James Wolcott uses FNC's earlier false report of the pope's death before it actually occurred to muse on how Republicans will use this to their advantage.
Fox New did all of us a service by providing a sneak preview of how the Pope's death will be politically spun to further a Culture of Life campaign intended to peel off more Democrats to the Republican side. Liberals shouldn't be lulled into letting down their guard after the poll numbers disapproving of Bush's and the Congress's barging into the Schiavo case. They're going to capitalize on the Pope's death and plug it into the Culture of Life crusade intended to save Tom DeLay's tainted bacon.
As distasteful as it is to politicize a man's death, the Democrats must plan some defense here.
I've been pretty adamant that the Catholic vote is important to the Democratic Party. Take a look at how many prominent Democrats are Catholic (John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Harkin, Jennifer Granholm, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, Dennis Kucinich...in, all 60% of Congressional Catholics are Democrats).
People on both sides want to buy into the spin that John Paul II was an icon of conservatism. I dispute this point and refuse to let the Republicans frame the debate. Most people want to fixate on abortion as the litmus test for what makes someone a liberal or a conservative. It is true that John Paul II was conservative on this issue, but it is also true that he was progressive on issues such as war and peace and economic and social justice.
John Paul II exuded charisma and holiness. Like another religious leader who thinks abortion and homosexual acts are wrong, the Dalai Lama, JP2 impressed in meetings those who did not share his faith. Many people liked and respected him.
The nature of American politics is thus: many voters form affect for political figures. Sometimes that affect is a result of policy choices, other times it is pure personality. These people then form future policy choices or move current policy choices to fit the figures they associate with. Someone may have loved JFK, become a Democrat, and chosen political stances based on what the Democratic Party holds to, all through association leading back to that initial affect for JFK and not any ration contemplation of issues.
The Republican plan as outlined by Wolcott is to associate John Paul II with conservatism and, thus, with the Repubican Party. The hope is to transfer positive affect for the pope to the GOP. This may or may not work, but it should not go unchallenged. The premise that faithful Catholics ought to be Republicans is a ghastly one that bodes ill for the Democratic Party if its falseness is taken as fact.
I'm not sure what is to be done. Hopefully, Catholic political figures on the left side of the aisle will find a way to appear as talking heads speaking on their Catholicism without finding a way to appear as camera hogs using religion to find a public soapbox. Hopefully, people will highlight his legacy of peace and social justice and not dwell only on those things they dislike about his papacy.