when NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly asked a question he didn’t like, screaming profanity at her. Sen. Martha McSally, perhaps sensing that the new Republican chic is rudeness, wheeled on a CNN reporter and called him a “liberal hack” before you could say Trumpian. And Ted Cruz, self-styled “constitutional conservative,” has made a show of joining the social media group Parler, which hosts alt-right and other unsavory characters, the better to “own” Twitter.

It isn’t just a matter of style. At Donald Trump’s order, thousands of children, including hundreds under the age of four, were forcibly separated from their parents at the border. Pro-lifers are tender-hearted about the most vulnerable members of society. So images like this must stir something. Separating children from their parents is a barbaric act. In the crush of outrages over the past three and a half years, it has gotten swallowed up, but the horror of what was done in our name should never be forgotten.

All of this is familiar to Trump supporters, along with the “fine people” in Charlottesville, the mocking of reporters for wearing face masks, the Joe-Scarborough-is-a murderer intimations, the Lafayette Park tear gas, denying the legitimacy of elections, the bleach enemas, and on and on. They accept it. Some Trump supporters genuinely hate Trump’s imbecilic tweets and disordered personality. But they will vote for him because they believe that the left is far worse.

Gaetz, characteristically subtle, claimed at the RNC that Biden and Democrats will “disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home, and invite MS-13 to live next door. And the defunded police aren’t on their way.”

Writing in Commentary, Abe Greenwald proclaims that the violence following George Floyd’s death is the start of a revolution. Echoing the alarm of the Flight 93 election argument from 2016, he writes, “The battle for the survival of the United States of America is upon us.” Speaker after speaker at the Republican National Convention has sounded the same theme. The left is on the march. Violent mobs are coming for your suburban home. If you don’t vote for Trump, Antifa will control your town council, AOC will confiscate your guns, and Al Sharpton will dismantle the police.

Funny, but I could have sworn that the Democratic Party nominated Joe Biden last week, not Alexandria Ocasio Cortez or Bernie Sanders.

Look, there are extremists on the left, and the Democratic Party has a weakness for not wishing to call them out. Democrats do the truth and themselves no favors by attempting to gloss over the looting, arson, and vandalism that have persisted in Portland, Chicago, and other cities throughout the summer. And they insult the millions of peaceful protesters who expressed the conscience of the nation by failing to distinguish them from criminals who used the opportunity to pillage and destroy.

Some of the extremists are not on the streets, but on the editorial boards of leading newspapers, on university faculties, and in other positions of cultural influence.

But it’s dishonest, and frankly, a bit hysterical to attempt to hang every sin of the left around Joe Biden’s neck. He’s no radical, and the party that nominated him showed that its centrist core was stronger than its extremist wing.

Biden denounced violence in cities, saying:

The vast majority of the protests have been peaceful. Anyone who burns or pillages… should be arrested. They are a problem for society and they make a mockery of what the march is all about. They should be tried, arrested and put in jail.

As for calls to “defund the police,” Biden kept his balance.

Absolutely not. I do not support [defunding the police] and I never have. What I support is strong and serious reform of police departments which most serious police officers in the country support. And we should have transparency in what in fact occurs within police departments as it relates to accusations of brutality or violating peoples’ rights.

In the wake of renewed violence following yet another horrific police shooting, this time in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Biden repeated this message, expressing deep sympathy for Jacob Blake and his family, outrage at what happened, and also condemnation of violence, saying “burning down communities is not protest, it’s needless violence . . . That’s wrong.” Biden struck exactly the right tone.

The argument that the left is worse doesn’t persuade me. Strange as it is to write those words after 30 plus years as a conservative columnist, I have to say that when you compare the state of the two major parties today, the Republicans are more frightening.

It is the Republican party that has officially become a personality cult, declaring that it will not adopt a platform but will simply follow whatever Trump dictates. It is the Republican party that pretends that COVID-19 will magically disappear. It is the Republican party that has elevated a series of criminals and grifters including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roy Moore, Steve Bannon, Wayne LaPierre, Rudy Giuliani, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Roger Stone. It is the Republican party that shamefully declined to uphold the Constitution when Trump diverted funds to his border wall. It is the Republican party that has become truth-optional. And it is the Republican party that now opens its arms to adherents of a deranged but nonetheless dangerous new cult called QAnon, which a (defeated) Republican called “mental gonorrhea,” and which in December, 2016, inspired a man to open fire in a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., as part of a “self investigation.” The FBI has designated QAnon a domestic terror threat, yet minority leader Kevin McCarthy has committed to providing committee assignments to Marjorie Taylor Greene, should she be elected in November

There is putrefaction where the Republican party’s essence should be, and appointing pro-life judges cannot mask the stench. So this conservative is voting for the Democrats. Will the GOP reform? I hope so. But my priority isn’t trying to heal the Republican party. It’s trying to heal the country.



Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a contributor to The Bulwark, and host of The Bulwark’s Beg to Differ podcast.

WHY THIS PRO-LIFE CONSERVATIVE IS VOTING FOR BIDEN

MICHAEL STEELE -- REPUBLICAN, PRO-LIFE, CATHOLIC -- ENDORSES BIDEN

Michael Steele, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and life long Catholic who considered the priesthood has become the latest Republican to announce his support for the election of Joe Biden as President. 

Here is what the strongly conservative and Republican Deacon Keith Fournier wrote about Mr. Steele in the conservative "Catholic Online" website:  

He was born at Andrews Air Force base in Prince George's County, Maryland on October 19, 1958 and subsequently adopted. This African American child was then raised in a family of Democrats. His political turn to the Republican Party did not come from his having attained success in almost every endeavor he has undertaken, which he has. Rather, according to this well spoken and inspiring man, it came from watching the lived example of his mother, Maebell and hearing the convincing positions of a man named Ronald Reagan.

Michael Steele's mother suffered a tragedy in 1962 when her husband, Michael's father, died of liver disease. She went to work and through her sacrifice raised him and his sister on a minimum wage job. Her ethic of hard work and deep dedication to her children were an inspiration to her young son. They have also been replicated in him, according to those who know him best. He is considered one of the hardest working and most ethical public servants in American political life.

He attended Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington D.C. and is among the first in his family to go to College. He earned his Bachelors degree (B.A.) in international relations at Johns Hopkins and his Law Degree (J.D.) from Georgetown University Law Center. Michael Steele has a deeply rooted and sincere Catholic Christian faith. As a young man he considered a vocation to the priesthood and spent time at the Augustinian seminary at Villanova. After a period of discernment and study he chose to pursue marriage and family and what would become a distinguished career in law and public service. His Novice master for the Augustinians, Fr. Francis J. Doyle, told the Baltimore Sun "Michael was a very bright, articulate man who I would say gave himself very sincerely to the whole process of discernment." Michael Steele is happily married to Andrea Steele. They have two sons, Michael and Drew. The Steele family faithfully attends Mass at and belongs to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Landover Hills, Maryland.  Michael Steele is Pro-Life.

The good Deacon continues about a piece about Steele he read in "Inside Catholic", another conservative Catholic publication edited by a leading Republican figure: 

Michael Steele made his pro-life views very clear when he was running for the Maryland Senate seat in 2006. Maryland is not a state especially friendly to pro-life politicians, and the fact that Steele did not down-play his convictions should settle the matter.... In 2003, Russ Shaw and I convened a meeting in DC with the then-president of the USCCB, Bishop Wilton Gregory, and its executive committee. ...In addition to the bishops, there were about 60 Catholic leaders and journalists present, including Peggy Noonan, Kate O'Beirne, Gene Zurlo, Frank Hanna, Bill Donohue, Pat Madrid, and Tom Hoopes. But one of the most memorable interventions was made by Michael Steele. When he rose to his feet, very few people knew who he was. The fact that he was Lt. Gov. of Maryland got everyone's attention, but the fact that he was an African-American Republican really raised some bishops' eyebrows, as I recall.

Steele did not succeed in his task of reforming the Republican Party.  But Michael Steele, devoted Catholic Republican now sees that Joe Biden is the man for the moment.  His integrity is attested to by even some of the most conservative Republicans.  We are happy to welcome him as a Catholic for Joe Biden. 

ANOTHER PRO-LIFE REPUBLICAN IS VOTING FOR BIDEN AND ASK YOU DO TOO

 

This is just one testimonial of a pro-life Republican who is switching and voting for Joe Biden.  This year, the pro-life vote is extremely divided.  We bring you the perspectives of those pro-lifers who have chosen Joe Biden.

Catholic Bishop John Stowe rebukes Trump as 'anti-life'

 

Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, publicly criticized President Donald Trump during a July 31 webinar.  This has been one of the strongest and most direct criticisms of Trump by an American Catholic bishop, though Pope Francis himself has taken Trump to task on occasion. 

Notable, the Bishop joined with a growing number of faithful Catholic voices not over matters such as immigration, capital punishment, care for Creation, labor rights and other issues where the Catholic Church has a clear position rejected by Trump.  The Bishop called Trump "anti-life."

In the webinar, the Bishop stated:  "For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance. He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that," Stowe said.

The Bishop continued, "Pope Francis has given us a great definition of what pro-life means.  He basically tells us we can't claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border, if we support exposing people at the border to COVID-19 because of the facilities that they're in, if we support denying people who have need for adequate health care access to health care, if we keep people from getting the housing or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life." 

But for Stowe, being truly pro-life must include efforts towards racial, social and environmental justice. "We have to be concerned for the unborn children, it's foundational for us," Stowe said. But, he added, "our understanding of pro-life has to be the vision that was described as the seamless garment vision." That vision gained traction after a 1983 speech by the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

Right wing elements have long rejected a broad vision of protecting human life.  Not only have they rejected offenses against human life because of race and economic injustice but have also disregarded offenses against unborn life when it does not fit with their partisan political agenda.  Spontaneous abortions caused by environmental pollution and industrial chemicals are unmentioned,.  Proven social programs that reduce abortion such as universal health care and paid parental leave are opposed.  And these Right-wing activists even oppose provisions of the Affordable Care Act that prohibited discrimination in health insurance against the unborn by requiring that the unborn be included in parent's heath care policies.  

JOE BIDEN STATEMENT ON WORLD DAY AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

Victims of human trafficking are among the most vulnerable among us, and every year, millions of women, men, and children suffer through this form of modern-day slavery. On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, I stand with survivors and commit that as President, I will build on the work of the Obama-Biden Administration to end human trafficking. I will reassert the leadership role America has played on this issue for more than two decades.

Human traffickers seek out the most vulnerable members of our communities — children, immigrants, those experiencing poverty or homelessness, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people of color. More often than not, these victims are women and girls. We can, and we must, do more to protect and empower the most vulnerable among us.

Protecting people from human trafficking should be above politics. President Trump and his administration claim to care about combating human trafficking. But the reality tells a different tale. They have demonized the communities most susceptible to trafficking, and as a result, have hampered the federal government’s ability to fight this crime in our own country. By any relevant metric — federal investigations, charges and prosecutions against traffickers, number of survivors receiving immigration benefits — the Trump administration has grossly failed.

If elected, I will make it a priority to combat this terrible crime, protect those vulnerable to trafficking, and empower survivors to rebuild their lives with safety, dignity, and opportunity. Building on the work of the Obama-Biden administration, I will:

Expand federal grant programs that support citizen and non-citizen survivors of trafficking.

Enact immigration policies that protect survivors.

Improve our ability to identify human trafficking victims at the border.

Crack down on employers who engage in labor trafficking, including through their overseas supply chains.

Harness the responsible use of technology to combat trafficking online.

Improve public awareness efforts to empower individuals and communities with the tools to recognize and report human trafficking.

Increase the number of federal anti-trafficking task forces, which result in significant increases in arrests, investigations, and prosecutions of human traffickers.

Expand cooperation with democracies around the world to combat international human trafficking.

Prevent human trafficking across the globe by promoting human rights, strengthening the rule of law, and advocating for the rights of vulnerable communities in our international engagement.

On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we must re-commit ourselves to the worldwide fight against human trafficking. And we must recognize that human trafficking happens in our own country, in our own communities. We all have a role to play: individuals, businesses, faith leaders, students, and government leaders. If you or someone you know might be a victim of human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline to report a tip or ask for help.

CATHOLIC LEADERS BLAST TRUMP FOR USE OF DEATH PENALTY

Catholic leaders are speaking out against the federal government’s decision to begin executing federal prisoners, decrying the Trump administration’s decision to end a nearly two-decade-long moratorium on the federal death penalty.

The outcry comes as the U.S. Department of Justice carried out its second execution, killing 68-year-old Wesley Purkey by lethal injection.

Purkey’s death followed the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee.  These constitute the first uses of capital punishment by the federal government since 2003.

Catholic leaders say the federal government’s use of the death penalty, which resumed after a 2019 push by the Justice Department, is out of step with their faith.

“So much for the ‘pro-life’ administration,” the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, wrote in a Facebook post. “The taking (of) a life is always immoral. So is the taking (of) a life to punish the taking of another life. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the death penalty is ‘inadmissible.’ It is an assault on the dignity of the human person and on human life.”

More than 1,000 faith leaders signed a letter unveiled on Tuesday demanding the White House and Attorney General William Barr halt the practice.

“As faith leaders from a diverse range of traditions, we call on President Trump and Attorney General Barr to stop the scheduled federal executions,” the statement reads. “As our country grapples with the COVID 19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and systemic racism in the criminal legal system, we should be focused on protecting and preserving life, not carrying out executions.”

Signatories included United Methodist Bishop Joe Wilson of Georgetown, Texas; Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky; the Rt. Rev. Martin Field, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri; and Shane Claiborne, founder of Red Letter Christians and a longtime activist against the death penalty.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, also publicly opposed the execution of Dustin Honken, who was convicted of killing five people and is scheduled to be executed on Friday. Tobin, who has personally ministered to Honken, said he understood the hurt Honken’s actions caused others but insisted that “killing Mr. Honken will do nothing to restore justice or heal those still burdened by these crimes.”

What’s more, the Cardinal argued that Honken’s execution would “reduce the government of the United States to the level of a murderer and serve to perpetuate a climate of violence which brutalizes our society in so many ways.”

The executions come at a time when opposition to capital punishment has climbed to some of the highest levels in decades.

A 2018 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 55% of Americans preferred life in prison without parole over the death penalty for people convicted of murder, compared with 44% who preferred capital punishment. Most major religious groups — such as Black Protestants (80%), white Catholics (54%) and non-Christian religious groups (57%) — also favored life in prison, with two notable exceptions: White evangelicals (62%) and white mainline Protestants (54%) both preferred the death penalty.

The Catholic Church has long discouraged the death penalty as well, with Pope Francis approving a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 calling the practice “inadmissible.”

"The government isn’t being 'tough on crime' when it executes our fellow citizens," Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and longtime opponent of the death penalty, tweeted on Wednesday. "The death penalty is a sign of weakness, not strength. It shows that our society has failed to solve social problems. Capital punishment makes the U.S. a human rights pariah in the global community."

Trump’s support for the practice is in stark contrast with his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic who is backing legislation endorsed by the Catholic Church to end the use of the death penalty at the federal level.

Trump was asked about the issue in June by the conservative Catholic television station EWTN. Show host Raymond Arroyo noted that some Catholics and evangelicals interpret Biden’s opposition to the death penalty — combined with his insistence the government act to curb climate change — as evidence the former Delaware senator is more “pro-life” than Trump.

Trump was not shy about slamming the Catholic Church's teachings even on Catholic television, saying he was strongly for the death penalty.