BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Monday, May 24, 2004
IT'S THE SAME SECRET SERVICE,
ISN'T IT? So why will Greater Boston be virtually shut down for
the Democratic National Convention while life will go on pretty much
as normal in New York City when the Republicans gather there five
weeks later? Tatsha Robertson reports
in Sunday's Boston Globe.
KERRY, SHRIVER, AND THE
CHURCH. Scott Stossel, the author of a major new biography
of Sargent Shriver, wrote
in the Globe's Ideas section on Sunday about how John Kerry
might learn from Shriver in balancing
his Catholicism with his
politics. Shriver, as Stossel tells it, stuck to Church doctrine
throughout his public career on such matters as abortion and birth
control, but refused to let his personal religious views guide his
policymaking.
It's a worthwhile piece, but I
learned a lot more about Shriver than I did about how Kerry could
follow his example. Even though Shriver was much more closely aligned
with the Church hierarchy than Kerry appears to be, Shriver today
would face problems very different from those that were on the table
in the 1960s and '70s.
Let's not forget that last summer,
the Vatican issued a document on same-sex marriage that
ordered
Catholic politicians to get
the with program. The document, written largely by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, includes this:
When legislation in favour
of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first
time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral
duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote
against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the
common good is gravely immoral.
Currently, there is a controversy
over whether Catholic politicians who are pro-choice should
take
communion. And make no
mistake: Shriver's actions and statements were entirely pro-choice,
regardless of his personal views about abortion. Today's Catholic
hierarchy would be breathing down his neck just as surely as it is
breathing down Kerry's.
UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM.
Boston Herald columnist Joe Sciacca today points
to (sub. req.) the biggest
problem if Kerry decides not to accept the nomination at the
convention: the very likely possibility that national conventions,
already relics of a long-dead era, will be done away with altogether.
(Of course, it's a problem only for those who want to keep the
conventions on life support.) Writes Sciacca of Kerry:
He's taking heat for
flip-flopping on the nomination, but there's no shame for Kerry in
keeping his eye on the prize instead of the party. Running for
president means winning, not ensuring that some donkey-capped
delegates with their credentials hanging over their lobster bibs
feel "part of the process." Both parties should start thinking
about the conventions and whether the negatives - too scripted,
too costly, too mind-numbing and too predictable - have made them
throwaway events in the new era of high-speed politics.
It's been wrongly predicted before,
but I think there's an excellent chance that this will be the last
time the two major parties hold conventions as we know them. That
moment is past due.
posted at 9:30 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
