Profession of Hatred

I profess my solemn hatred of the Democratic Party in the USA. This is not a dislike, a preference, an inclination or an opinion! It is a deep-seated, passionate, soul-defining conviction! This Party is essentially, structurally, and invasively hostile to what is most sacred to me: innocent life, sexuality/marriage/family, and religious liberty. This hatred is the inverse of my love for the Church: total, unqualified, enduring,and unequivocal. When it comes to the Church and the Party, I am not 80/20; not even 99/1; I am 100/0! My allegiance to the Republican Party, by contrast, is ambivalent, qualified, and lukewarm...for many reasons. But my contempt for the other Party is boundless. The way a Jew views the Nazi or an Afro-American the KKK...this is the way I see that Party. But my loathing is more intimate and more personal because I was raised a Democrat and I entered adulthood in this condition. It was in my early adulthood, during the 1970s, that the Party betrayed us Catholics in favor of sexual license, abortion, the deconstruction of marriage and eventually an attack on our religious liberty. It is as if my very best friend took and raped my wife, my daughters, and my sisters. This is intellectual, spiritual, social...it is also VERY personal! My loathing of the Party and what it stands for is simple, straightforward and uncomplicated. My real problem is: How do I relate with Democrats? About half of my best friends and family are such! I love them dearly. I respect them. How do I reconcile this love with this hatred? It is not easy! It is a challenging, complicated spiritual-emotional task. A key to this reconciliation is given by Jesus from the cross: "They know not what they do." Those I love clearly do not intend the destruction if the Innocents, the break-up of the family, and the dissolution of Catholic social action as we have known it. Their conscious, deliberate intention is to help the poor and needy. So, at the deeper level of intent, we are in union. I deliberately dwell in this communion. Nevertheless, objectively, formally and structurally, they collaborate directly with the politics of death. I see that they do so out of ignorance: like one under hypnosis or in a psychotic state. I assume that this ignorance is invincible...or virtually so. Their judgment is clouded by a most complex web of prejudice, indoctrination, and rash judgement. They are carried along, unawares, by a liberal consensus in which they ardently believe...the way a Nazi sincerely defended Country and Tradition and a KKK lynch mob protected its virtuous women. And so I see that family and friends are innocent subjectively, but complicit and guilty objectively. They, of course, see me in a similar way: I have been misled by reactionary, right-wing views. A second thought that is helpful is to keep in mind the prudential, positional, ambivalent nature of political views. Practical matters involve a universe of circumstances and conditions and give rise to varied opinions among the the most-informed and best-intended. Therefore, generally, political judgments are best if held in a tentative, non-ideological manner. The problem, however, is that issues of life, family and liberty are far more profound and decisive than issues like capital gains tax, immigration policy or what we do in Syria or Iraq or Iran. And so, I do my best to keep a sense of humility, tentativeness and openness...even as I pledge my total allegiance to the unborn, weak and elderly, to the sanctity of traditional marriage, and to freedom of religion. Lastly, I realize the limited nature of politics: most of life is NOT politics. For example, in my current work involving a residence for low-income, special-needs women, most of my collaborators are Democrats. We do not talk about or think about that arena. We happily conspire in the doing of good deeds. We enjoy peace and agreement to a remarkable degree. We dwell upon the deeper, broader things upon which we agree. And I do not focus on, but I cannot deny, the wound, the grief, that is best if not spoken.