I'm not the "Resistance," if you didn't know. For some, the presidential absurdity that is Donald Trump afforded them the opportunity to shout what they already believed even louder than they did before. One of the dangers of being politically engaged, and specifically in something that you're truly passionate about, is that you might think more people are with you than actually are. Not that what I think is--or ought to be--is determined by how popular it is, but depending on the audience, I try to calibrate what I'm saying to be at least in terms that those people will agree with, and understand. Persuasion can be an act of love, and a cooperative act of walking together, if you do it right. I'm not saying I'm good at it, but I do try.
Still, to this day, I agree with Mark Shea more than I disagree. I believe there is probably a moderate pro-life Democrat in there somewhere. Like a lot of us, he was a Republican at some point in the past, because abortion and related sex politics hangs over the Democrats like an albatross. Maybe to talk in party terms isn't even helpful, because a coherent anthropology of what a human being is and does goes beyond a party system. Since many people aren't ready to question things like classical liberalism and capitalism--and I'm still working this out on the fly--we have to interact with the political system and people in it where we find them.
I still kind of think like a Republican.
I like Republicans, mostly. I recognize myself in them. They are familiar to me. To be more direct, they are family, both in reality, and in my imagination. No matter what comes out of my re-imagining of my own political philosophy, that will remain true. That's just how it happened. If I want to persuade someone who identifies as Republican, or who once did, I will talk like I know how.
Mark Shea forgot how.
More than that, I don't blame any "conservative" person for thinking he just doesn't like them. I told him this. He told me I was a Trump cultist, and an anti-Semitic apologist. Me! He obviously hasn't been reading this blog! I could think of no more obvious proof of my accusation that he was a "clanging cymbal" than this interaction. Yeah, I was spoiling for a fight. But he needs it.
He needs to go dark, for a while. Come back when he is actually "enjoying" being Catholic.
Still, to this day, I agree with Mark Shea more than I disagree. I believe there is probably a moderate pro-life Democrat in there somewhere. Like a lot of us, he was a Republican at some point in the past, because abortion and related sex politics hangs over the Democrats like an albatross. Maybe to talk in party terms isn't even helpful, because a coherent anthropology of what a human being is and does goes beyond a party system. Since many people aren't ready to question things like classical liberalism and capitalism--and I'm still working this out on the fly--we have to interact with the political system and people in it where we find them.
I still kind of think like a Republican.
I like Republicans, mostly. I recognize myself in them. They are familiar to me. To be more direct, they are family, both in reality, and in my imagination. No matter what comes out of my re-imagining of my own political philosophy, that will remain true. That's just how it happened. If I want to persuade someone who identifies as Republican, or who once did, I will talk like I know how.
Mark Shea forgot how.
More than that, I don't blame any "conservative" person for thinking he just doesn't like them. I told him this. He told me I was a Trump cultist, and an anti-Semitic apologist. Me! He obviously hasn't been reading this blog! I could think of no more obvious proof of my accusation that he was a "clanging cymbal" than this interaction. Yeah, I was spoiling for a fight. But he needs it.
He needs to go dark, for a while. Come back when he is actually "enjoying" being Catholic.
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