From Truth Dig: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/catholicism_and_the_gop_an_awkward_tango_20120501/
By William Pfaff
Posted on May 1, 2012
Posted on May 1, 2012
A
novel aspect of the Republican campaign for the party’s presidential
nomination has been the importance placed by some candidates, their
admirers and some voters on the Catholic religion and certain claims to
formal academic certification or endorsement.
Begin with Newt
Gingrich, who for a time was a leading figure in the race for the
Republican nomination. Like the president himself, Congressman Gingrich
possesses academic credentials, his in modern European history from
Tulane University. He makes the double-barreled claim that America under
a continuing liberal Democratic administration will become “a secular
atheist country ... dominated by radical Islamists.”
In
Washington, his Ph.D. degree in history earned him—according to his
account—$1.6 million as an adviser on historical matters to the
government-sponsored Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation—Freddie Mac.
As the value of the agency’s possible concerns with European history
seemed unlikely to justify such a sum, Washington opinion assumed that
his connection with the agency was closer to that of a Washington
“fixer.” In this he seemed more successful than in his well-publicized
marriage entanglements, although the latter left his religious admirers
apparently unperturbed.
The “bunkum” artist is a familiar figure
from the folklore of the American 19th century who makes up “facts” as
required in the sale of the all-healing snake oil liniment he sells (the
vaudevillian and film star W.C. Fields made a career from his
impersonation).
Another familiar American figure is the earnest
swot who knows less than he thinks he does, but does know more than a
lot of voters, and indeed in the following case, and in a sensitive
matter, more—apparently—than most of his Republican campaign-trail
cohorts, as well as some serious national commentators. He has dazzled
them with economics and moral theology as well.
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