Two writers over at Aleteia have commented on the current state of affairs with the help of Samuel Gregg’s latest, Tea Party Catholic. Brantly Millegan, Assistant Editor for the English edition of Aleteia, write a post titled, ‘Obama’s Ordinary, No-Big-Deal “Whopper.”‘ He discusses the now infamous words President Obama spoke in 2010, “[I]f Americans like their doctor, they will keep their doctor. And if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn’t happened yet. It won’t happen in the future.” Millegan points out that millions of Americans have been told their plans will be canceled and goes on toshow an NBC report pointing out that Obama knew that Americans would lose their coverage, but lied and said they would not. Millegan offers several more analysts and studies that demonstrate that the administration knew Americans would lose coverage but continued to publicly deny it. He quotes Anthony Esolen, professor of Renaissance English Literature and the Development of Western Civilization at Providence College:
Did Barack Obama lie? Of course he did. The American people can hardly be told the truth about anything…Politicians lie to us, because we want to hear their lies; we lie to ourselves just as well. When you fairly admit the Machiavellian premise that there is no good beyond the political, then what can possibly restrain you from lying, especially when you can get away with it?
He then quotes from Samuel Gregg’s Tea Party Catholic. Gregg points out that this issue is merely a symptom of something much deeper: “The willingness to tell the truth, but also the ability to listen to the truth, is in increasingly short supply today.” Millegan fears that nothing will come of the revelation that the president knowingly lied to the American people. He quotes Esolen: “If we were a healthy nation, the man would resign in disgrace.” He ends with a final look at Tea Party Catholic which states that even if the guilty parties do nothing, they will eventually face consequences for their actions: “Truth, however, has a way of making its presence felt, not least because when we make choices against the truth, it usually comes back to haunt us, often in unexpected ways.”
Read the full post here.
Also over at Aletia, English language editor, Daniel McInerny explains why he brought his son with him to vote in the Virgina election. He wanted to instill in him an appreciation for “shared public life.” He goes on to describe the gubernatorial election in Virgina. Republican Ken Cuccinelli lost to Democrat, Terry McAuliffe. McInerny points out McAuliffe “rejected the Church’s guidance in matters necessary for our common good” which indicates that the “number of people who recognize and adhere to the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching, whether they be Catholic themselves or not, is becoming smaller and smaller.” He continues:
In his engaging new book, Tea Party Catholic, Samuel Gregg, Director of Research at the Acton Institute and a member of Aleteia’s board of experts, quotes Pope Emeritus Benedict’s prediction that “Catholicism’s immediate future in America and the West would be life as a “creative minority.” The phrase “creative minority,” as Gregg points out, is taken from the English historian Arnold Toynbee, the man who famously observed that “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” For Toynbee, according to Gregg, a creative minority is a group of people “who proactively respond to a civilizational crisis and whose response allows that civilization to grow.”
Read “Why I Took My Ron with Me to the Voting Booth” here.
