Rhetoric Race and Religion
Several weeks ago, conservative politicians and pundits paused from brutalizing the interests of poor Americans long enough to attack Pope Francis for daring to criticize certain aspects of the prevailing economic order in his address, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”). He charged it with being “unjust at its root” and “incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor… as though all this were someone else’s responsibility. We know that talking about responsibility for your neighbor is always a deal-breaker for the libertarian crowd. But what really raised conservatives’ blood pressure, libertarian or not, was the pope’s read of trickle-down economics. He declared, “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.”
Because a dunce cap would not fit over the pontiff’s miter, his angry critics chose to declare his words foolish instead. Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano condemned the pope’s statements as “wide of the mark.” The radio comedian, Rush Limbaugh, carped, “he [the pope] doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism.” One Catholic leader called him “the Joe Biden of our era.” Conservative congressional budget guru Paul Ryan echoed Limbaugh’s dismissal of the pope as clueless, albeit in nicer terms. “The guy is from Argentina,” said Ryan. “They haven’t had real capitalism in Argentina.”
However, with the approach of the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty which, by the way, conservatives have always staunchly opposed, they are eager to keep their opposition to the social safety net out of the spotlight. So some of them have softened their public tone by claiming to share the pope’s deep concern for the poor. Conservative leaders like Ryan and Newt Gingrich have publicly lauded the pope for his stand against poverty. Ryan praised him for “breathing new life into the fight against poverty,” despite being a foremost advocate of the economic policies the pope so passionately targeted. However, what Ryan, Gingrich or any conservative politician will not praise is the pope’s stance against the structural forces that cause and maintain poverty. And chief among them, according to the pope, is trickle-down economics.
Read the rest here
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In