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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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The problem for me is that I don’t have a party to which I could give money.
One of the many calamities in the USA is that there isn’t a Catholic party, similar to the old German Zentrum, and similar to the Bavarian Christian Social Union (I’d like to avoid the term “Christian Democrats”). It would be, I hasten to add, a party which in an American context would welcome also Evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Jews, yet have its foundation in Catholic Social Teaching, as expounded in The Compendium Of the Social Teaching of the Church, Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004.
Hermann von Mallinckrodt, Peter Reichensperger, Ludwig Windthorst, and Luigi Sturzo, pray for us. We have, after all, our own Kulturkampf against our own government to fight.
Never given to a party, and never will. But I do donate to individual candidates, when I find one who lines up closely enough with my beliefs that it’s worth actively supporting their campaign, rather than just pulling the lever in November for the lesser of two evils, as is the more typical case.
The parties are just amoral machines for seeking power. Sometimes those machines support genuinely good people. More often, not.
My money is better used supporting priests and nuns who need it desperately for their missions and those they serve.
I voted Yes, but I do so intermittently, given the fact that I am a college student and I give what I can, same to my parish. Most of my time politically and with my religion is through volunteering my time.
Ha! I answered too fast! I don’t give to PARTIES, either. I give to individuals. I started with Rick Santorum. First time. But I give to my chosen individuals regularly… not as regularly as they ask, however!!
This is the first year I have donated time or money. In 2008, I offered only prayer and fasting. This year, I’m all in for the proposition that Obama must be replaced. I couldn’t care less about the Republican party, but defeating Obama is paramount.
Yes, I have contributed to individual candidates, though it is hard to separate them from the party. Trouble is all the candidates to whom I contribute lose, consequently I am afraid to contribute to Romney/Ryan. Maybe a small contribution to the other candidate might work.
An occasional contribution. Over here, elections aren’t much of a money race (paid advertisement on TV is highly unusual in Dutch politics) and the government uses taxpayer money to fund the parties as well.
In fact, I am sorely tempted to sent some monetary support to your side of the Atlantic, as the impact of the US election is global in so many ways. Yet to do so would be illegal (I’m not a US citizen either), for obvious reasons, and probably for the best. Still, I suspect your election in November will have a greater impact than ours in September, even on the Netherlands.
I have only given a direct cash contribution.
On four occasions I have paid the inflated cost for magnetic car/bumper stickers that obviously includes a significant margin for the campaign.
(I will never put an adhesive sticker on my car – can’t see how people do that unless they drive beaters. I get the magnetic ones so that I can remove them when on official parish business. I would not prefer my vehicle to “wear” a political sign while heading up a funeral procession.)
I have only given a direct cash contribution.
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I have only given a direct cash contribution once.
Voted never have, never will. I would reeeaaaly have to believe in a candidates views, and his chances, before I considered donating. And based on my own quirky political views, the only way that happens, is if I run for office.
I never gave until 2009. We resigned our Democrat party affiliation. We give to individual candidates, not as often as they would like, and certainly not fabulous amounts. We will only ever give to pro-life candidates. That is our criteria.
I voted wrong too. I give to individual pro-life candidates like Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, George Bush, Ron Johnson etc…This year I can only make a small donation as the Obama reign of terror is quickly depleting my retirement funds.
I cannot display bumper stickers or yard signs in my neck of the woods. The last time I did my car was keyed and my woods was started on fire from the burning yd sign. I’m sure you all saw the thugs in action in Madison last year.
frjim4321: My small hometown newspaper published in it’s anonymous “2 cents’ worth” column a rant against Obama’s attack on the Catholic Church and called out a particular color, make, and model car in the church parking lot for having an Obama sticker on it. [For him or against?] I thought of you. ;)
I have supported many politicians and worked for some in the past. Doing work is what I would rather do than give money. So I did not vote in the poll.
It is very discouraging to see how many nevers there are. I did not contribute financially until the 2010 elections myself, but I had begun to understand what my father says, which is that if you don’t contribute, then you have no right to complain about the situation. Mine also went to individuals that I felt were worthy, not the National party before this year. It is very expensive to run even the most basic campaign, and if we want Catholics to be a force for good in the public realm, then it is important that we support them, not just let the abortionists, gay rights advocates, etc fund all of the Democrat Catholics who will support whatever they are paid to support. Pay for virtuous political leaders, and we might have more of them.
Yes, I have given, and I’m not proud of myself for doing it. Suffice it to say that while I donated, I later came to the conclusion that I could not vote for the guy in either the primaries or the general election, largely due to the enlightening I received at CatholicVote.org. I will leave it to you all to guess what candidate I’m talking about. Before you pick up a stone to hurl at me, know that I have amended my ways so that a candidate’s view on both abortion and gay marriage are the first thing I consider now about any candidate, in either local or national contests.
BTW, when I was contacted to contribute again, I used the opportunity to decline, based on what I had learned about his record on abortion. I received a polite reply and thankfully was not contacted again. Commence stoning if you must…
Girgadis, on the contrary, I appreciate the fact that you no longer support that candidate. I pray that many Catholics who voted the wrong way last time will follow your good example.
My small hometown newspaper published in it’s anonymous “2 cents’ worth” column a rant against Obama’s attack on the Catholic Church and called out a particular color, make, and model car in the church parking lot for having an Obama sticker on it.
I have read that story someplace else recently. Seems kind of creepy and stalkerish to do something like that, not to mention the pretentious judgment that a Catholic who supports the President is worthy of greater contempt that one who supports the challenger. It also seems a bit menacing toward a person on the basis of their political/free speech, which comes dangerously close and may even cross the line into unconstitutional behavior.
I think they get enough money from the big time supporters. I prefer to support priests and religious as well as my parish. I will also occasionally support a pro-life cause when I have some extra cash.
I think they get enough money from the big time supporters. I prefer to support priests and religious as well as my parish. I will also occasionally support a pro-life cause when I have some extra cash.
Guess I agree with all that. 99% of all my charitable contributions are for Catholic-related items except for public radio and television, w/re political stuff would rather contribute to civil liberties organizations the parties or candidates . . .
the = than
Sissy, thank you again for your kindness. God bless.
Yes. Once. And I will never give to a politician or political party again. That one contribution resulted in close to 100 mailings over the next year or two. Plus numerous phone calls.
My way of eliminating money from politics is by not giving any. I cannot think of a worse use of my hard-earned money than enabling a politician (even one I support) to spend money on a commercial and enrich news corporations.
All of my donations to go my alma maters, my church, or to classical music organizations.
I have never and do not plan on donating money to campaigns.
I would rather give my money to 1) The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, 2) my favorite blogging priests ;-), 3) worthy charities (preferably Catholic). etc
Never give directly to a party because they always support the most liberal of the choices in a primary, and conservatives usually get little or no money for the general election.
I frequently give to conservative, pro-life candidates anywhere in the nation. We must get the good candidates through whenever we can. I also contribute to the Susan B. Anthony fund that will vett good pro-life candidates, and then support them. We really need to support good candidates because the parties never will, IMO, and I was a party official at one time, and saw this in action. It drove me crazy — the conseratives would give money, and the party would give it to the liberals. Give only to a candidate, not the party.
Yes, I have given a small amount for recent campaigns, and plan to donate to the Romney/Ryan campaign in the near future. For me it’s more of a symbolic gesture since the amount is peanuts compared to other donors.
Those who are complaining about the mailings…I have never gotten that from a political donation, but Catholic organizations…holy cow! I was incredibly disturbed by the amount of junk I got in the mail: newsletters, CDs and DVDs, horrid kitschy religious knick knacks, mailing labels, etc. One small donation to a group connected to my favorite saint resulted in my contact info being sold to a variety of religious charities. Needless to say, I am very wary of who I donate to now. If they can afford to mail out all that junk, my money couldn’t have gone far.
I’ve been skimming the comments and a number of you say that you answered the poll to quickly in the affirmative when you never give to parties but do occasionally give to individual candidates. Isn’t that what “campaign” means?
I find the intersection of faith and civic life a fascinating subject, and some of the people I admire most have been those who proclaimed their faithfulness and brought that faith into the public square. I’m thinking of Robby George, Maggie Gallagher, Hadley Arkes, Fr. Neuhaus, and even Fr. Robert Sirico. Recently a couple of politicians have quit the Democrat party because they could no longer reconcile the social agenda of the Left with their personal beliefs. Better late than never, I suppose, but this has been going on for 40 years.
I think that we Catholics might do well to examine the success of the homosexuals in advancing
their political agenda in the last few decades– we could learn a thing or two. While they are
a tiny minority (between 2 to 10% of the population depending on who you’re talking to) they
have seen huge political strides made in their favor in a very short time. Look at their drive
to legalize same-sex ‘marriage’– the majority of the population opposes it, and has voted it
down every time a state submitted it to a general vote. However, by organizing and lobbying
and funding, they have influenced courts and legislatures to legalize it in several states anyway.
As we’ve seen, cynical politicians with an eye to courting such an engaged and savvy minority
will ‘evolve’ to, er, embrace their position.
What are some of the things homosexuals have done that have helped them make such strides?
For one thing, they support their cause with time and money. Also, they seem to be pretty
pragmatic when it comes to politics– a politician who might not be 100% on board with their
agenda now will certainly be so in future if he can be made to depend on their organization and
financial contributions. The perfect is not the enemy of the good for them. They didn’t sit
around waiting for the perfect candidate to come around– they took the politicians that were
out there and worked with the ones that were useful and worked to defeat the ones who weren’t.
They also seem to be pretty ruthless when it comes to policing their own ranks. We Catholics,
in contrast, are not. Until we have a solid definition of our identity and our political goals as
Catholics we will always have a hard time getting politicians to return our calls.
HeatherPA says:
My money is better used supporting priests and nuns who need it desperately for their missions and those they serve.
Here here! I’d rather use the money for some Mystic Monk coffee!
Or give it to Clear Creek Monastery!
http://clearcreekmonks.org/how-you-can-help.html
I have never donated to a campaign or party, and at the moment, I don’t ever plan to do so. I generally don’t trust giving money to what I consider large organizations, whether they be political, health-related, whatever. I don’t want my money going to overblown administrative expenses or funneled to organizations that I don’t want to support (such as Susan G. Komen’s funding of Planned Parenthood). I’ve chosen to give to my local crisis pregnancy center, and to my pastor along with a “thank you” note and so on. I’m impressed enough with our interim pastor, a Dominican, that I intend to donate to Dominican vocations in honor of him, and to the FSSP as well. For me, there are so many better recipients to whom to donate than political ones, and you don’t get the junk mail!
Since this wasn’t exclusively for citizens for the USA, I voted yes once or twice.
It was to the Alberta Party, which, in Alberta, is like a third party in the USA. I am a solid moderate, and generally cannot get behind most other provincial parties.
I feel that I must say this again. Being unwilling to give to any party or even individual campaign a token sum renders you nonexistent to the political process. Want any of your letters heard? It is not a dirty thing to support financially the political process. Dont you think that having two prolife candidates on a major party ticket is a marvelous accomplishment? They cannot (and it appears that Ryan did not) on their own personal wealth. This is investment.
Sliwka, having lived 13 years of my adult life in Canada, I would observe that third parties there have a long and useful history. However, you also have uncertain election terms, and we have fixed. I think that the vote of no confidence would be an interesting and useful addition here. For one thing, it makes ongoing expensive campaigns less practical, as the need for the next one could be 90 days after the election.
On the other hand, in the United States, with fixed election terms, I think that (barring a landslide 3rd party victory like that of Bob Rae in Ontario in 1990) a vote for a third party here almost always favors the incumbent. And the incumbent must be removed now.
Never have, but I wouldn’t mind if there was a particualr one I supported.
As for Americans and Romney and Obama, don’t worry, both candidates are funded by the same powerful interests, bankers and other influential groups and don’t require your money.
Candidates like Ron Paul on the other hand take donations directly from private people and Ron Paul refuses money from corporations and other special interest groups out of principle. It’s also why he can’t buy the media off like the backers of Mitt and Barack who are okay with you choosing either of those two candidates because nothing will change as far as they’re concerned, both candiadates will have their backs and do as they command.
The first politician I donated to was Ron Paul in 2008. I made contributions to his Campaign For Liberty following the campaign and significant contributions to Rand Paul’s Senate campaign. In this cycle I donated as much as I could to Ron Paul.
I would never give to the party itself, especially after the shenanigans the state party pulled in Alaska and other states after the ” establishment” lost the GOP conventions and they shifted money around so the recently elected members had no access to it.
I have twice given money to a certain individual candidate.
My criteria for the donation is:
1. The candidate must have a coherent political philosophy that he defends and that I agree with.
2. The candidate must have an unimpeachable track record proving that he actually sticks to his principles.
I know of only one such candidate.
I donated to Ron Paul’s campaign, and I am considering whether or not to donate to the Libertarian Party.
I also have never given to political parties, but I have given to a few candidates, both local and national. The first time I gave nationally was to the Santorum campaign. I will probably give to the Romney campaign unless he shows signs of not taking traditional values seriously. But I probably won’t be too picky though. I think it’s pretty important to get Obama out of office and he has an unfair advantage with the media and Hollywood on his side.
Voted never have, am thinking about it.
There has never been a candidate I totally support, so I never have.
There still isn’t one, but I’d donate to unseat you-know-who.