Guest Opinion: US Presidential Election 2012 Needs a Modern Day Thomas More to Emerge

A second-tier Republican candidate, especially a Catholic one, could distinguish himself from the pack by invoking an unapologetic Pro-life, Pro-family, Pro-worker and Pro-education message in the actual debates themselves. To ignore these topics is an embrace of the "Naked Public Square" that the late Father Richard John Neuhaus railed against.

P>ST. JOSEPH, MO. (Catholic Online) - The regular season of the National Football League has begun in earnest, as well as the fall campaign season for who will be the Republican Presidential candidate. The newest candidate, Governor Rick Perry, is being muddied on the field of battle alongside the former front runner of the Republican race, Mitt Romney.

The other second-tier candidates continue to jockey for position, taking their hits on the front-runners at the debates and afterwards in a hope to gain traction and notoriety to a national audience and donor-base before voting begins in Iowa and New Hampshire. I keep thinking to myself though and wondering why nothing has been asked or said in the debates about the life issue or marriage?
 
Abortion has not been discussed and neither has gay marriage or civil unions. It seems as if the Republicans have made an agreement to keep these topics off the table during this election cycle. The establishment within the Republican Party, along with the liberal media, seems to have signed off on Gov. Barbour's proposal earlier in the year to put on the back burner, or just pitch in the can, the Pro-Life/Pro-Family message. They want to focus on the economy. Is this campaign philosophy the correct one to be following for Republicans?

The late Father Richard John Neuhaus was very vocal about people of faith being excluded from the public conversation in our country. He warned us about this absence of people of faith being able to publicly express themselves and called it "the Naked Public Square." Is that not what is occurring to us today, both in the broader society in general but also within the Republican Party debates?

It's not that people of faith are being prevented from running for President, especially in the Republican Party. There are several candidates who have strong religious convictions. It seems as though they are being told not to discuss, or are not being intentionally asked about, the life and family issues in the debates.

I would like to know and hear discussed what the positions of the various candidates are on abortions. If they were to permit abortions, under what, if any, circumstance(s) - rape, incest, or health of the mother would they be permitted? What are their positions on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and civil unions?

In the most recent debate a major topic of government mandated vaccines was discussed and debated, specifically the HPV vaccine. The conversation remained at a shallow level though. It seems to be already accepted in our culture that teenagers are going to be having sex outside of marriage. It must be occurring at alarming rates and to such a large extent that a mandated vaccine could even be considered or required in any state.

Can our culture survive and prosper when it seems to have embraced this hook-up mentality, especially amongst our teenagers? Is this not what Pope Paul VI warned us against in Humanae Vitae? Is this not what Pope John Paul II described as the Culture of Death? That seems to me to be more important to discuss than just arguing about a state mandated vaccine. If we can't discuss these matters in a more substantial way during the Republican debates, then where and when can we?

What other questions should be asked of our candidates, especially topics important to Catholics? What about the loss of private health services in certain municipalities or regions due to a refusal to submit to both unreasonable and immoral demands of the government? How can we secure our borders and enforce our laws, but also recognize the humanity of all of our immigrants, especially our Latino brothers and sisters?

How can we balance the budget in a morally responsible way with a preferential option of the poor in mind? Do workers have a right to organize and fight for a just wage? Should collective bargaining agreements be upheld for our most important public servants, i.e. police, firefighters, & teachers? What about corporate greed? Is deregulation of Wall Street, the banks and corporations really a solution to our problems? Or do our problems lie at a deeper level of our humanity?

What are the candidates' positions on education, i.e. community colleges, vouchers for non-public charter or parochial schools, home-schooling, etc.? The future of our country will be largely impacted upon the next generation being able to see reality as it truly is, in all of its beauty, and in all of its evil. Are our children loosing the ability to think, to reason, to imagine, to wonder? Education cannot and must not be ignored by us. We ignore it at our own peril. These are just some of the questions that I ask, questions that all Catholics should be asking.

A second-tier Republican candidate, especially a Catholic one, could distinguish himself from the pack by invoking an unapologetic Pro-life, Pro-family, Pro-worker and Pro-education message in the actual debates themselves. To ignore these topics is an embrace of the "Naked Public Square" that the late Father Richard John Neuhaus railed against. We cannot, we must not allow this to occur. We need at least one candidate to lead on these topics and refuse to take a back-seat to the establishment's agenda. That candidate should be courageous on these topics which would distinguish him from the others in the pack who are just following the common mentality.

After all, if we as a country embrace a Culture of Death and the dismantling of the traditional family what difference will a weak or strong economy really make? We need a modern-day Saint Thomas More.
 
Disclaimer - The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and not those of the U.S. Army.
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David Jones holds a Masters in Theological Studies from the Institute of Religious and Pastoral Studies, University of Dallas. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Pontifically recognized and approved ecclesial movement. He also runs a popular blog entitled La Nouvelle Theologie. His conversion story is published in the Italian book entitled Sotto Il Cielo D'America (Under the American Sky) written by Marco Bardazzi. The introduction of this book has been translated into English and is available on-line here. Lieutentant Colonel David L. Jones is a currently serving as an instructor at the Command General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 

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