RUNNING SCARED

        It’s puzzling to watch the Tea Party and others on the Far Right in their efforts to defund and/or repeal Obamacare.  Usually, when one political party loses a major political battle in Congress, it reluctantly picks up the pieces and moves on to fight another day.  But, not in this case.

         President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March of 2010 – more than three years ago.  And, as we speak, major provisions of the law are being implemented.\

 

         Yet, some on the Far Right are still fighting a rear-guard action by threatening to shut down the Government or allowing the U.S. government to default on its debt.  Some House members are even trying to find ways to impeach the President.   Moderate and center-right Republicans see these extreme efforts as foolish and counterproductive and want no part of them.  They remember only too well, for example, what happened in the 1990’s when the GOP-led House shut down the government.  Sure, the House of Representatives has held votes some 40 times to repeal Obamacare, but everyone knows these are symbolic gestures to appease the firebrands in their midst.

 

         So, why all this resistance by so many this late in the game?  As former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau and others have suggested, the GOP resistance is not based on fears that Obamacare will fail, but that it will succeed.  That’s the GOP’s worst nightmare.  They see it coming and there’s no realistic way to stop it.  They know that even if the GOP holds on to its majority in the House in the 2014 off-year elections and wins control of the Senate, President Obama with his veto power will still have the final word.

         In the meantime, they have to put up a good face and continue demonizing Obamacare as a “train wreck” and unworkable and proposing desperate measures that have zero chance of becoming law.  That plays well with their base and they desperately need to solidify it.  At the same time, they certainly understand the only possible chance the GOP has to repeal Obamacare is if it wins the House, the Senate, and the Presidency in 2016 and that’s a tall order.  Moreover, by the time President leaves offices in January 2017, the early startup problems will have been forgotten and millions of Americans will have reaped the benefits of Obamacare for themselves and their families.

         Health care reform is something Presidents of both parties have been trying to achieve since the early 1900s when Republican President Theodore Roosevelt first tried to push through health care reform.  And now the first African-American President, whom the GOP has tried desperately to thwart at every turn for the last five years, is on the brink of implementing one of the most significant, far-reaching social programs in U.S. history, certainly the most important since Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

   

         The long-term impact of this achievement will have enormous political implications for both political parties and that must send icy chills up the spines of Republicans everywhere.

Jerry

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?

       This tired old joke has made a strong comeback, but not as a joke.   With the arrival of Pope Francis I, people are a starting to ask the question in earnest.  Not surprising, either, because Francis is acting and talking like no other Pope in my lifetime or probably in yours.

   

         The most recent departure from norm is the comment he made about gays during a news conference on the way home from the World Youth Congress in Brazil.   “Who am I to judge,” he asked and the rhetorical question was so startling to reporters that it made the front page of newspapers around the world, including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

         Who am I to judge, they asked?  That’s what Popes do, cried commentators and comics alike, some seriously, some in jest.   And it’s true that most pronouncements from the Vatican reported in both the secular and religious media for the last half century have had to do with the Pope condemning one thing or another or excommunicating an errant priest or nun who dared to question Catholic teaching and tradition.

         As a result, one could easily be excused for thinking that the only things the Pope and the Vatican seemed to care about was abortion, contraception, sexual orientation, same-sex marriage, and the condemnation of anyone who dared suggest that women should become priests.  And – oh, yes - solidifying their power base.

         Then here comes Pope Francis talking and acting like a simple pastor to the world, in the best sense of that term, declaring that God’s love and redemptive power extends to everyone who seeks to do good and lead moral lives, including gays, people of other religions or no religion, even atheists.  Breaking tradition and outraging traditionalists, he washes the feet of prisoners at a Rome detention center, including two women, one a Serbian Muslim woman and the other an Italian Catholic.  He tells clerical careerists looking to climb the next rung on the career ladder to get out of their offices and chanceries and deal with real people and their real problems and concerns.  To the end, he has resurrected the image of the good shepherd, pointing that a good shepherd deals with his sheep up close and personal, to the point that shepherds must get down and dirty and even smell like sheep.

 

         By casting his lot with the poor and the marginalized in society, and living in accordance with that belief, Francis is not only modeling the behavior of Francis of Assisi, his patron saint, but the example of the Man who started this whole movement more than 2,000 years ago.  He too cast his lot with the poor and the outcast, hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, including thieves and prostitutes, the very dregs of society.  And warning his followers not to judge lest they be judged.  His message of love and forgiveness also included everyone.  He was truly the world’s first Catholic

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         After centuries of seeing Popes acting like imperial majesties, wrapped in the livery and trappings of Medieval and Renaissance potentates, more concerned with power than their original charter, it is exhilarating for us older Catholics in particular to see Francis getting the Catholic Church back to basics and putting Christianity’s founder and his message back in the driver’s seat.

Jerry