In the day after endorsing Barack Obama, conservative Catholic legal scholar Doug Kmiec says he received several hundred email responses, with four in five of them applauding his decision. Four of those responses provide insight into the betrayal felt by some of Kmiec’s fellow conservatives but also into Obama’s uncanny appeal to many on the right:
1. Hi Doug,
By now you’ve probably heard from a lot of folks upset or critical of your endorsement. I’m sure you expected as much when you wrote it. And therefore, I know it took courage and careful reflection to write the article. I’ve been trying to describe to conservative and libertarian friends why I think Obama is so intriguing, despite his clearly liberal track record. I thought his speech was both moving and important. To that end, the chant from some conservatives that seems to boil down to “Race, Race, RACE” is especially dismaying. I see no reason to doubt that he does want to move the nation beyond past divisions on race despite the comments from his pastor. And that could be a truly historic and lasting accomplishment. I’m not prepared to vote for him, but I sometimes find myself rooting for him a bit despite myself. I look forward to talking all of this over with you. You’ve always been a person I’m proud to count as a friend and whose commitment to the principles of liberty I have long admired. Nothing in your endorsement changes that.
Hang in there.
2. I really don’t know where to start. I’ve always considered Pepperdine University as an elite institution. I now wonder if I can have any respect for ANY institution of “higher” learning. If you were coming from the liberal institutions such as Berkeley and others like them and were a liberal, I could understand. In your endorsement of Obama, you espouse your credos on abortion and the rest of the isms of the right. If you are sincere, how in the world could you even consider a Democrat???? Have you gone through the list of the differences between the parties? I have. And there is a marked contrast in the beliefs of each. Most important to me is ABORTION! You call yourself a CATHOLIC? Hogwash! If there is only one thing that I would consider if I were a single issue voter would be this cruel and inhumane procedure. I heard this morning the left wing media couldn’t wait to report….we’ve reached 4,000 deaths in Iraq…a “milestone”. Isn’t this the number of abortions recorded every day? How dare you, Catholic in name only, endorse one who approves of this….unconscionable!!!!
3. Dear Professor Kmiec,
I write to you as a former student of yours at Notre Dame (Class of 19 — ) who had the pleasure of taking studying both Property and Constitutional Law under your direction. I write to you because I have read your endorsement of Barack Obama in Slate and wanted to thank you for articulating in public that which many of us have felt privately for quite some time. I too am a Republican and a Catholic who believes that life begins at conception, that religion has a role in public life, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that the courts have a limited role in our democracy. Nevertheless, I too am supporting Barack Obama in this election, for exactly the reasons you articulated in your endorsement.
You write that your endorsement may be of “little note or consequence.” However, your endorsement is of significant consequence to me and likely many others who know and respect you. Many of us have struggled with the fact that we are “conservatives,” yet find ourselves choosing Obama. We are reluctant to announce publicly our support of Obama because, as you correctly point out, our friends may describe this as “intellectual treachery.” The fact that you have come out in support of Obama will make it much easier for the rest of us to articulate and justify our own positions.
4. Dear Sir:
It is not enough that you yourself are “deeply disturbed” about abortion; you should come out strongly against politicians like Barack Obama who support abortion on demand. Senator Obama has voted or come out against: legislation that would protect babies born alive during abortion; laws requiring minors to get parental consent for abortion; and attempts to ban partial birth abortion. In short, Senator Obama’s record is consistently and extremely pro-abortion.
I am appalled that someone with your conservative credentials – and someone who identifies himself as a Catholic — would be throwing his support behind Barack Obama. For shame!
8
posted March 26, 2008 at 12:42 am
I am also a pro-life Christian who would more that not vote for Obama. It is because of the message of Hope vs. the dogma of Fear that intrigues me. We are living under a blanket of fears; The economy, the abandonment of the poor, middle class and the elderly, the invitation of our constitutional rights, the War for Oil, just to mention a few.
McCain lost me when he accepted the endorsement of Rev. Hagee. When it comes between Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Hagee, at least Wright has some validity of recent history to support some of what he claims.
posted March 26, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I would like to correct one point made by one of the people emailing you.
Obama, in 2004, SUPPORTED legislation protecting babies born alive during an abortion.
He opposed such legislation on another occassion because he believed it was worded in such a way that it would in effect make all abortions illegal by defining a fetus as a person with all the same rights as you and I.
That is a common tactic in the abortion legislative wars — try to insert language defining life beginning at conception into bills that have broad support and are hard for a politician to oppose.
posted March 26, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I read your thoughtful essay regarding your support for Senator Barack Obama. I believe that it is past time for the church to become more involved in issues affecting the most vulnerable people in the United States – children (ALL of them), the elderly, the infirm (including the mentally ill who make up most of the homeless), the homeless, and those who have fallen into lives of addiction.
I would ask others to look at the facts when you make your decision on who to support in November. For the past 35 years abortion has been legal in America. For 23 of those years, a Republican has been president. They have consistently lied to people of faith and pledged to end abortion in order to get your votes, then they do nothing to end it and use their power to make the lives of our least fortunate even more difficult. So think about what you can do to help your fellow Americans – the ones you can see. The ones whose mothers wanted to bring them into the world but still can’t find a job that pays enough to take care of them. The Americans who are losing their homes because their medical bills are so huge. The Americans whose jobs were shipped overseas and they can’t take care of their families. The Americans whose loved ones joined the Army because they thought they had no other options and are now in Iraq.
NONE of the candidates (Democrat or Republican) is going to stop abortion. They never have and they never will. It’s time to vote for a candidate who will do something to feed the poor and help the sick.
posted March 26, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Obama will make a great President. You made a great endorsement.
posted March 26, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I’m surprised at how civil the disagreements are. I’m sure you got some that were more vehement, but those aren’t too bad.
posted March 26, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I appreciate the endorsement. I particularly appreciate the line, “As Republicans, we are first Americans.”
posted March 26, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Agree with Gus. There is anger but not viciousness in the negative responses shown. When I saw this link at Andrew’s blog I thought “Oh boy”, and steeled myself. But it wasn’t as bad as I feared.
There are probably some doozies that are not shown here.
For the record, as a pro-life Lutheran, I disagree with Dr. Kmiec. But I understand the attraction to Obama, who seems to be a good and decent man.
posted April 1, 2008 at 12:28 am
It takes someone in partnership with Time Magazine to think Obama has “uncanny appeal to many on the right.” Dave Kmiec should be embarrassed for endorsing this fraud. Are we next to learn that he was in church last weekend in Chicago joining in the standing ovation for Rev. Wright? Or maybe if Obama needs another addition to his yard, Kmiec can step up to the plate.
As with Bob Smith’s charge for Kerry, this will end up being a lonely endeavor that ultimately leaves the apostate discredited among his former allies and secretly held in contempt by his new-found friends.
posted April 28, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Senator Obama should earn the faith that Professor Kmiec and Senator Casey have in him by co-sponsoring the Pregnant Women’s Support Act
introduced in the Senate by Senator Casey as S.2410 and in the House by Rep. Lincoln Davis and more than 30 other Democrats. This Initiative developed by the Democrats for Life is intended to reduce abortions by 95 % within ten years by helping eliminate the pressures that force pregnant women to consider abortion. Since it doesn’t impose legal restrictions, no sincere pro-choice person should oppose it.
(The fact that Casey is the only member of Congress on Obama’s Catholic Committee who has co-sponsored the bill shows that the advice of the others on how to reach out to Catholic and other pro-life Democrats will be of little value. Maybe Obama should show his leadership ability by getting these officials to join him as sponsors of the bill.
Brian Yates
http://www.democratsforlife.org/Massachusetts
posted November 11, 2008 at 3:51 pm
DOUG YOU HAVE MADE A BIG MISTAKE.