On the Square Today

Joe Carter’s column today brings to light an example of one of the odder phenotypes in the conservative political spectrum—conservatives who put, as Carter says, “preference for procedure ahead of principle.” When dealing with the right to life, there is hardly room for political procedure not oriented toward the state’s most fundamental aim: protecting the lives of its citizens.

If any level of government fails to do its duty in defending and protecting the lives of its innocent citizens, it is the obligation of the other branches to compensate for the failure in governance. [Ron] Paul disagrees, preferring, when the two conflict, to defend federalism rather than the lives of the unborn.

George Weigel’s column also broaches matters political, noting that Catholics seem to have forgotten the true meaning of subsidiarity in recent political debates, construing it as statism:

Because this statist misreading of Catholic social thought often flies under the flag of “Justice for the Poor,” it’s important to underscore one crucial point as the 2012 debate unfolds, this year and next: Catholic social thought is about the empowerment of the poor. It is not about failed polices of social assistance that treat poor people as problems to be solved rather than as people with potential to be unleashed.