Andrew Sullivan wrote an opinion article for Newsweek a while back that praised Obama. Sullivan is back again to discuss the recent argument between Obama and the Catholic Bishops over including contraceptives in health care. The culture wars are back, but the dynamic is quite different from eight years ago. This time it is more of a last gasp than blowing hot coals into flame.
Sullivan thinks that Obama so neatly turned the tables on the bishops -- by having insurance companies pay for contraceptives and providing it in spite of objections -- that perhaps Obama intentionally laid a trap that the bishops walked right into. The big reason is the disconnect between Catholic members and the leadership. Most members think that using contraceptives is a way to lessen the use of abortion. And most members are more progressive than the average American.
The bishops, in rejecting the compromise, have shown they are about imposing their doctrine on those who don't share it as a condition of employment not related to religion. And on this they will lose.
The version before the compromise, the one where Catholic hospitals must pay for contraceptive coverage, is already law in New York and California. It has been required in health insurance plans since 2000 because not having contraceptive coverage is discrimination based on sex and thus unconstitutional.
This rigidity and focus on sex (by both Catholics and Evangelicals) has left the younger generation feeling alienated. The church should be focused on torture, the poor, inequalities created by capitalism, universal health care, the death penalty, and human trafficking. Sex is a sideshow.
So contraceptives will be a wedge issue this year, but between the bishops and their members. And this time the wedge issue will benefit Dems.
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