For The Fun of It: Obama's HHS Mandate

A second interview with Machiavelli 

SR: Thank you for meeting with me again.

M: My pleasure. What do you wish to talk about today? Are you still stuck on Obama’s endorsement of same sex marriage?  Or, do you want to talk about a different issue? I am expert on them all: freedom of religion/worship, same sex marriage, family life, contraception, abortion, stem cell research, and Church-State relations, whatever you want.

SR: I’d like to begin with the HHS mandate. May I ask you what you think of all the lawsuits the Catholic institutions are bringing against the mandate? 

M: A very poor tactic, very poor. It is much too civilized, too tame and above all, too ad hoc. The Church will lose in the media even if they win in court because there is no comprehensive, coherent strategy.

SR:  Why do you mean by too ad hoc?  How can we lose if we win the case in court?

M: The Church loses, because they have let Obama set the agenda and define the terms of the debate. He continues to win in the court of public opinion even if he loses the legal case. He still comes off as being the man who doing his best to get health care for people, and the Church will look like it is not cooperating. That’s how the press will report it, and how the country will see it.

 SR: And what would you advise? What should the bishops do?  

M. Stop responding on an ad hoc basis to everything Obama does. The bishops need to realize they are involved in an ongoing Culture War. In a war, you do not blindly fight one battle after another; you need a global strategy instead. You think long term and attack your opponent’s vulnerabilities. By being so ad hoc, so limited and measured in their response, the bishops are letting Obama take the war to them and attack where they are vulnerable. At present the bishops look like office bureaucrats and timid corporation presidents, sending their lawyers and delegates to do their fighting for them.

SR:  What do you suggest?

 M: First of all, get a, how do you say? a ‘poster child’,  someone who symbolizes their cause, personifies it. This person would be the General, the Commander in Chief, like Eisenhower in World War II.  Better yet if the general is an attractive female, a woman. She will lead the way.  She will be your ‘Mother Theresa’, your ‘Joan of Arc’, in charge of mobilizing the troops and taking the battle to Obama.

SR: I don’t get it. Why should the bishops do that? What’s wrong with filing all these lawsuits in court? 

M: Nothing, but lawsuits are only one tactic. The Church needs many other strategies, in addition to the lawsuits.  The Church is Obama’s one big obstacle to power in the Public Square.  It is his main opposition in society. This war is always going on and on. You cannot fight only in the courts. The war has to be fought in the Public Square too.  And there have to be different soldiers attacking from different sides, in different battles, with different weapons.

SR:  Why do you think a woman would be a better Commander-in Chief  than a man?

M: In the Culture War, women are better warriors than men. Women are more in touch with the spiritual, the personal and the human.  Women are better at relating than men. So they are better at this kind of fight than men. Men are better with the impersonal, abstract and theoretical. Women know how to capture minds and hearts, to sway public opinion, and dramatize a cause, much better than men. It is that simple. Bishops have to learn how to make use of women and their fighting ability. Look at how smart Obama was, not so long ago. He telephoned that Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, and used her to achieve a great media victory in the Public Square.  She thought he was helping her while he was using her. The Democrats were then able to portray themselves as the defenders of women, and paint the Republicans as enemies of the female sex. Now the Democrats accuse the Republicans of conducting a War on Women.

SR: The Church doesn’t conduct its affairs that way. It doesn’t turn serious issues into a soap opera.

 M: Unless the Bishops learn how to act more effectively in public, they will lose the war, even if they win some battles. Look at how the American nuns are fighting with Rome. The sisters don’t just write position papers and file lawsuits. They demonstrate, and they have people out there picketing. Do they let Rome set the agenda? No! Do they let the Church set the terms of the debate?  No! These women are too media savvy for that. They focus the issues their way. You ask the average person out in the streets what the bishops and sisters a fighting about; you know what answer you will get?

SR: No, what?

M:  They will tell you Rome is reining in the Sisters because of the work they are doing with the poor! That is the answer you will get, because that is the message the Sisters have given the public through the Media.

 SR: Perhaps so, but let’s stick to the HHS mandate.  How should the Culture War General fight this battle? 

 M: She consults and plans. Then she organizes and mobilizes the troops, focusing on women at every level of Church and society, without excluding the men. For example, in the hospitals, she gets the nurses, the secretaries, the administrators, the receptionists, the unions and union representatives, etc. to attend rallies, to speak out, and to demonstrate. She sets up training classes in civil disobedience, gets the hospital personnel to stand fast in protest to the HHS mandate, swearing to go to jail rather than shut down or comply. She develops another strategy for all the Social Service agencies the Church runs, and another for the schools and universities.   With the schools and universities, she focuses on the language battle.  

SR: What do you mean by “language battle?”

M: The way Obama uses words, and the slippery way he changes their meaning without people noticing what he is doing. This is one of his best weapons in the Culture War. As long as the Church fights him using his word-weapons, he will win. Women are great in word-wars. They can see through his deceit and expose it. 

SR: Thank you for your thoughts. You give me a great deal of food for thought. 

M: Mark my words. History will prove me right!

SR: But one person cannot do all this.