Cynicism Without Bound

Kevin Drum sees the thread that I didn’t. It’s common knowledge that there’s been a lot of pressure — both from within and without — on the American Catholic Church to deny communion to pro-choice politicians (you should now say “John Kerry” in your best Subliminal Man voice.)

Until now, I simply attributed this to the generally theo-centric approach of the modern GOP. Catholics and evangelicals share a strong opposition to abortion, so at first glance it seemed natural. Only after reading Kevin’s post did the more likely connection become clear: in 2000 and 2002, Bush strongly courted Catholics, including but not limited to Hispanics. Heading into 2004, it was clear that Bush planned to continue pushing for the traditionally Democratic Catholic vote. Then, suddenly and against expectations, a Catholic emerged as the Democratic nominee, jeapordizing Bush’s Catholic strategy. Voila! 1960 is turned on its head. Now the Democratic candidate is not accused of being too beholden to the Pope, but rather of being insufficiently so.

While it was partly a failure of perception, not seeing this sooner was really the result of insufficient cynicism on my part. I’ll try not to let it happen again.

AB