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Archbishop Chaput Tells It As It Is
Last week, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia spoke his mind. Here is a report:
In a speech Thursday at the University of Notre Dame, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput called presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton “very bad news for our country.”
Chaput said that since he first voted in 1966, “the major parties have never, at the same time, offered two such deeply flawed candidates.”
He said he believes each candidate is detrimental to the nation in different ways.
“One candidate, in the view of a lot of people, is a belligerent demagogue with an impulse-control problem. And the other, also in the view of a lot of people, is a criminal liar, uniquely rich in stale ideas and bad priorities,” Chaput said.
I cannot think of anything to add.
Published in Politics
If every single dissatisfied voter concentrated their vote on one other candidate, could we stop both HRC and Trump from driving this country over a cliff?
The lecture was actually in September, but I am glad you posted about it here, Paul Rahe.
Here is the pdf of the entire text of his speech. I am unable to find any video links, but I’d love to see one if anyone else can find one.
Everyone by now understands the belligerent egomaniac and the mendacious megalomaniac… and not choosing still gets one elected.Choose or don’t choose, but the moral high ground changes nothing.
Trump’s only qualification is that he’s not Hillary and Hillary’s only qualification is that she’s not Trump. Maybe if we elected them both, they’d cancel each other out.
I agree and I can add this; I vote for a candidate’s platform, and for his cabinet. This means I cannot vote for Hitlerry.
Klavan said today that our party process broke down and gave us our candidate, but the democrats’ process worked perfectly to give them theirs.
Dr. Rahe, Archbishop Chaput added to this himself with his letter published in Philadelphia last week – he still has the same opinion of Trump to be sure, but he has learned from Wikileaks of the Democratic Party’s mission of subverting the Church from within. He is very courageous in speaking out about this – please do spread his letter to every Catholic and person of faith that you know, he will need support! We cannot be naive and think the Democrats will stop at just overthrowing Catholic doctrine.
The Archbishop’s letter, also published at First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/10/about-those-unthinking-backwards-catholics
So, to the Archbishop with respect, I’d ask the same question as other folks who like neither candidate. What are you advising me to do because of your argument? Actions, please. I’ve had enough pontificating about how broken a human Trump is and how malodorous HRC is. They are both human, so have some or more of the usual list of failings. But:
HRC is proven to be a corrupt, murderess, treasonous pathological liar who is unfit to be a nanny, much less a president.
Trump is a new experience for the US electorate, at least in our times, because he fights against those who corrupt our country, isn’t a smooth politician, and he offers hope.
How many more postings like this must I endure before the election? Who in the devil are “a lot of people”? As a Catholic forever, even I am having trouble understanding our politicized but declawed Bishops.
Well at least Andrew is half right today. The GOP broke their own process by being quislings, so we abandoned them and chose our warrior.
That’s a huge assumption in the former case. Everyone? Or maybe it’s just NR.
Who will fall in battle, and not even heroically.
The comments perfectly summarize what I feel.
As he’s an Archbishop, I guess he can say it’s a good thing we believe in powers that outrank presidents
Thankfully, you will not have the last word. That comes next month. If he gets elected, will you then be supportive of his efforts to rescue America?
I am reminded of the line from Lawrence of Arabia: “One is half-mad, and the other is completely unprincipled.”
The column can also be read at ArchPhilly’s website.
Thank you.