I like a lot of what Fr. Casey Cole OFM has to say about the Catholic Faith. He recently put out a Twitter video saying he agrees with the dogmas and doctrines of the Church which is good.
I had an issue with a recent video of his where he speaks about abortion. He seems to basically be saying that people have their faith and politics mixed up, that they place politics above their faith. The example he gives is regarding abortion. Essentially he seems to be saying that because people are opposed to abortion, they side with the Republican party, but then they put that political party above their faith and use their faith as a sort of justification for doing that.
He says people will support the Republican party while overlooking the bad aspects of the party which are also threatening to life issues.
Since there is no Catholic Party as such in Canada or the US which aligns perfectly with Catholic values, you probably will not find a party which fully supports the Church. However, I think the reasoning that he provides is faulty. It could come from the fact that in several studies, it showed that people who are left-leaning do not empathize with the viewpoints of those who are right-wing. When asked to explain the position of someone they oppose, conservatives were much better able to do so than liberals.
I'm not saying this to bash or mock anyone. But it's a fundamental mistake that I see often. Liberals assume that their position is the "right" one. It's not that there are other positions with which they disagree. There's is simply the right and good opinion and then all the others are bad ones. For instance, minimum wage. To liberals, you either support the minimum wage and workers or you don't. But if they were asked why a conservative may not support the minimum wage, they may say things like they don't think people deserve that much money, or that because conservatives are more racist, they don't want minorities to get ahead, etc.
I don't know if liberals think these things about conservatives, but that's how things come across. To be more specific to Fr. Casey Cole, he mentions a few examples in his video. He says people support the Republican party because of its opposition to abortion despite their bad economic and social policies.
He presupposes that Republican economic policies are bad for poor people and that anyone who supports the Republican party must be doing so while holding their noses about all the other issues. It's as if the Democratic platform is good for poor people and the Republican one is bad, and that there isn't even any disagreement on this. This, however, is untrue.
Often the people who support the Republican party on abortion, also support the basic economic policies of the party. The Democratic party tends to favor a large interventionist government that enacts many policies with good stated intentions.
The Republican party, on the other hand, favors individual efforts and less government intervention. The US began a "war on poverty" back with Lyndon B. Johnson and since then poverty, which had previously been decreasing, started going up. The policies with good intentions had the opposite effect.
Another example is minimum wage. To some, the minimum wage is a simple straight-forward question: Should people make $10 per hour or $15 per hour. Should people work and still not make enough money, or should we pass a law that people are compensated fairly?
Sounds simple. If there were no unintended consequences or negative side-effects, all people would be in favor of this. In fact, many would say the minimum wage should be higher in that case. Why not $40 per hour?
The difference is that right-wing people would say that the real minimum wage is $0, and if someone cannot get a job, that's how much they will receive. Minimum wage isn't designed to be peoples' full-time salary to support a family. It's meant to get people into the workforce and then they hopefully move into better positions. By removing the lower rungs of the economic ladder, you aren't helping people, you are preventing them from ever entering the job market. If someone's work is really only worth $12 per hour, no one will hire that person for $15 per hour. Are they really better off?
Taxing companies and wealthier people is another issue. To some it's simple. More taxes = better. The truth is though that higher tax doesn't have its economic impact after the money is earned but before. It comes into play when someone is deciding to start a business, invest, or carry out some other economic activity. If taxes are too high, the expected income from a venture is lower and thus the venture is riskier. All else being equal, if business startup is risky, then fewer will be started and fewer people will be hired and less money will be made.
Again, it's a complex issue. There is definitely room for debate. But to simply characterize one party's policies as "good" and the other's as "bad" and to say the bad one is only focused on abortion is incorrect. There are people with opinions on both sides of economic issues. The same thing goes for various other policies.
Another point is that many commentators seem to want to mix subjects all up together and create the appearance that they are equivalent. Abortion is the pre-eminent issue in our society at the moment because abortion involves killing thousands of innocent children. This simply cannot be compared to disagreements on economic policy.
Although I disagree with people who say economic issues are irrelevant, I do not think they are the very most important thing. The right to life trumps all other secular issues.
Overall, I think it's a huge leap to assume that Republicans care only about one thing. I would suggest asking them what they think and why. Let's be clear, I am NOT a Republican, I'm not even American. But the left must learn to listen to the right. As for Fr. Cole Casey, I think a lot of what he says is good. I commend him on his position of siding with the Church on matters of faith and morals. I simply felt this criticism was necessary. I am open to anyone's comments.
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