I have been a political junkie all of my life. One of my constant refrains has been that the only two things in life that I will bet on are prize-fights and political races because anything can happen. That last statement seems like a bit of an understatement this year.
The Republican race for President, as I’ve said, resembles a demolition derby. The only thing that the candidates seem to agree on is that everyone else in the race is a liar. Indeed, some have characterized others as being “the biggest liar” or “the worst liar I have ever met.” For awhile, I thought there might be Guinness Book of Records contest going on this year in that category. It will be very interesting when the Party holds its Convention this July in Cleveland and selects a nominee and all of the candidates have to endorse him and proclaim that he is the only one Americans should believe in.
I thought I’d seen everything that could happen in politics and then Donald Trump decided to go to war with Pope Francis.
Some of his supporters will contend that the Pope struck first by impugning Trump’s genuineness as a Christian, however it was Trump who characterized the Pope as being a “political Pope” and suggested that the Mass he celebrated on the Juarez border was a prop staged by the Mexican government.
Once my shock at Trump’’s audacity had subsided I was able to give his tactic a more cold-eyed appraisal. It became clear to me that Trump saw this gambit as another way to appeal to Evangelical voters, who distrust the Catholic Church and in a state in which Catholics are a distinct minority.
The battle for Evangelical voters within the Republican Party has been going on for at least two decades. We are now into the second generation of Evangelical church leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. and Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, either endorsing a candidate or registering their flock to vote. Candidates this year are increasingly trying to pander to this voting bloc. Cruz is harping on Judeo-Christian values and using his Evangelical pastor father as a surrogate. Rubio trumpets the fact that he attends two churches, one is Roman-Catholic and the other Evangelical. Trump rails against Muslims, vowing to bar them from the country and has now taken on the Pope.
Forty-five years ago John F. Kennedy had to appear before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association to defend his right, as a Roman-Catholic, to run for President. His eloquent exposition about the need to keep religious beliefs separate from the discharge of official duties should be required reading for anyone seeking public office today and in the future. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkhoustonministers.html
It might bring us back to time when the separation of Church and State is once again viewed not as a vice but a virtue. Miracles sometimes happen.