Some Comments on the 2012 Democratic National Platform

The Obama administration has been pursuing a policy that in my opinion, and that of others, amounts to a type of persecution of Catholicism: forcing Catholic institutions to pay for, what from their perspective, are immoral insurance procedures. A great deal of money, and important moral principles, are at stake. If Obama is reelected he, of course, plans to continue these policies, and perhaps to reinforce them.  His administration also supports the so – called “intrinsic civil rights” to unlimited abortion and homosexual marriage. This raises the question of whether or not a Catholic is free, in conscience, to support the Democratic Party.

To answer this question, I downloaded the thirty two pages of fine print of the Democratic National Platform, spending a couple of hours reading it. The essence of it was presenting a very detailed panorama of everything Obama has already allegedly accomplished to restore America to prosperity and greatness.  I was very impressed by their aims and ambitions for America, but I found their claims of accomplishments to be out of touch with reality.  They interspersed this bragging with detailed comments on what they claim the Republicans plan to do if they win. These caricatures were also totally out of touch with reality.

Concerning morality issues, the platform does not explicitly endorse unlimited abortions or gay marriages as intrinsic civil rights. It does, however, make Democratic Party views known in more subtle ways.  For example, on page 13 it mentions: “Republicans, like Mitt Romney  …  telling people whom they can marry, restricting women’s access to birth control coverage.” On page 17, the platform mentions: “support for LGBT (the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community),” asserting that “the word ‘family’ in immigration includes LGBT relationships.”  It further says on page 18 that: “women have a right to control their reproductive choices” and it “ensures that women have access to contraception in their health care plans.”

I personally think that if Obama is reelected, the American culture will gradually become more pagan; if Romney is elected, it will begin to become more Christian in outlook. Christian voters should take into account these likelihoods in deciding how to cast their ballots.

Charles P. Poole, Jr.