{"id":8335,"date":"2013-02-17T20:13:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T20:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=8335"},"modified":"2013-02-17T20:13:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T20:13:53","slug":"the-end-of-a-catholic-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-end-of-a-catholic-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of a “Catholic Moment”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GWB<\/a>Ross Douthat mourns<\/a> (prematurely, I fear) \u2018the end of a Catholic moment\u2019:<\/p>\n

The mid-2000s were the last time the Catholic vision of the good society \u2014 more egalitarian than American conservatism and more moralistic than American liberalism \u2014 enjoyed real influence in U.S. politics. At the time of John Paul\u2019s death, the Republican Party\u2019s agenda was still stamped by George W. Bush\u2019s \u201ccompassionate conservatism,\u201d which offered a right-of-center approach to Catholic ideas about social justice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmmm. <\/p>\n

I have no particular objection to \u201cfaith-based initiatives\u201d and the like (in fact, under the right circumstances they can be thoroughly good things), nor, for that matter, with the notion that the embrace of (ultimately disastrous) \u201ccompassionate conservatism\u201d was what it took to win the 2000 election, but let\u2019s be clear that Catholic ideas of \u201csocial justice\u201d are part of a corporatist ideology that (as some of Benedict XVI\u2019s pronouncements remind us) is very difficult indeed to square with traditional American notions of individualism and the free market. To his credit, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what George W. Bush was trying to do. <\/p>\n

Mr. Douthat continues:<\/p>\n

Whereas eight years ago, a Catholic view of economics and culture represented a center that both parties hoped to claim, today\u2019s Republicans are more likely to channel Ayn Rand than Thomas Aquinas, and a strident social liberalism holds the whip hand in the Democratic Party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s interesting to read of a \u201cCatholic view of economics and culture\u201d (in the sense that Douthat defines those terms) as representing \u201ca center\u201d either now, or then. I have my doubts.<\/p>\n

As for Rand or Aquinas, I would have distinct reservations about channeling either, although\u2014if really forced to choose\u2014 I would prefer the former to the latter (I suspect that I would have even more reservations about old Aquinas, if I could ever bring myself to devote any time at all to his endless\u2014and dreary\u2014 theological and philosophical musings, but life\u2019s too short, and there\u2019s only the one). <\/p>\n

More importantly, I suspect that the broader point that Douthat is making about the GOP will turn out to be wrong. As he notes later on, \u201ca synthesis of social conservatism and more egalitarian-minded economic policies could have a great deal of mass appeal\u201d. That\u2019s true, I reckon (so long as the social conservatism is more\u2014so to speak\u2014Edmund Burke than Todd Akin), and that is why the Republicans will end up, I have long thought<\/a> (and Tea Party notwithstanding, still do), as an Americanized version of Europe\u2019s Christian Democrats, with all the baggage that that will entail.<\/p>\n

De Tocqueville would weep. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat mourns (prematurely, I fear) \u2018the end of a Catholic moment\u2019: The mid-2000s were the last time the Catholic vision of the good society \u2014 more egalitarian than American conservatism and more moralistic than American liberalism \u2014 enjoyed real … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[629,16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8355,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions\/8355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}