Commonweal has an article by Gerald Beyer titled, “Yes You Can: Why Catholics Don’t Have to Vote Republican.” (Article online at CatholicsforObama.)
Todd Aglialoro at InsideCatholic.com does an excellent job pointing out several faulty assumptions in the article.
Here are some of the faulty assumptions Todd finds in the Commonweal piece:
The confusion between “mustn’t vote for a pro-abortion Democrat” and “must vote Republican” …
The red herring of Republican administrations’ failure to stop abortion, coupled with another appearance of the old “treating root causes is better than criminalizing abortion” claim, which has apparently returned to stay this election year. …
Well said, Todd. Most pro-life Catholics supporting John McCain fully appreciate the difficulty of trying to curtail the practice and frequency of abortion. I haven’t met a person yet who thinks electing John McCain president will result in a quick end to abortion.
Perhaps pro-life activists were naive in the 1970s hoping to pass a Constitutional Amendment. But, especially since the disappointing Casey decision in 1992, pro-life activists have been very pragmatic, focusing on simple measures that reduce the number of abortions, while also educating and persuading more of the general population to the pro-life position.
In order to justify a Catholic vote for Obama, apologists for the Illinois Senator fail to recognize the modest gains for life made in George Bush’s two terms and completely omit Obama’s commitment to promote and subsidize abortion if he’s elected president.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
NO Catholic could ever, in right conscience, vote for Obama. He promises to implement the Freedom of Choice Act as his 1st act as president. This act promotes and legalizes abortions even where the law says no. He promises to cover abortions with his health care solution. He ‘voted’ for infantcide as a state senator, He’s for embryonic stem cell research, even though we’ve seen it isn’t necessary. He promises to select liberal pro-abortion justices for the Supreme Court. He exemplifies the culture of death and destruction.