Greg Sisk's Rhetoric

Cathy Kaveny observed in her last post that Greg's rhetoric is not productive of discussion and suggests he does little more than tell her that Kerry is evil. I disagree.

I doubt that Greg's postings over the last two weeks will sway my vote on Tuesday. As I have told him in off-MOJ e-mail, I think four more years of Bush is too disasterous on too many grounds to contemplate. Thus, my only option is to vote for Kerry or not vote for President. I suspect I will be one of the hold-my-nose-and-vote-for-Kerry voters.

But I take an important part of what Greg is trying to do here is to make those who are going to take that option think a little about the consequences of what they are doing. Both Greg and William McGurn (in his powerful Casey lecture posted a couple of days ago) fairly suggest that the silence of Catholics who can be counted on to vote Democrat no matter what has helped contribute to a Democratic party that has completely silenced any pro-life sentiment. Perhaps it is not enough for those who are opposed to abortion on moral grounds to silently hold their noses and vote for Kerry. Doesn't some attempt have to be made by those who believe abortion is wrong, but who otherwise prefer the Democratic agenda to the Republican one, to demand that some anti-abortion sentiment be expressed within the Democratic party? (Or, do we just all bail and join Mark's Seamless Garment party).

Susan