Refuse to Choose

What if American politics wasn’t a crapshoot to see who would be less evil?

To that end, why on earth can’t it be?

My friends. Let’s start spreading the word. Post this. Share this. Send this. I don’t care if it’s at my blog or Mark Shea’s or on the website I linked you to or on your own. Just get people talking.

John Allen writes:

“Here’s a thought exercise: In the abstract, what would the political fortunes be in America of a candidate who actually embodied the full range of Catholic social concerns? What would happen if a serious candidate came along who’s pro-life, pro-family, anti-war, pro-immigrant, anti-death penalty, pro-sustainable development, and a multi-lateralist in foreign policy concerned with religious freedom and a robust role for believers in public life? My hunch is that such a candidate could be attractive to a broad cross-section of moderates and independents. The machinery of both major parties, however, appears almost designed to prevent such a person from ever being nominated.

After Nov. 4, Catholics on the winning side will start scrambling for various forms of access and patronage from the new administration, while those who backed the loser will start organizing the opposition. In other words, both the victors and the vanquished in American politics know exactly what to do once the smoke from battle clears.

For disenfranchised Catholics, the road ahead is far less clear. For what it’s worth, my own reading is that it’s no use trying an end-run around the two-party system. If a holistic Catholic sensibility is ever going to cut ice in American politics, it will have to come from one of the two parties being hijacked from within — the way Reagan moved the goalposts for the Republicans, or Clinton for the Democrats. (Or, if you prefer an overseas example, the way that Blair built “New Labour.”)

In that light, it would be an interesting experiment if a network of Catholic policy groups, activists, and intellectuals were to take shape once election season is over, devoted to laying the groundwork for influencing both parties from within. I’m talking not just about making compelling arguments, but doing the hard nuts-and-bolts work of political organizing, including identifying potential candidates and making them battle-ready.

All that would, of course, require time, money, and expertise, and I’m not sure where any of it might come from. In the absence of such an effort, however, many of the best and brightest in American Catholicism are doomed to feel perpetually alienated, forever choosing between the lesser of two evils. While no political system is ever perfect, the question these Catholics are asking is: Can’t we do better than this?”

Total Request Week 5

I haven’t done one of these in a while. Man.

So lemme know, friends and enemies, what you want to read about tomorrow, and I’ll research the crap about it in between reading Mrs. Dalloway and The Jew of Malta.

Topics can include

• Star Trek
• Stargate
• Catholicism
• Art
• Italy
• Graphic Design
• Video Games
• John Paul II
• Phenomenology
• Ontology
• Christian Humanism
• Holistic Theology
• Saints
• Orthodoxy
• First-Millennium Christianity
• Paralegal
• Accounting
• TV/VCR Repair
• Dental Assisting
• …or get your degree!

Excuses, Excuses

Today has been positively frantic. I’m generally busy mondays, but today’s been particularly busy. I’ve had to run a few errands in my brief periods between classes, in what is for late October blistering rain and cold. This past weekend was largely spent putting together my final resume, and much of it spent in a fairly foul mood.

Blogging will resume as normal tomorrow.

In the meantime,