sedetrad said:The tea baggers are statist morons. If you told them that small gov would cause themt to lose their state job related pensions, medical benefits, social security, and medicare, they would try to kill you for being a "commie." Oh, the irony.
This is very, very true of American Catholics in general, not only of tea-baggers. I've seen it first-hand. "Big government bla bla bla, socialism, communism..." "Do you have Medicare?" "... Yeah... " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak indeed.
Too many people worry about "communism" in the form of welfare, high taxes, anti-trust state intervention in private business, etc. Are they aware that all the Popes since at least Leo XIII have openly stumped for this kind of "social justice"? I'm not saying I agree, but believe it or not, Catholics used to be Democrats and to be all for big government. Big government probably seemed to the Church to be really the only check against Jєωιѕн monopoly, except that it really isn't, because the government is also Jєωιѕн... Ay yi yi.
The communism you really need to worry about is not an economic system but a mentality. NFP, Theology of the Body, "We can't have a large family because our house only has five bedrooms," this is communism, folks. It is statism -- it says to God, we can't do your will, because the state won't allow it.
American Catholics also are earmarked by their abhorrence for immigration. This is pretty much American schizophrenia writ large -- America is defined as a place for refugees, but at a certain point people decide "Okay, no more refugees, we have enough." In other words, yeah, immigration is okay for my Irish great-grandmother in 1908, but not for this Mexican in 2010.
I avoid all this by dreaming about the restoration of the European monarchies and pretty much tuning out my present environment. But as much as I tune it out, I see it more realistically than most. America is a sort of phantom concept that people tend to project their own ideals onto. But the "libertarian," Wild West ideal so many think is part and parcel of the American way of life really is not. It's all in their heads. When they say "no taxation without representation," what they really mean is "No taxation." Because they have representation. Yeah, it's miserable representation, but what did you think was going to happen, who did you think would take over, once the Catholic kings lost their power?