It's my party:
Carlin, David R Jr.
OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr. ITS NY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO The archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut, John F. Whealon, announced recently that he was "unable in conscience to...
...And that, while not exactly a fate worse than death, is nonetheless a fate I am not yet ready to embrace...
...But if abortion is a species of homicide, then, no matter how civilized, how well-intentioned, or how invincibly ignorant the proponents of abortion may be (and they usually are all three of these, especially the last), a pro-abortion stance on the part of a politician or a party is simply unacceptable...
...Such unity as exists within and among these many parties is less the unity of an organism and more that of a collection of juxtaposed entities which happen to move in the same direction from time to time...
...If the archbishop is correct in his judgment, I'd like to feel that I have the intellectual honesty and moral courage to admit he's correct...
...It goes without saying that the reason for the distinction has not been the national party's pro-abortion stance only...
...He said that American Catholicism and the Democratic party had been linked historically by "ethnicity, social class issues, and shared morality...
...By its repeated stances in favor of abortion, the Democratic party has abandoned the Catholic church...
...Though convinced of the logic of the two paragraphs immediately above, I nonetheless continue to support state and local candidates who, in my view, are wrong on abortion yet right on other-questions...
...That link has been severed," he said...
...But it is a workable distinction in the short run, appropriate for those whose frame of mind may be expressed in words like these: "It's my party too, and I'll be damned if I'll let myself be run out of it...
...But of course I don't...
...In my childhood home, God and Jesus Christ were first, the Catholic church second, and the Democratic party was third," he wrote...
...but surely the abortion issue has contributed to the loss of these two traditional constituencies in presidential elections...
...I don't disagree with Archbishop Whealon when he says that the Democratic party is a pro-abortion party...
...there are fifty state Democratic parties...
...and there are thousands of local Democratic parties...
...Worse still, I am a leading contender to be the next majority leader of the state senate, a position that would make me one of the top half-dozen Democrats in the state...
...Indeed, there is a sense in which the Democratic party (in the singular) does not exist...
...One reason for remaining a party loyalist that the anti-abortion Democrat cannot give, however, is that the national Democrats, though wrong on abortion, are right on a long list of other issues: education, housing, race relations, military spending, foreign affairs, etc...
...If abortion is what the anti-abortion person says it is, namely, either homicide or probably homicide, then it is not just one more issue to be weighed in the balance against housing, education, and the rest...
...I don't mean for a minute to suggest that Dukakis is to be compared with Hitler, Democrats with Nazis, or abortion with genocide...
...I believe the Democratic party is officially in favor of executing unborn babies whose only crime is that they temporarily occupy their mother's womb," said Whealon in a column he wrote for the archdiocesan weekly newspaper...
...Not only am I a Democrat and a Catholic, but I am currently running as a Democrat for re-election to the Rhode Island Senate...
...At election time, I grant a strong presumption in favor of Democratic candidates for mayor and state legislature, but this presumption does not extend to Democratic candidates for president of the United States...
...At least I don't disagree with him if he confines that description to the national Democratic party...
...No one would say (at least no one would say this nowadays, though I'm sure quite a few Germans said it at the time) that Hitler's homicidal attitude toward Jews was balanced out by his road-building and high-employment programs...
...Before commenting on the archbishop's remarks, I ought to reveal my biases-or should I say, my predicament...
...and in November I'll vote for Michael Dukakis, the prochoice candidate, not George Bush, the prolife (and pro-Pledge of Allegiance) candidate...
...These are brave words...
...But political parties in America, unlike parties in many European countries, are not centralized...
...But when I contemplate that possibility, a feeling of vertigo sets in...
...It is an issue of a totally different and far more compelling kind...
...But no more...
...This distinction, I admit, smacks of hairsplitting, and it creates a psychologically unstable situation that cannot endure in the long run, a house divided that ultimately cannot stand...
...So the anti-abortion Democrat can remain a Democrat, soothing his or her conscience with an explanation that runs along these lines: "When I say I'm a Democrat, I mean I'm loyal (more or less) to my state and/or local Democratic party, not to the national Democratic party...
...This local/national distinction seems in fact to have been made in recent times by many formerly true-blue Democrats, especially Catholics and white southerners...
...for this would be absurd...
...In fact, I said the same thing myself in an article I wrote for this magazine nearly five years ago ("The Dilemma of an Anti-abortion Democrat," November 18, 1983...
...Once I start down that slippery slope, I fear I may not be able to dig my heels in and stop before I have slid all the way downhill to Archbishop Whealon's position...
...I was born a Democrat, and I hope to die a Democrat...
...So you see, this would be a singularly inconvenient moment for me to see the light and announce that, agreeing with Whealon, I have decided to seyer my ties with the Democratic party...
...You won't be surprised, therefore, if I fail to conclude that I am under an obligation in conscience to do what the archbishop feels he is obliged to do...
...I have a certain amount of honesty and courage, enough to carry me through the average day in a more or less honorable manner- but not enough to lead me to renounce my party four weeks before the election...
...There is a national Democratic party...
...ITS NY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO The archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut, John F. Whealon, announced recently that he was "unable in conscience to remain a registered Democrat" because of what he sees as that party's pro-abortion stance...
...But do I practice what I preach...
...Someday, perhaps, I'll develop enough consistency to act on my convictions and vote against otherwise acceptable prochoice Democrats...
...But the pro-abortion stance of the national Democratic party isn't making this lifelong project easy to carry out...
...The term "Democratic party," as Archbishop Whealon seems to be using it, is a name with little or no reality corresponding to it...
...I'm afraid not...
Vol. 115 • October 1988 • No. 17
