"In the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology."Vice President JD Vance
Vice President Vance didn't just tell the Pope to butt out. Vance said he was wrong.
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| Sermon on the Mount. Peacenik. Do-gooder. Wild-eyed idealist |
The Matthew 25 message of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is contrary to a human nature that survived in competition for survival and reproduction.
-- love your neighbor, love your enemy, turn the other cheek
-- help the poor, the sick, the homeless, the refugee
-- don't store up treasures on Earth; instead give them to the poor
Jesus sounds like a Jesus-freak hippie. A communist, not a capitalist. And generous and unrealistic to a fault.
The Pope has better credentials than Vance for understanding Jesus' message, but Vance better understands American voters. Polls show that Americans care most about their own financial well-being, the prices they pay and the economy that provides them income. A heads-up for Democrats who prioritize climate and race relations: Those come in at one percent. I get my own heads-up about the importance of the tariffs: They also come in at one percent.
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Fox polls are best understood as describing what Trump-oriented Republicans think is true or want to be true. Election polling by Fox and Rasmussen regularly skew several points redder than other polls. But a March 31 Gallup poll is directionally consistent with the Fox poll. It showed that voters consider hunger and homelessness to be important, but, like Fox, rank them less important than the problems that affect voters personally. Climate ranks higher here, too, but behind economic issues, starting with healthcare inflation.
A Marquette University Law School poll released yesterday reports that voters are dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the war in Iran, thinking that the U.S. has not achieved its goals in Iran and that they want the fighting to end. This is more consistent with the message of the Pope. The Pope said that God didn't hear prayers of savagery of the kind Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered.
But as to the Sermon on the Mount message of welcoming outsiders, a majority of voters are telling pollsters they aren't buying the message of welcoming the sojourner or refugee. Matthew writes that Jesus said, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
The Trump administration isn't welcoming outsiders except White South Africans. The administration is still carrying out a policy that anyone here illegally is appropriate to deport. There is a zero-tolerance policy, even in the widely-publicized cases of sympathetic people being deported, and even amid instances of ICE killing people on camera. Trump is still net-positive on the issues of border security. A majority of Americans want fewer immigrants here, and will deport them to achieve this goal.
There is a practical takeaway for Democratic messaging in this lead-up to the midterm elections. Jesus and the Pope have a popular message on the issue of war, but Trump and Vance are in better touch on issues that relate to compassion. This isn't a "Christian nation," not when it comes to helping the poor, be it SNAP benefits, foreign aid, health insurance benefits for others, or welcoming people seeking refuge. Those are "Sunday-morning" virtues, not real life.
10 comments:
Interesting that those polled don't seem to be able to connect their personal financial security with political corruption.
Liberal/progressive elites would probably like to elect another "people" to replace the benighted and deplorable electorate they unfortunately have to cope with.
Jesus wasn’t a populist who sought approval from people. He knows how fickle we are. The pivot from “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday, to “Crucify him” on Good Friday is a great example.
You are correct in saying Jesus’s teaching was countercultural. He said that following him would cost one everything in this life. Self-sacrifice – including the ultimate kind- for a more eternal view is the core of being a Christan. Christian martyrdom is legendary – Including Justin Martyr, from whom we get the word. Almost all of Jesus’ disciples were executed because of their faith.
Unfortunately for most of the 20th Century, much of Evangelical teaching was about health, wealth and prosperity. It fed the value-proposition (what’s in it for me?) mentality of our time.
As you’ve written before, we are marinated in a culture of self-idolatry. We are “consumers” after all, and we must be delighted. Our media-saturated world tells us that size, scale and fame confer legitimacy of an idea. If more people believe it, it MUST be true. That’s the world of J.D. Vance (despite his faith claims) and most other politicians. Popular opinion defines their “Truth”.
The Pope has a much longer-term view; the kind that lasts for eternity.
Tip O'Neil once said: "All politics is local." Once you understand that, you know why people vote as they do. In other words, what's in it for ME? People vote their pocketbooks. Not the environment, not climate change, not anything that doesn't involve them. That's the way of the world. And politics.
No, we just want to get rid of those greedy oligarch elites currently running Washington and replace them with people who care about our Constitution and rule of law.
The most important thing to note here is that respondents could only choose one single answer. The results' display, the graphic, looks more like a "ranking." It is logical and fair that many if not most individuals regard the health and welfare of themselves and family the most important thing, in terms of what, at a minimum, government should help them achieve; some sort of economic security, from which so much else follows. Even the most philanthropic or generous person is, at some level, selfish (in a nonjudgmental sense). One could say that BECAUSE such "selfish" things are always chosen first, they are not distinguishing; and a winning campaign strategy is that-plus...what? For Trump, it was anti-immigrant, anti-woke. So, negative. I would hope the anti-Trump message would be positive!
All progressives have to do is convince the majority that they are the best possible alternative. They have so far failed to do that and alienated a large proportion of the electorate with ridiculous policies on things like.trans issues.
Trump and his whackos have already convinced the majority that Democrats are a better alternative, having alienated a large portion of the electorate with their ridiculous tariffs and war. And so the pendulum swings.
It’s way too soon to declare defeat in the war with Iran, regardless of how much progressives want to see Trump fail.
“Predictions are difficult, especially about the future.“
— Yogi Berra
Nobody has declared defeat. What I said was, voters don't like it and that's a fact.
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