Credo in Sanctorum Communionem... but not Rick Santorum

Like Daniel Nichols, I'd never vote for the guy — The Anointed One: Santorum, the Subculture, and Me. But to say that "choos[ing] Rick Santorum for president is to choose Nation over Church, this world over heaven, and Mammon over God," while a great turn of phrase, is a tad hyperbolic.

Not long ago, so-called conservative Catholics were saying similar things about voting for Barack Hussein Obama. Then, the issue was abortion, and ironically Sick Rantorum's support for the ghoulish Arlen Specter is the prime example of the G.O.P.'s lack of seriousness when it comes to abortion (save for "seamless garment" Congressman Ron Paul).

So-called liberal Catholics (Mr. Nichols, to his credit, is a radical) tend to cite Catholic Social Teaching in their support for the Big O. (They cited Just War Doctrine until their man took up the Bush mantel.) I hate to say it, but the neocons are right that these areas, clear as they are on paper, are fuzzy when applied to real life. What if the Austrian School is right and minimum wage laws hurt the poor? What if, God forbid, Franklin D. Roosevelt was right about his war, as the vast majority of Americans believe he was? The neocons are right that abortion is simple and clear, but wrong that the Republicans would do anything to overturn it.

One of the great things about Catholicism is that it's big enough to contain both Francisco Franco and Archbishop Oscar Romero, if I might compare a man of the sword to a man of God. The fascist and the socialist can find a home here. The aristocrat and the anarchist can sit at the same table, as once did Evelyn Waugh and Dorothy Day.