For the Culture War, a Hail Mary

The propensity of U.S. Catholics to mix metaphors of football and theology explains in part why one of the most fabled plays in sports is known as a "Hail Mary" pass. The quintessentially Catholic prayer is so apt a description of quarterback Roger Staubach's impossible 1975 game-winning bomb that "Hail Mary" has since become a catchall term to describe final acts of desperation off the field. Fitting, then, that culture warriors on the radical right would attempt their own Hail Mary play in the vicinity of the nation's most hallowed gridiron: a last-ditch effort to bolster dwindling relevance in the form of a full frontal assault on President Obama's upcoming commencement address at Notre Dame.

The radical right's campaign to sabotage the speech, now in its seventh week, is ostensibly an effort to reassert the Church's position on abortion. In reality, the Notre Dame "scandal" is little more than a manufactured controversy, and a predictable product of the Republican coalition's current sorry state of affairs. Leaderless and defeated, the GOP is embroiled in a fight for its very soul, with radicals seeking to step up the culture war over issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, and moderates blaming that same culture war for the party's woes. The radicals reckon that by creating a big enough stink to make something stick to Obama's Teflon-coated armor, they can prove they still deserve a seat at the table.

Notre Dame does seem to rank among the conservative movement's precious few footholds right now. But the American public has grown tired of the culture warriors' antics, and in the long term it's the moderates who have the clear upper hand. Bush's promises to protect "traditional values" were generally unfulfilled. Appointing Roberts and Alito did not magically overturn Roe v. Wade, and recent developments in Maine and Iowa suggest that same-sex marriage is on an unstoppable trajectory to become an American cultural norm. And right-leaning moderate voters, many of whom were swayed by abortion and same-sex marriage in 2000 and 2004, have discovered that the greater threats to the family are job loss and lack of health care and retirement protections -- brought on in large part by eight years of deregulation, trickle-down economics, and war.

In addition to poor field position, the culture warriors' cause is stymied by the president's uncanny resistance to attacks from the traditional pro-life movement. While toeing the party line on choice, Obama has nonetheless struck a conciliatory tone on the broader abortion issue, recently announcing an abortion task force to explore common ground means of reducing abortions, like education, health care, and financial support for pregnant women and families. His genuine commitment to prevention has ruffled the feathers of absolutists on both sides of aisle. But for abortion "grays" -- those Americans who remain conflicted about abortion, many of them moderate swing voters -- the president's willingness to acknowledge the moral dimension of the issue is a breath of fresh air.

The radicals will not join Obama's efforts to find common ground on abortion. First of all, doing so would blunt their ability to label him as "the most pro-abortion president ever." This characterization of the president's abortion position, albeit absurd, is an incredibly effective means of agitating the radical base and filling the culture war's collection plates. Indeed, some 350,000 have signed an online petition opposing the university's invitation (a pro-Notre Dame petition can be found at www.wesupportnotredame.org). Second, while many pro-life Americans operate out of a genuine desire to prevent abortions (and thus view the push for common ground in a favorable light), those at the movement's helm seem to have different objectives. Campaigns like the one currently being waged against Notre Dame are little more than cheap attempts to score political points, ones which more often than not function as cover for a decidedly anti-life and anti-family agenda -- see deregulation, trickle-down economics, and war, above.

Attempting to obscure the purely symbolic nature of their campaign, the radicals will point to the fact that a number of high-profile Notre Dame alumni have vowed to stop donating, that former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon turned down the university's prestigious Laetare Medal in protest, and that fifty or so bishops (a fraction of the hundreds of Catholic prelates who lead the U.S. Church, mind you) have expressed displeasure with the university's decision. But these voices were late to the game, spurred into action by a well-organized radical right, and generally unwitting of their participation in a partisan power struggle. The students, for their part, are thrilled that the president of the United States will be speaking to them on graduation day.

No, the driving forces behind the supposed outrage were not pious masses, but Catholic Republican front groups like Fidelis (a GOP-supporting political action committee), the Catholic League (home of self-appointed Church spokesperson Bill Donohue), and the Cardinal Newman Society (an organization whose main purpose, conveniently, appears to be to attack Catholic colleges and universities who invite Democrats to speak). And then there's Newt Gingrich, who, in the midst of his own bid to recapture the reins of the GOP, recently converted to Catholicism. It was Gingrich -- not Glendon or the reluctant bishops -- who scored some of the first media points against Obama's speech with a March 24th tweet: "It is sad to see notre dame invite president obama to give the commencement address Since his policies are so anti catholic values [sic]."

For the right wing culture warriors, Catholic and otherwise, success at Notre Dame will not be measured by whether the university rescinds its invitation - that would require a kind of divine intervention that no Hail Mary can elicit. Rather, it will be measured by the leadership that emerges to guide the GOP through the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. Saner voices are attempting to prevail. But if the party faithful can be convinced that the culture war's benefits outweigh its costs, the radical voice will continue to dominate the Republican agenda.

 

Follow Chris Korzen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chriskorzen

Comments

[Helpcomputer]

I think this article gives the GOP too much credit. These guys aren't thinking about strategy, long-term or short, when they drum up phantom controversies like this.

The leaders only know character assassination and hate-baiting. They can't begin to imagine what else they can do, because the polling tells them that none of their substantive policy ideas carry any water or popularity with the electorate.

As for the base, they hate ambiguous, complicated issues. It's easier to cry about relatively simple single issues like abortion and guns. And it's why they keep moving even more to the radical right (secession, seriously?!) and want ideological cleansing in the party. They're psychologically incapable of dealing with anything that's not black and white, so they think the answer is to eliminate the grey.

[oregonbird]

Meanwhile, another Ivy League school is demanding that Rice be removed from the faculty and prosecuted for her participation in war crimes.

Gosh, wonder which school gets more donations this year?

[Helpcomputer]

Wow. What does that have to do with anything related to this article? I can't even tell which side of the argument you're on.

Also, Stanford isn't in the Ivy League. It's on the wrong side of the country.

[billygore2000]

The real story is danced around. Notre Dame has stood by its invitation, despite pressure from various bishops, perhaps the Vatican, and certainly recidivist American Catholics. The university has come nowhere near the embarrassment of Arizona State University at Tempe. The story is that a major Catholic university, and not a Jesuit one, will receive the President with open arms.

[measie]

Many small, friightened children were abused. They were afraid to tell anyone. They felt alone and abandoned. Who protected them? Who spoke for them? Who protested in the streets for them? Who got a political action committee together for them? Hypocrisy is rampant with these right wing moralists. While the abuse is not limited to this particular faith, the sheer number of cases is mind blowing, not to mention the attempted cover-ups. So now you think that trying to incite the moral minority against a one hour speech will flex your religious superiority muscle? Live your faith. Protect the children that are already here.

[ObamacratInCA]

Catholic conservatives at Notre Dame are against the death penalty, but allowed the signer of 152 executions, George W. Bush, to speak in 2001 without a high profile protest.

Apparently the reason is while the Church has been critical of the death penalty, it does not consider it intrinsically evil. The Church apparently believes that is sometimes just.

They do not believe there is such a thing as a just abortion (even in the case of rape or incest), therefore that is how they can hold these seemingly contradictory views.

Situational outrage is one of the most fascinating aspects of the human animal.

[SgtMac]

And to think that today the Pope is in Jordan making a speech regarding the politicization of religion. His exact words: "It is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is a real catalyst for tension and division."
How can a handful of American bishops play political games without contradicting the directives of their infallible leader?

[gaudete]

had to make 2 posts, too windy

Are many Catholic conservatives alligned with the republican party? Of course, although i am not, for neither party expresses my views on 100% of the issues. Many of us would love to vote for a conservative democrat, if we could find one. There used to be many, before the McGovern coup of the party. Then there was Bob Casey sr, and then there was......? Many times i vote for a democrat on the local level (that's all we have here in MA), to take care of those falling through the cracks, while voting for republicans on the national level, to care for defense, capitalist economy, and judicial policy over e.g. abortion. While our Christian faith demands that we care for God's created world and the people he loves, so religion is not 'the opiate of the people," as Marx claimed; ultimately we believe our true, lasting home is in heaven.

[noamjunior]

those national republicans you voted for gutted the economy, polluted the environment, killed untold numbers of innocents and committed war crimes including torture- seems like a pretty steep price to pay just so you can tell women what to do with their bodies.

[oregonbird]

Let her crow about her standards. What else have Xian's got? Well, aside from the ability to ignore their bible's strictures about divorce, pedophilia, adultery, pre-marital sex, celibate clergy... while making sure nobody gets heathcare that isn't Dark Age approved.

Hey, did that bishop who excommunicated the mother and doctor of the 8 year old incest victim EVER do anything about the rapist/father? That was rhetorical. See, in 4th grade, catholic school, I had a friend who fell down and landed on her face a lot, and had lots of 'infections'. She told us what her father was doing, she told the school nurse and the priest in confession what was happening. The mother was told it was a holy burden, the girl was told to pray. After she came back from a hospital stay of more than a month, we had her for less than two weeks -- then we were told that she had fallen from her bunk and died of head injuries. She didn't have a bunk bed.

I loathe the catholic church, and every other religion that forces women and children into a subsurvient position. But it's okay now, because the Republican party can take on that role on a political level. No more worries about religious barstards.

Bugger off, Guadete.

[gaudete]

Korzen imposes a superficial leftist paradigm onto the facts of the matter, and therefore profoundly misjudges his subject.

He wrote: "The radical right's campaign to sabotage the speech, now in its seventh week, is ostensibly an effort to reassert the Church's position on abortion. In reality, the Notre Dame "scandal" is little more than a manufactured controversy, and a predictable product of the Republican coalition's current sorry state of affairs." He don't know us conservatives vewwwy weww. While we take pride in our patriotism (as do many liberals), our first allegiance is to our religious faith; For God (first) and Country ( and the politics which attend, second.) The leftist paradigm is that "everything, including the personal, is political," often mainly because they don't believe in a supra-political realm, so contending over who gets what is all they know.

[noamjunior]

If you self-named right-to lifers stood up to the illegal Bush war that ultimately killed close to a million Iraqis like you carry on when a woman wants to terminate a fetus, your speech about god first wouldn't seem like the biggest bunch of tripe I have had the misfortune of reading, and maybe the rest of America wouldn't see you as the attention-hungry hypocrites you appear to be

[MajorKong]

Manufactured outrage is pretty much all they have left.

Flag pin!
Acorn!
Teleprompter!
Mustard!

[WolfLady]

Pity the poor frenzied fundies:

"Obama's a fascist! I mean, Obama's a socialist! I mean, an Arab! He went to Harvard, he's a radical!And a baby-killer! And...and...he can't bowl! And he likes GREY POUPON!"

~WolfLady~

[mainah22]

I'd be curious to hear from donors who say they will stop donating because of this graduation speech: why does it matter so much to you that a pro-choice speaker is on campus for one hour when probably a high percentage of the faculty administration, and staff who work at Notre Dame every day are pro-choice? I don't get it. I understand the point that Catholic schools are not supposed to give a platform for opposing points of view on issues of doctrine, but it seems to me that the chances that the President would mention the word "abortion" or even hint at anything do with sex or any other religiously contentious issue are 0.00%. We already know that he can give a good speech about the power of dreams & passion to change the world, eh? What else do graduation speakers ever talk about?

I'd also be curious to see results from a survey: how many members of the Notre Dame graduating class care or feel strongly about the Catholic affiliation of their school?

[zest]

Not to mention the students who are aborting.

[rodsbadhairday]

Why is abortion solely framed as a women's issue?

Why doesn't anyone challenge MEN to be more responsible? Where is the clamor for a
male contraceptive?

If these anti-choice activists would step up and insist on a male
birthcontrol pill, or sterilization to prevent unwanted pregnancies, they'd have a lot more credibility
in my view.

Don't like abortion? Then don't get one.

and leave my alma mater out of it!

[timmmahhhh]

Hear hear...and bravo to your alma mater for standing up for what they think is right and not what the Taliban Catholics are trying to dictate ND.

[gotborked]

Why are liberals these days stretching so hard to find a way to allege that anything people on the right think is at the command of high-ranking righties? First the tea parties and now this?

Believe me, neither Bill Donahue nor Newt Gingrich issued the Bishops' preexisting proclamation that Catholic schools, though free to engage in discussion with people who oppose fundamental Church teaching, "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" and that such persons "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
Notre Dame's action was against Church teaching whether Bill or Newt say so or not.

[TryToBeFlexible]

Are you so sure of that? Is that what Fox told you?

[gotborked]

Why do you try so hard to defend this preconception that those who hold opinions that differ from yours must be unintelligent, uneducated, mentally lazy, knuckle draggers who only believe what they believe because they heard a sound bite on Fox? This way of viewing the world and other people is unfortunate and pretty ignorant.

In answer to your question, no. I rarely watch Fox News, and I certainly don't consider it a go-to source for Church teaching.

[ej3]

Considering the folks who are behind this protest (basically the vast right wing conspiracy on Holy Water and blessed by Fox News)it is clear that this Hail Mary pass did not have an immaculate conception. (the pass from Bradshaw to Swan was dubbed the immaculate reception).

[Tim Smith]

Pass was caught by franco harris

[maxfax]

Rescinding the President's invitation will further destroy the little GOP tent of white people.

[TryToBeFlexible]

The little GOP tent of crazy racist white people. Sane non-racist white people voted for Obama in large numbers. I am one of them. Please make it clear that I and others like me don't belong in that tent.