FRANCIS, POLITICS, RELIGION AND SPEAKER BOEHNER

Pope Francis’s, (Catholicism is the largest religion in America with 25% of the population being adherents), short, hectic, sensational visit to the United States, which was punctuated by the shocking unexpected resignation of Republican House Speaker Boehner, came at a time of political turmoil at home and abroad. In the USA there is a tearing apart of the traditional two party system trashing its tradition of consensus politics resulting in a polarization of the body politic not seen in generations. Further, there is frustration and disgust at endemic corruption, corporate greed, giant lay offs, massive executive salaries and government bail outs. A large section of the body politic, both to the left and the right, are totally disillusioned with the status quo and are searching other avenues. 

So what could the Pontiff offer?

THE SHAMBOLIC CHURCH

Pope Francis is the head of the Church to which one of five people on the planet is affiliated, (1.2 billion people). The church is suffering from its lowest attendances in history - in certain East European countries the congregations are non existent, a monumental shortage in priests drifts on, a savage scandal of pedophilia still lingers with continuing revelations of the hierarchy covering it up, the Vatican bank  as yet unresolved scandals still sullies the Holy See's name and the social tensions that arise out of its male exclusivity, contraception policy, unbending stand on divorce and the LGBT community are being exacerbated as society marches on. All the latter in a world where female equality is the accepted goal, divorce and children out of wedlock are running at over 50% and society is more accepting of non heterosexual relationships. 

So who was the Pontiff to say anything?

WHY FRANCIS WAS SUCH A SENSATION

To answer the question as to why Francis created such an aura of excitement, hope and exultation one has to recognize that he represents an authenticity, a moral authority, a sincerity that society craves. There is literally nothing in it for him other than the good of mankind and his persona is like a breath of fresh air in a smoke filled caucus room. He connects with everyone and has a credibility and a humility that resonates - his spontaneous halting of his unostentatious Fiat motor car to bless a paraplegic in the crowd brought a tear to the most cynical of eyes. 

There is the naked anger at political and religious figures and their institutions which are regarded as self serving, phony, greedy and corrupt that he taps into and offers an alternative. He recognizes that both in religion and in politics there is a growing culture of intolerance that needs addressing. There are them and us, the good and the evil, the righteous and the sinners, the unGodly or uncaring versus the Godly and caring. So both in religion and in politics there is a belief that there is not any good in the other side. There is no attempt to emphasize with the “other”. They are all bad. As a result you can kill in the name of God - what Ex Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks calls altruistic murder. This phenomenon is called dualism and both Sacks and Francis recognize this as the scourge of our time. We have to see and accommodate the other person’s point of view, there is some good in everyone and in political terms we have to compromise. 

So in Pope Francis there is a figure who walks the walk and has taken on every possible institution on including his own.  Just a word on that, he has antagonized his highly Conservative establishment who resent his pastoral approach and believe that the doctrine is being neglected.  He is in sync with the key issues of our time such as poverty, income distribution and climate change and is hoping those that differ with him on the social issues will bear with him while to the Vatican Establishment’s chagrin he keeps relegating the social doctrines to the back burner.

CONGRESS SPEECH 

The Argentinian born nuncio’s visit has been a non stop tour de force drawing record crowds, accolades, admiration and support. His visit is yet another blessing for the media who have given him the full treatment. Nowhere would his words and message be more parsed than they would be in his address to Congress. The Holy See does not run his ideas and themes through focus groups and the US Congress got the whole nine yards. There are prominent members who are Catholics on both sides of the isle. The House Speaker John Boehner and the Leader of the Democratic opposition are both Catholics as are more than a quarter of the Senators. 

 He spoke of climate change, wealth disparity, immigrants - he was the son of an Italian immigrant to Argentine -, the poor, the elderly and significantly the role of politics in society. He interwove the need for social and political equality with four icons of American history, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and two lesser known radical Catholic activists Dorothy Day and Thomas Mertom. 

He reminded that religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. He argued, “That it was important that today as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard … which tries to bring out the best in each person in society.” He recognized the growing menace of religious violence where you can kill in God’s name.

However it is the legate’s political comments that Jay H. Ell would like to focus on and its relevance and impact to current day America.

 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYTEM

Just a word of background - America has not a Westminster model democracy and it is largely dependent on consensus. There are 3 independent arms of government and in this context, Jay H. Ell wishes to just refer to one of these - Congress. The latter consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. To cut to the chase simple majorities are just not good enough to legislate as several checks and balances exist. The system is more complicated in that on multiple issues there is no uniformity within a party and voting, if allowed, can then take place across party lines. In these instances a majority for a legislative initiative may be obtained where one Party alone might not have been able to garner the necessary support. For such a vote to eventuate the Speaker of the House and Leader of the Senate have dictatorial powers as to what issues can come to the floor. The latter are appointed by the majority party which in 2015 is the Republican Party. 

In large part America’s transformative legislation has relied on bipartisan support. From Lincoln’s vote to abolish slavery, to modern day examples of Lyndon Johnson civil rights legislation, Reagan’s economic changes and Clinton’s economic and entitlement changes there has been co operation between the President and the House Speaker and or the opposition party itself. The compromise which when brought to the floor passed with a majority vote made up of members of both parties. 

AND THE SPEAKER…

So the Speaker of the House is a very powerful figure and constitutionally is next in line for the Presidency should the President and Vice President be removed in one way or another. John Boehner has occupied this position for five years. In the early years of his term, in the true tradition, he had extensive discussions with Obama on compromise legislation to meet the priorities of the GOP - decreasing government spending - and the Democrats - a fairer tax code. All reports affirm that the two parties reached an accommodation and it was all systems go but for the intervention of the Tea Party with their winner takes all policy and for the next five years the American legislative approach all but ground to a halt. 

The Tea Party faction would not allow anything to hit the floor and when they couldn’t get their own way they forced the government to shut down by not passing the Federal Budget. And Boehner stood by more often than not. In fact even in the wake of the address of His Excellency to Congress, Boehner had not been unable to persuade his Tea Party caucus not to shut down the government. They refused to vote for a Federal Budget unless Planned Parenthood which provides care for 3,000,000 women a year was defunded. All this was happening to the sound of the unravelling of the GOP and a Tea Party takeover. (Blog: The  GOP Unravels as Trump Triumphs).

So with this as a background Pope Francis entered the hallowed Congress Chamber to an applauding but apprehensive audience.

FRANCIS ON POLITICIANS’ ROLE.

The Pontiff solemnly maintained that the responsibility of the members of Congress was to satisfy the needs of society especially its vulnerable members. He continued that legislative activity is always based on care for the people. He harkened back to Moses who “Symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of legislation”. He saw politics as a holy mission arguing that, “Politics is an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build the greatest community”. This involved sacrifice by a community to share its goods, its interests, its social life.

Pope Francis stressed that simple reductionism which sees only good and evil in effect makes us inhumane. He believed in the Golden Rule - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

BOEHNER’S RESPONSE

John Boehner, who was highly emotional throughout the Pontiff’s address, was almost in a fugue like state after the talk. Boehner confessed to reporters, “He grabbed me by the arm and asked me to pray for him. Who am I to pray for the Pope?”

The next morning Boehner announced his resignation from Congress and The Speakership to a flabbergasted world and a shattered GOP Establishment still reeling after the abdication of Governor Walker from the Republican Residential Race. The reasons a relaxed Speaker gave made no sense. - he was going to resign sooner or later and a prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable to the institution. How he believed he was preventing it only he, God and perhaps Francis knew. What made far more sense was his interpretation of his job definition. 

“My first job as Speaker is to protect the institution”, he argued. He believed in the Pontiff's "Golden Rule". How his resignation could be seen outside of the context of the role and tradition of the institution and the Nuncio’s testament is not fathomable. Jay H. Ell interpreted that he had seen the light and had a holy duty to fulfill his political obligation to meet society’s needs. There was very little doubt that he would now allow an open vote on to pass the Federal Budget so the Government would not shut down. In addition as the institution functioned there could be no way that Planned Parenthood would be defunded. Whatever anyone would read into his action “society’s goods” would be continued to be shared. In case anyone had any doubt as to where he was coming from he repeatedly stated that, “My first job is to protect the institution”.

In a subsequent interview on CBS, remaining in a biblical vein Boehner stated that, “There are false prophets out there.. in the town, in the House and Senate, who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things they know — they know! — are never going to happen.” He continued, spelling out his frustration, “Our founders didn’t want some parliamentary system where if you won the majority you got to do whatever you wanted,” he added. “They wanted this long, slow process. And so change comes slowly. And obviously too slowly for some.”

AFTERMATH

The Conservative Tea Party faction declared victory at the House Leader's departure.  But the abdication created a dilemma for the GOP Presidential hopefuls - they were going to be left with answering questions they would have preferred to ignore. Carly Fiorini, who to date has made the death of Planned Parenthood a center piece of her campaign, suddenly was not so sure if she would close the Government because of its funding. It would have been a lot easier to criticize punchbag Boehner for not doing enough. 

Contemporaneously with the announcement a conservative Value Voters’ Summit was in full swing. The Speaker’s impending departure was greeted with rapturous applause. Marc Rubio who has crept up in the polls greeted the news as if there had been one giant step for mankind. The next day on public radio he could not be pinned down as to whether he, Marc Rubio, would have shut the Government down. He hummed and he hawed but in the end he accepted that it could not happen but at least Boehner should have put up a fight. The Donald, in tune with his new role cheered at Boehner’s decision and nobody asked him why.

While Boehner’s side kick Congressman McCarthy will probably temporarily take over there is going to be a brutal battle between an even more right wing Boehner look alike,  (incidentally John Boehner is no bleeding liberal himself and was originally regarded as a Conservative upstart), and some gent/lady from the Tea Party.  This will be one of the more bloody brutal last stands and the Establishment have about as much hope to turn the tide as the Jewish Sicarii at Masada had of expelling the Romans from Palestine. 

It was left mainly to the Democrats to say what a fine fellow old John really was. President Obama was exceedingly gracious in his tribute because he knew more than anyone else that the outgoing speaker had tried to "protect the institution". 

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

It appears as if the dye is cast. Trump, Carson and Fiorini are polling a combined 50% in the polls. None of these have had any legislative experience. Behind them are Ted Cruz, the standard bearer in Congress of the Tea Party’s take no prisoners brigade, and Marc Rubio. They in sum represent nearly 70% of the  GOP and thet all shouted hurray. The Establishment is still praying, not so silently, for Jeb to make his move and for this nightmare to come to an end. 

Jay H. Ell is coming round to the belief that maybe these guys should get their own way. As matters stand at the moment it is inconceivable that any of them could triumph in a national election. After that maybe just maybe, if there are any adults left in the GOP war room, they will get their act together.

Just by the way the Pope in one of his parting statements reflected on how ephemeral power was…….

Or as Jon Stewart might have said at this time of year, "Good Yomtov to the Pontiff"