Ohio Catholic Bishops of Ohio Can't Understand Lost Abortion Vote


The Catholic Bishops of Ohio issued a joint statement after losing badly to abortion rights. Their statement covered to old material that has been proven, election after election, to be unsuccessful. They shed crocodile tears over fetuses which they call "children." Apparently, having a vague notion their defeat had something to do with women they spent some of their press release bragging about their help given poor women during pregnancy and with raising children. 

An old adage in politics is, "The concession speech is the beginning of the next election." That is, a concession speech should lay out the themes needed to win the next election and maybe a trap for the winner to walk into. A bad concession speech is, "You voted for that jerk. You should have voted for me." The Bishops did the latter. Paraphrasing, they said, "You voted to kill babies. Shame on you."

An example of a good concession speech was given by a Mayoral candidate who lost in Des Moines, IA the same night. The majority of the city votes liberal Democrat. After a close loss, the losing candidate said he would keep working to make Des Moines a welcoming city for all incomes, races, genders and abortion providers. If the election winner, who is liberal but reluctant to touch on those issues, holds back the losing candidate has defined the winner's weakness before she starts the job and himself as an alternative for the next go round. 

The Bishops could have actually conceded. They could have acknowledged they were out of step with voters and pledged to listen and broaden their concerns. For example, they should have said, "The election has shown us the powerful feeling women have about their place in society and their opportunities and aspirations. Going forward, we pledge to listen to all women and embrace the place in society they see for themselves." The Bishops do not have the option of approving abortion and women priests. But they have the option the Pope uses. They can appear as friends of women instead of enemies. Then, as the Pope demands, they can stop offering comments on the sins of women--stop being involved in these state-wide decisions to make states abortion friendly. Pushing themselves into these campaigns against abortion have had no impact on the outcome. Maybe the Bishops contribute to failure. 

As Ann Landers said, "Wake up and smell the coffee." Catholic hierarchy need to understand they are not popular figures and now is the time to listen instead of lecture.     

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