6. โซืืืจืโฌ โซืืืืืจืืชโฌ"โซืโฌ
Poor Pope Francis: He had no idea what he was getting into.
On a recent visit to the US-Mexico border, the pope called Donald Trump
โnot Christianโ for his anti-immigrant views, and the Republican presidential
candidate went ballistic. The Holy Father would be singing a different tune,
he raged, when ISIL overran the Vatican. The next day a papal
spokesperson issued a mollifying retraction; Trump reacted in kind; and that
seemed to be that.
Some say Trump was just being his usual โtetchy narcissist.โ After all, to
paraphrase Stalin, how many electoral-college votes does the pope have?
But there may be more to this surreal spat than meets the eye.
The battle between Trump and his leading rivals for the Republican
nomination, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, is in part a battle for the Christian
vote. White evangelical Christians, to be sure, not the Catholics of
immigrant origins who love the pope and hate the Donald. But in the
political realm, evangelicals and Catholics in the United States have
latelyovercome their historical antipathy to forge alliances around
traditional conservative issues such as abortion and gay rights.
7. โซืืืจืโฌ โซืืืืืจืืชโฌ"โซืโฌ
The popeโs sympathy for immigrants and the global poor, however, puts him
at odds with that conservative wing. His comments this week favoring birth
control for women at risk of catching the Zika virus appear to position him
as even more liberalโeven if, as some argue, itโs largely illusory liberalism.
So when the worldโs top Catholic questions a candidateโs Christian
credentials, itโs both a provocation to the right, and potentially significant in
a tightly fought nomination race. And when Trump attacked the pope as
โvery political,โ he didnโt mean it in an abstract sense. He meant the pope
was meddling in US affairs.
How many electoral-college votes hath the pope? Perhaps more than you
(or he) might think.