It is remarkable that it has gone unremarked—months into the election season, and nobody seems to have noticed that John McCain is running on an astonishingly Catholic platform. Nearly every time he ventures off the establishment conservative ranch, he moves in the direction of liberal Catholic politics.
So why doesn’t anyone want to talk about it? On the Left, this would mean acknowledging that a Republican might have more to offer than just such culture-war issues as abortion and stem cells—while also facing up to their own candidate’s manifestly atrocious record. On the Right, this would mean acknowledging that where McCain can seize the Catholic vote, he may do so by sacrificing conservative principle.
I write a bit about this in the new issue of the Weekly Standard .
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