First Impressions of the New Reality

It's been a busy week at the parish, and it's not going to let up over the weekend. Since I won't have time for a full blown election postmortem until the middle of next week, I'll offer a few bullet points right now. Pith isn't my particular gift, but I'll try my best to get to the point. These are very basic observations that I'll put more meat on later.

1. Why is everyone so shocked? We should all be surprised by the outcome of Tuesday's election. Heck, even Donald Trump was caught off guard by his victory. A report I heard said that his campaign's internal polling was showing him the loser as late as Tuesday evening. But no one should be shocked. My mantra all along has been that nothing has gone by the book in the 2016 election, why should we think that the outcome will be normal? There is a deep discontent in this country that propelled both Trump's successful and Bernie Sanders' unsuccessful campaigns. No establishment candidate, not even one who ran, at least partially so, on the novelty of her gender, was going to have an easy time. In the end, none of the establishment presidential candidates were left standing.
2. Conservative Evangelicals and Catholics wanted him, you got him - now hold President Trump accountable. I'm cynical enough to be suspicious of someone who's been "Pro-Life" for the last five minutes having his great conversion just in time for election day. Many religious people voted for Mr. Trump, in spite of their reservations, because he's declared himself against abortion - especially late term procedures - and has vowed to nominate a justice in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia to replace him on the Supreme Court. In the broader sense, Trump positioned himself as the religious liberty candidate, who was going to protect religious institutions from government mandates that go contrary to their respective beliefs. People of faith need to hold President Trump's feet to the fire on this. Religious people who supported his candidacy must also have the courage to criticize and fight him when his policies are in contradiction to Gospel values, which brings me too the next point. 
3. Abortion isn't the only Life issue. I've always been ambivalent about the Seamless Garment teaching of the late, saintly Cardinal Joesph Bernadine of Chicago, which has gotten some renewed attention lately. Nonetheless, abortion isn't the only life issue, even if you want to argue that it's the most important. The life issue that effects me the most directly on a day to day basis is immigration reform. Yes, I wrote that immigration reform is a life issue. I'll make a deeper argument in support of this statement the future, but for now I'll let it stand as is. I'm not sure the president-elect, and many of his supporters understand the complexity of the issue. For me, this isn't even about an issue - it's about people. It's about families where some members have legal status, even citizenship, while a spouse or their children don't. Sometimes children are brought here as babies or toddlers but never had their immigration status normalized. Now they are adults, never having known any other country but the United States. Are we to break up families? Are we to deport millions who are, at the very least, culturally American from the only home that they have ever known? Personally, I see boarder security as one issue - though I can't get behind building a wall. But as a Christian and a pastor of souls my first concern is for the spiritual and material well being of the flock entrusted to my care, no matter how they got to my parish. So, I will fight any immigration reform that involves mass deportations and the division of families. Families are the ultimate protectors of life, and there is no hope of safeguarding human dignity apart from the family unit. Our parishioners are, first and foremost members of the Mystical Body, and that's the primary citizenship that concerns me. When our Pro-Life group goes and prays the rosary outside an abortion mill no one asks for their green card (two such "clinics" have been closed down after we started praying outside their doors. We're presently working on a third). I'm not suggesting lawlessness, but that we see the complexity of the issue, and the humanity of it's victims.
4. Electoral College Blues. I'm surprised I haven't seen more about the split between popular and electoral votes, which the last time I checked had Secretary Clinton about 400,000 popular votes ahead nationally in spite of Mr. Trumps insurmountable lead in the Electoral College (EC). One of my fellow pastors, who wasn't happy about Trump's win, called the system "crazy." I get it, but I'm actually one of those crazies who thinks the electoral system, while imperfect, was actually a stroke of genius on the part of the framers. Contrary to what the Chicago Tribune editorialized a decade ago, there are deep regional differences in the United States still. The EC was formulated to insure that less populace, agricultural regions would have a proportional voice in who became president. Back then the fear was that the great New England and Mid-Atlantic interests would dominate, leaving the Southern and (then) Western regions constantly beholden. In today's context, without the EC New York, Chicago and Los Angeles would decide the presidency most cycles. Here, a candidate doesn't simply have to win a few key metropolitan areas, but has to appeal to a wider swath of the populace to win the presidency. After the 1968 election, which was both an electoral and popular vote nail biter, there was serious talk of reforming the system, but the movement fizzled, even though it had bi-partisan support. I would be in favor of revisiting the issue. My greater worry is that in four of the last 7 presidential elections the winner has garnered less than 50% of the popular vote. Since 2000 two have seen a split between the popular and electoral tallies, something the hadn't happened since 1876. I could be in favor of some reform, if it included a run-off system, like what was proposed in the aftermath of '68, that would get us down to two finalists, and a better chance of a clear popular winner. 

That's it for now. Whether I was pithy or not, I'll leave up to you. For those out there unhappy with the outcome, especially you protesters - late 2018-early '19 we'll start it all over again, and we'll all have another chance.