K from PIP

The Senate Confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett have begun and so has the political theater from the members of the Judiciary Committee, especially the Republican members. Everyone seems to be jockeying for Emmy Awards for Best Actor in a Senate Drama Series. Unfortunately for them, Senators usually attend law school and not drama school – and it shows. 

The American people, the average American, do not care whether Amy Coney Barrett is Catholic. The Republicans are pretending and performing, and it must be called a performance, as if Catholicism is so some sort of fringe religious group that Democrats are persecuting. Joe Biden is Catholic. Nancy Pelosi is Catholic. I was raised Catholic. One of my best friends is Catholic. Everyone knows someone who is Catholic. The country elected a Catholic – Democratic President John Fitzgerald Kennedy – in 1961. No one is asking if she is into furry cosplay, she’s Catholic – we get it. (No judgment about furry cosplay by the way).  

Democrats don’t care about her Catholicism. I hope Amy Coney Barrett jumps for joy and remains Catholic all day, on weekends, leap years – as much Catholicism as her little heart can take. 

Here is what I, and the average American, does want to know. I want to know what she plans to do with her pivotal vote on Roe v. Wade and her thoughts, in general, regarding women’s rights to privacy around reproductive rights should a challenge come before the court (it will). I want to know, and Americans who are not asleep at the switch should want to know, what her thoughts are regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as there is a case pending this coming November. Healthcare is important to everyone. 

The answer to this, especially Roe v. Wade is simple. Catholics are taught that life begins at conception and so contraception would also be no no (just to be clear).  I was taught this. Joe Biden was taught this. Nancy Pelosi was taught this – and so was Amy Coney Barrett. The question is can Mrs. Barrett separate her personal religious beliefs from public policy and settled law? After all, the United States does have a separation between church and state.

Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have answered these questions. Something tells me Nancy Pelosi a Catholic with five children does not personally, because of her faith, would have ever had an abortion. Nancy Pelosi as the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives and a representative of the people from California understands her personal religious faith should not infringe on taking privacy rights from others and that is essentially what the Roe question is about. Based on Mrs. Barrett’s public stances (the few we have) – we know the answer and most Americans do not like what they have heard. 

The American people have a right to know the answers to these questions, and others, but the truth is the average American already knows the answer because they have ears and eyes! Imagine that! We can even get religious about it if it makes the Republicans happier – God gave sensible people ears and eyes and what the American people have heard and seen is a Republican party shouting into bullhorns for years their desire to gut the Affordable Care Act and for decades to repeal Roe v. Wade. 

So that’s what this hearing is about, not to mention the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnel’s Senate to refuse to give Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016. I suppose it would be helpful to the Republicans if all Americans developed a case of amnesia but unfortunately for them that has not occurred. Sen Hawley from Missouri and that soulless creature Sen Ted Cruz from Texas and others can attempt to make this about unfair religious tests and try to teach Americans about civics, but most of us are not that damn stupid.