Jesuit priest: "The president, I have decided, is a genius."

Here we go again!

No, wait, this is quite different than Fr. John O'Malley's recent love fest. This is Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., a professor at Georgetown (just like Fr. O'Malley), a regular contributor to Ignatius Insight and author of several Ignatius Press books, in a piece for InsideCatholic on "the actual Constitution":

The president, I have decided, is a genius. He knew that by receiving Notre Dame's honors, he would solidify the wisdom of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for the most anti-life candidate ever. He also understands that the best way to counteract the so-called Catholic influence on the present Supreme Court is to appoint yet another Catholic. Both at Notre Dame and soon at the Supreme Court, we will find many diverse and contradictory "Catholic" opinions about all things Catholic. That word, like the famous word "Protestant," can mean just about whatever we want it to mean.
 
Reading over the great ideas of the new Supreme Court appointee and of those who appointed her, I have decided that the time has come to admit facts. A colleague of mine has long been telling me that the 1787 Constitution has nothing to do with what actually rules the country. No part of it still holds. Many judges and their apologists pride themselves on the fact that they are bound by foreign law, or by what is needed, or by what they would like to see. But they are not much restricted by anything so pedestrian as a written Constitution or a common law tradition that supports it.
 
This famous document today evidently binds nobody. Actually, nothing binds anyone; that is the new constitution. That is the "democracy" under which we now live. Nothing sounds less obvious than those "truths" that the Declaration held to be self-evident. We are not now sure if the unions, the executives, the stockholders, the banks, or the president run General Motors. We are not convinced that anyone who officially runs the country is bound by any document of positive constitutional law that was designed to insure ordered rule.

That's a great line: "Actually, nothing binds anyone; that is the new constitution." Vows mean nothing. Promises are empty. Laws are changeable, morality is malleable, and reality is moldable. It is part and parcel of what James Kalb describes as "totally administered freedom" which "in the name of autonomy, ... makes the state control everything" (The Tyranny of LIberalism, ISI, 2008).

For those who cannot get enough of Fr. Schall, here is another recent essay, on education.

Comments

[Cathy Wilson]

Obama, if not a genius, he is at least extremely wiley and has insured himself the "Catholic" vote in the election of 2012. What a sad, sad state of affairs.

[M]

I agree. To keep the Catholics divided is an imperative strategy to forward the immoral and corrupt agenda. Should they ever unite and all live like Catholics, following the Holy Father and the magistrium, they would change the world.

[Todd]

Moldable reality indeed.

Fr Schall comes off as petulant and immature by repeating the "most anti-life ... ever" schtick. Conservatives have become prey to the very thing they complain we have embraced: faith unhinged from reason.

[Donald R. McClarey]

""most anti-life ... ever" schtick."

It isn't schtick Todd, it's truth, although I can certainly understand how Catholics who voted for the most pro-abortion president in our nation's history find it almost impossible to acknowledge this very inconventient truth.

[Todd]

Most anti-life, most pro-abortion? Sorry: I don't see it. Maybe number 3 after Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon (who contributed the most in terms of nominees).

Nothing President Obama has done has surprised me. Nor, probably most of the Catholics who voted for him. The thing is, we have a president for the next 3.6 to 7.6 years. What are conservatives going to do all that time? Pout?

[A.Owen]

Clinton embraced abortion, but didn't run on it. He didn't promise to sweep away all restrictions to abortion. Sure he nominated anti-life judges. Obama is doing more than that, and did more than that as Illinois Senator.

Republicans will pout, conservatives will fight to spread the truth about just how bad this man is for our country and our people

[Donald R. McClarey]

"Maybe number 3 after Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon"

When Nixon was President he made all of his Supreme Court appointments prior to Roe and before abortion became a consideration in judicial selections. Even so, one of his four appointees, Rehnquist, dissented in Roe, and Chief Justice Burger, who voted with the majority in Roe, later voted on the Court to overturn Roe.

Clinton never endorsed anything as radical as the Freedom of Choice Act. Obama stated before Planned Parenthood that the first thing he would do as President was to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Mercifully, since Congress has not passed it, this is one campaign pledge that Obama has not yet been able to keep. Obama has raised campaign funds touting his opposition to the barely disguised infanticide known as partial birth abortion. It would be hard to have a President more pro-abortion than Obama, unless an abortionist were elected.

"What are conservatives going to do all that time?"

We are doing it now Todd. Getting ready for the inevitable crash from Obama's policies, and the political reaction which will sweep from power politicians of your political persuasion for the next generation.