Friday, July 13, 2012

Quote of the Day

The “Fortnight for Freedom” was a flop.

This was supposed to be a game-changer — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ big display of political might. But instead it exposed the bishops as inept campaigners and as generals without an army.

. . . This two-week extravaganza was supposed to redefine the political conversation, but instead it went mostly unnoticed and unattended. It was supposed to show massive grassroots support for the bishops’ contention that allowing women to purchase comprehensive health insurance constitutes an intolerable threat to the religious liberty of employers who wish to prohibit that. But instead it showed, definitively, that there is no grassroots support for that strange argument.

The bishops declared themselves the grand marshals of what was to be a glorious parade, but no one showed up to march behind them and only a meager handful turned out to line the route as spectators.

It was pathetic, really. A bunch of nuns on a shoestring-budget bus tour drew more enthusiasm and more support for their polar-opposite message. For all the millions spent and all the weeks of elaborate, top-down fanfare, the Fortnight for Freedom came and went almost without notice. . . .

– Fred Clark

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid this sounds to me like wishful thinking by the author. The Fortnight events in the Twin Cities that I visited were quite well attended. The televised Masses from Baltimore and DC seemed pretty large too.
Time will tell what efect these gatherings will have, but I do not think it accurate to say that they were poorly attended, at least not universally.