Reflections on the
President’s Speech
Barack Obama gave his acceptance
speech at the culmination of the Democratic National Convention Thursday night. This analysis of the speech is focused solely
on its content. After four years, people
should be well equipped to make their own judgments on his rhetoric and his
actions, and whether they are consistent with the content of what he said
tonight. I will try to keep my own
opinions of such matters out of this article as much as possible.
I will try to give a fair analysis of
what the President said and how it squares with Catholic principles, such as
the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of every human life, the
principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and the preferential option for the
poor.
The President’s speech began with his
accounting of what he’s done right the past four years and what he says Mitt
Romney will do wrong if elected. That’s
not worth discussing. Everyone is aware
of the President’s record and no one needs Mr. Obama or Mr. Romney to spin
it. Neither is it particularly
enlightening to hear Mr. Obama’s predictions for a Romney presidency. We can all guess that.
The first area of substance regarding
the next four years came when Mr. Obama spoke of energy. He promised to tap our domestic resources of
oil and natural gas, while promoting cleaner energy sources. This, of course, sounds great to Catholic
ears, but it should be noted that the Republican ticket has supported essentially
the same thing.
Mr. Obama also promised to bring the
war in Afghanistan to an end in 2014, which also, of course, is important to
Catholics, as long as it can be done justly and wisely, which is a question of
prudent judgment. He said he would
maintain “the strongest military the world has ever known,” although shortly
after that he suggested that money that Mr. Romney would spend on the military,
he would put towards building roads and bridges, and paying down the debt.
The President reiterated his
commitment to raising taxes on “the wealthy,” but failed to mention the Ernst
and Young study that said his plan would include many small businesses and
projected it would cost over 700,000 jobs. (Not that Mr. Romney mentions any studies he
dislikes the results of either, just to be fair.)
He made the case that all of our
problems can not be solved by a government program, but that government does
have a role to play in the solutions.
This was reminiscent of Paul Ryan’s statement at the RNC that “limited
government does not mean no government,” referring to the role he saw for
government in social programs and the “safety net.” Neither side has specified exactly how much
government we’re talking about, and Mr. Obama gave us no real indication as to
whether he was speaking more of local governments or government in Washington. All in all, it is hard to judge the speech in
terms of subsidiarity.
The speech concluded with anecdotal
stories and rousing rhetoric, none of which is particularly relevant. There was nothing too controversial in the
speech and other than attacking his opponents and casting himself in a positive
light, he didn’t distinguish his vision from that of the Republicans in great
detail. Perhaps that was not his intent.
As far as Catholic social principles
are concerned, with one exception, which I will mention in a minute, nothing
was particularly opposed, and most of what he said came down to voicing goals
most Americans would hope for (a better economy, a safer world, etc.), and it
leaves it to us to use our judgment as to which ticket could more likely get us
there.
There was one paragraph that was quite troubling,
though. It seems Mr. Obama has left it
to others this convention to hammer home the points on social issues that are
directly contradictory to Christian principles, and he only gave them subtle and
passing mention. He did very briefly
mention his support for same-sex “marriage,” and “health care choices that
women should make for themselves,” a clear reference to abortion. This, of course, as an intrinsic evil, is
enough to disqualify Mr. Obama for the Presidency.
I know this analysis has been boring
and mostly devoid of personal opinions. I
suspect that what one thought of the speech depended on what you already knew
about and thought of President Obama. Of
course, it would be crazy to vote for someone based solely on what they said in
a speech, as politically important as a convention speech might be. My high school history teacher used to remind
us to “pay a lot of attention to what politicians do, and very little attention
to what they say.”
But, Mr. Obama’s speech tonight was an
important moment in the 2012 election. I
have tried to accurately cover the parts of the speech that contained relevant
substance. So now you don’t have to go
watch it on Youtube. You’re welcome.
Cardinal Dolan’s Benediction
at the DNC
Cardinal Dolan made it clear that he
would not use his prayers at the two conventions as political tools or endorsements. But this courageous man of God had no fear of
praying for the defense of the unborn, the institution of marriage, or
religious liberty at the close of the DNC.
