Italian-American Catholic Values

Check out this great article from the NY Times about House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In addition to pointing out Ms. Pelosi's public speaking deficiencies, the article (inadvertently) highlights the unmitigated hypocrisy in her political beliefs. Said Pelosi recently on Meet the Press: "I am an Italian-American Catholic grandmother," she said, "very traditional in terms of values." Pelosi went on to repeat this phrase 3 times, as if repetition breeds the truth.

In what comes as little surprise, Pelosi's version of "traditional values" is widely divergent from the values of my mother-in-law, who also happens to be an Italian-American Catholic grandmother. Furthermore, her politic ideology bears little resemblance to the dozens of other Italian-American Catholic grandmothers in our extended family.

Let's examine "traditional values" of Italian-American Catholic grandmothers. The Catholic church explicitly states that abortion is wrong. Most practicing Catholics are in agreement with the teaching of the Church. Pelosi, on the other hand, is rabidly pro choice (against partial birth abortion ban, against parental notification, etc.) and has spent a good part of her life working to ensure mothers have the right to destroy their unborn children. Clearly she's deviating from traditional Italian-American Catholic grandmother values on this front.

Pelosi also favors homosexual marriage. The Church and the majority of Catholics oppose homosexual marriage. I suspect that even Catholics of the "Italian-American grandmother" variety oppose homosexual marriage. Again, Pelosi is out of step with her Italian-American Catholic grandmother peers.

During her time in the US House of Representatives, Pelosi has voted against every single tax cut initiative that's ever been put to a vote. Obviously I have no idea where the majority of Italian-American Catholic grandmothers stand on the issue of tax reform, but I think it's safe to say that most could find at least one tax cut proposal to their liking. Pelosi, on the other hand, wants our money in government coffers for the purposes of redistribution.

Somehow, I don't think there are too many Italian-American Catholic grandmothers who think their money is better served if it's handed out for the liberal causes of Nancy Pelosi. More importantly, I'm sure most Italian-American Catholic grandmothers would prefer that Nancy Pelosi refrain from labeling her extreme liberal values as "traditional" within her peer group.