When my grandparents enthusiastically voted for John F. Kennedy, reconciling Catholic life to the American mainstream seemed possible. Today, in the wake of Roe and Obergefell and Occupy, it does not. Catholics must now discard the idea of an aspirational centrism, and embrace the role of unashamed dissent.
On the left, it is already happening. Even as the Catholic Democrat is dying, a new kind of Catholic leftist is coming into being. The most prominent of these is the Washington Post’s Elizabeth Bruenig, a writer who is merciless in her criticisms of Republicans and Clintonites alike. She has been attacked by conservative Catholic “tradbros” for her economic views, and by operatives close to the Clintons for her opposition to abortion. (This latter group is said to be behind her husband's recent firing.)
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