Saturday, June 07, 2014

you can't be catholic and libertarian

Alan Dershowitz claims Cardinal Maradiaga an Anti-Semite
WaPo |  For years, American Catholics have been under pressure to vote Republican.

Though no church leader ever put it quite that baldly, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke came close when he said the Democratic Party was in danger of becoming a “party of death.” Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs has repeatedly suggested that Catholics shouldn’t be able to receive Communion if they vote for politicians who differ from church teaching on a few “non-negotiable” matters: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, same-sex marriage — and more recently, the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.

The most intense call to the ballot box came from Peoria Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, a Holy Cross priest who referred to the “calculated disdain of the president of the United States” in a homily ahead of the 2012 presidential election. “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments,’’ Jenky said, “would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care. In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama — with his radical pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda — now seems intent on following a similar path.”

None of the protests that followed claimed that Jenky hadn’t made himself clear.

Now, though, the red papal loafer may be on the other foot, with economic conservatives being called out.

In Washington this week, the cardinal some consider the pontiff’s “vice-pope’’ mocked them outright at a conference called “Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case against Libertarianism.” The Religion News Service story on the smackdown of trickle-down ran under the headline, “Catholic and libertarian? Pope’s top adviser says they’re incompatible.”

That adviser, Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, was introduced by AFL-CIO president Richard L. Trumka, and preached against deregulation and “worshipping idols, even if that idol is called ‘market economy.’ ’’ Rodríguez also called trickle-down economics a “deception,’’ and said the “invisible hand” of the market steals from and strangles the poor: “We are no longer to trust the blind forces and the invisible hand of the market. This economy kills. This is what the pope is saying.”

Some libertarians have described the pope’s economic views as naive and uninformed — and Rodríguez returned the favor. “Many of these libertarianists do not read the social doctrine of the church, but now they are trembling before the book of Picketty,’’ he said, referring to French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-seller, “Capital in the Twenty-first Century,” on the wealth disparities that have us headed into a new Gilded Age.

In some ways, the fight is over competing interpretations of the American story, said Meghan J. Clark, a moral theologian from St. John’s University. The libertarian telling of that story stars a frontiersman who carves the American West out of nothing, in radical autonomy, with only a hunting knife. Only, doesn’t that self-made man creating something out of nothing sound a lot like God? “That’s the [Catholic] problem with libertarianism,’’ Clark said. “It depends upon a human person who creates himself, and there’s no way to make that harmonious with Christ.”

The economy created by all those frontiersfolk is the unfettered free market, and Pope Francis himself recently reiterated his view that it is “an inhumane system. I didn’t hesitate to write in . . . “Evangelii Gaudium’ (“The Joy of the Gospel”) that this economic system kills,’’ Francis told reporters on his plane en route to Rome from Jerusalem. “And I repeat this.”

17 comments:

woodensplinter said...

You mention militias. Interesting example. There are two types, the original where community folks join together (and won the Revolutionary War).

As a matter of historical fact, no such thing has ever existed. Historical ignorance is one of the cardinal liabilities of the geriatric white Americans comprising the "tea party". The tea party is a privately-funded political mass made possible by the specific organizational skills and substantial resources of those http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2014/06/sons-of-wichita.html and the thousand plus other CEO's they've organized into an elite corporatist block.

That was also the case with the founding fathers. Please try a little esoteric depth-history at http://hypertiger.blogspot.com/



The rest is an odd mess of healthy paranoia interspersed with an endearingly naive and derivative understanding of the political economy seen through the lens of essentially juvenile fiction. Please carry on Gene, you seem well-intended. No trolls are permitted hereabouts any worse than the elderly racists who trade an occasional elbow, gratuitous link, or throw-away aspersion, and I suspect that these are only permitted for their instructional value.

Gene said...

Your comment reminds me of Mad Libs. Anyway, some non esoteric history: "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security." - Thomas Jefferson quotes from BrainyQuote.com

Constructive_Feedback said...

United Negro College Fund To The Koch Brothers - "Thank you for your $25 million donation"

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother CNu:


Have you ever wondered why no Black elected leader, influential academic or "Civil Rights Leader" has EVER come on Democracy Now and suffered a hostile interview from Amy Goodman or Juan Gonzalez as they treated them AS IF they had some part in the relative lack of development of the Black community today AND "Democracy Now" played the role of defenders of "The Least Of These" against the forces who took their valuables?


The Koch Brothers are enemies in the "Black Racial Services Machine" as they are among Post-Racial Progressives.


George Soros - on the other hand who has his tentacles on an assortment of "Black" institutions seems to go unscathed from inspection.


Is one WHITE MAN'S money "gooder" than another's?

woodensplinter said...

Did you find my madlib as comical or nonsensical as your implied notion that the human-owning and child-raping founding father Jefferson is just another pedestrian peasant like the ones you're pretending have autopoetically organized themselves into the American far-right fringe?

makheru bradley said...

“In fact, the entire working class of the United States is fucked. Without manufacturing jobs, they are reduced to the small number of jobs installing and fixing the stuff that comes from China, and then low paying unskilled retail and service jobs. With large numbers of chronically unemployed, the folks who are employed will have no leverage whatsoever on pay and conditions.”

On the surface that reality should provide the motivation for class struggle, except for one exacerbating factor--white supremacy. Historically, poor and working class white people have been the most fervent defenders of white supremacy, despite their oppression and exploitation by the white capitalist class.

Constructive_Feedback said...

[quote]For years, American Catholics have been under pressure to vote Republican.[/quote]

WOW. Only a small percentage of the world's Catholics are Americans. This can ONLY be a POLITICAL article in the context of "America"

According to the CIA Factbook, the five countries with the largest number of Catholics are:

Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, United States,Italy



According to this data the story SHOULD say - "For the first time in Millennial History - more NON-EUROPEAN nations are Catholics - thus attesting to the selection of the first "Non-European" Pope, assuaging the hopes of people who promote DIVERSITY, inclusion and REPRESENTATIONAL GOVERNANCE - ideas that many Republicans are quite hostile to.


Why is a LIBERTARIAN a perfect end state - in your view? Or so it seems?


To have NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES - is not evidence of BRAINWASHING or Thought-less-ness.
INSTEAD - it might point to the existence of a BODY OF KNOWLEDGE that was built up over HUNDREDS OF YEARS of "MAN" - and the understanding that MAN DOES NOT CHANGE - only his TECHNOLOGY to TRAVEL, COMMUNICATE and MEDICATE himself (with drugs and food) has CHANGED.


Maybe, Brother CNu - the MAN who says that he is OPEN TO EVERYTHING AS LONG AS IT HURTS NO ONE ELSE - is the greater THREAT? For indeed he might be comfortable with HIS OWN erudite ability to manage in this world - the need for ORDER in the larger society where RULES OF THE ROAD are more distinctly enumerated might ensure that a rogue person who saw no value in his life (the life of the Libertarian) does not cross the double solid lines and SLIT HIS THROAT because "his God" told him to seek out THE RICH LIFE that is found in a pint of human blood - used in a sacrifice ritual. Thus he is not HURTING ANOTHER - he is PLEASING HIS GOD.

CNu said...

Why Ken, you madcap..., nowhere in the article did it say anything remotely approaching your "the idea in the article that cheerful generosity alone...forcefully take beyond the people's will" blather. I'm going to have to call that "paraphrasing" out as a damnable lie.


The article did note the cardinal's on-point critique of financial capitalism, which capitalism never created anything.

Tom said...

Interesting speculations, CNu, but Ken will tell us what the article really says.

CNu said...

Without exception, the "non-negotiable" issues cited in this article are 20th century issues for which no such traditional wisdom can be claimed.

Gene said...

Hi. Regarding the working class being in trouble, you state a defensible and important position. It is a surface argument, though, that some evil white capitalist class is to blame. No one seems to be able to name these designate bad people or is it all white people, to revisit your racism. Most companies are owned by shareholders and the largest group is retirement funds. The Daddy Warbucks days are somewhat diminished as the people now own stocks. the evil class may be grandmothers Florida. Hence, there is a reluctance for shareholders to shoot themselves. (I should add, you vitriol is properly aimed at international banks and organizations such as the IMF and the UN. They are working to create a world of debt slaves.)


There is a growing class of people stuck in a rut. They need work and the business culture is shrinking. We are coming to a dangerous time, as you likely foresee. People need to work, but it is simplistic to think some white guys decided to move jobs overseas. No one wanted to abandon Detroit - it just had to be done. Kodak vanished from Rochester because it was stupid, not evil. They did not pursue digital camera business. This is stupid, not evil. Foreign nations are now nimble, in many cases, and, for good and bad, less regulated. A business in the US that is a serf to government and not able to compete as it once did.


Companies are driven by their nature to increase profit. You work to earn money, that is not evil? So, if government make it impossible to stay in an area, the company leaves. Anyone who has a small company, in most states, know they are targets of taxation, fines, extra cost, and so on. Again, the simple, heart breaking decision is to leave. The US has the highest rate of business taxation; hence, business leaves. Canada only taxes corporate profit at 15% and it have its own brand of socialism as a form of government. There is nothing sinister or unknowable, here.


Schenectady, NY was the home of GE. It was the child of GE. One day, the city government getting cocky, decided to tax buildings that were being used in industry. In a short time, GE had moved all around the nation and world. The city became a highly taxed dump; as taxpayers left, the remaining ones saw their home values collapse but not as fast as taxes. Money goes where it is respected. This same scenario happened in the NE long ago. Now, it is a national preoccupation to screw business, the delusion being one can tax a business, When a business is taxed, the tax is added on to the price. The consumer pays all taxes, in the end. When they can't afford to buy at current prices. The business must move overseas. These are call anyone engaged in commerce will make.


When a company manufactures abroad, they find it works so they can lower prices. As the competition sees prices fall, they need to do something. Most unions try to help, these days, to work the problem, they are not ignorant slaves as you may think, but a company needs to survive, so it sends work out of the country. Apple is in China and a massive portion of their assets are outside the U.S. to avoid massive taxation. We have driven a American powerhouse off shore. This is all predictable as it is how business works. Indeed, the U.S. became powerful because it was a place to enter in to business outside the morass and greed of Europe. A


So, we are funding the world and raising living standards everywhere open to commerce. Maybe that is a good thing. Our culture will continue on in Asia and, perhaps, our old-fashioned insistence upon individual rights. THe Americans will suffer, but history will see a rising world standard. We shall see what the diaspora brings. While our assets are being stripped from each of us by banks and governments, at least, we are getting products we can afford. We can no longer afford the quality we once had.

woodensplinter said...

Hi Gene, could you please specify the race and ethnicity of the proprietors of the international banks and organizations such as the IMF and the UN?

There is a growing class of people stuck in a rut. They need work and the business culture is shrinking.

You describe symptoms here, what is the root cause?

We are coming to a dangerous time, as you likely foresee.

What is the specific danger to which you refer my friend?

The US has the highest rate of business taxation

Surely, you jest?

As for the rest http://youtu.be/6gwVyIo8DpQ

ken said...

http://taxfoundation.org/blog/us-has-highest-corporate-income-tax-rate-oecd

woodensplinter said...

Shall we pretend that you know the difference between the basic corporate tax rate and the effective corporate tax rate, or, shall we go with the premise that you're uncritically parroting political talking points?


http://www.theglobalist.com/myth-us-worlds-highest-tax-rate-corporations/

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/30/456005/reminder-corporate-taxes-very-low/

ken said...

I think we can say I do, I would of course be for a lower across the board tax with less loopholes that only bigger corporations can afford to find or lobby for. I think a high corporate tax rate with lots of loop holes just adds cost, and opens more doors to political favoritism and cronyism and it has a tendency to favor big business and keep smaller businesses out. And of course puts more power in the hands of government.

However that being said we would have to dig deeper to find out who really is getting their facts straight.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/us-corporate-effective-tax-rate-myth-and-fact

woodensplinter said...

Referencing the same biased and politically motivated source hardly qualifies as "digging deeper" - unless by that you mean digging yourself into a hole. The fact of the matter is that using loopholes and deductions, the effective corporate tax rate is somewhere between 23-28% for U.S. corporations.

If we look to off-shored profits which these corporations are shielding from taxation, then we know for certain who the "starve the beast" culprits are, and for certain it's not the overwrought geriatric sock-puppets formerly manning the populist battle-stations of the tea party. As Makheru Bradley put it above Historically, poor and working class white people have been the most fervent defenders of white supremacy, despite their oppression and exploitation by the white capitalist class.

ken said...

What I meant by digging deeper is we would have to look elsewhere than your partisan link you supplied verses the link that you disregard that I supplied. Digging deeper in this case would be finding an a source both would consider credible. I have no idea how you can say the Tax Foundation which at the end of it's article footnotes where it got all it's statistics can be less trusted than a site like Think Progress. It seemed every link I linked to in the article in Think Progress linked back to itself to solidify its point while the tax foundation while the Tax Foundation footnoted and array of government stats and chart comparisons from other sources.


That said, I did not see any refuting of my first point that having a high corporate tax rate with many loopholes gives greater advantage to companies who can afford to lobby and find and create the loopholes and also give government greater power.

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