Why Can’t We Have a Christian Republic? by Daniel McCarthy

On my walk through RSA today I was briefly thinking about the Protestant roots of the United States and whether Catholics should have as their heroes the Founding Fathers or saints. Outside of those polities where it already existed, would it have been possible for Catholics to create some form of republic?

Mr. McCarthy:

Rod Dreher has recently wondered whether the “Catholic moment” in American politics has passed. I’m among those who are skeptical that such a moment could ever have occurred: not only is this country quite liberal and individualistic, as Rod says, but its political structure at its core is Protestant. Catholic political theory has a hard time dealing with the American political system — despite a great many modern modifications, the Catholic Church’s fundamental understanding of how politics works was shaped by the practices of Christendom, by the existence of stable authorities who formally acknowledged the moral authority of the Church and who at least pretended to heed the Church’s teachings. The American public, by contrast, is not a stable authority — nor are the politicians who serially hold office — and neither the public nor the Constitution acknowledges the authority of the Church in anything except the fuzziest or most utilitarian terms. Presumably the mechanism by which a “Catholic moment” could be fulfilled would involve Catholic voters and sympathetic Protestants electing Christian politicians who would pass morally Christian legislation, while in the extra-political world Catholic-inclined minds would have great influence in the media and other outlets of civil society.

With what sort of thing are we dealing? Even if federalism had somehow been maintained, would the states themselves have been problematic (because of their scale or something else)?

If the local Church is strong and healthy, why wouldn't it have a good relationship with a Christian republic?

Catholics attempting to exert political power through numbers alone, without due attention to social cohesiveness and reforming local identity and community, seems like the wrong way to go about things.

Preserve families and the local Church first, then evangelize. Thus includes fostering alternative economic structures that would provide greater economic freedom to the local Church, and I would argue that this may even be a duty incumbent on Catholics, who need to unplug themselves from the "system." Local Churches should be devoting more attention to local c-ops and the like. So long as lay people are complacent wage slaves, the local Church will remain weak.