I’ve received a document: Catholic Opinion Research Survey. On its cover it says “Daniel Sheerin, which side are you on?” and reveals the bias of the survey. On one side is a photo of a beaming Trump, a beaming Reagan, and a somber looking John Paul II before a background of the American flag. On the other side is another photo showing Ilhan Omar, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer, and Joe Biden before a background of black.

The survey contains a series of tendentious questions intended to measure the degree of my outrage at alleged slights, insults, and atrocities against Catholicism by the left. Most of the questions are, in fact, much better suited to reactionary evangelicals, but it is assumed that Catholics and evangelicals are undifferentiated components of a pro-Republican Brand X Christianity.

This document was sent by an organization called Catholic Vote that is “Mobilizing Catholics to Defend Faith and Family in 2020.” On their website they advertise a book entitled A New Catholic Moment | Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good by Bryan Burch, the president of Catholic Vote. There is a reactionary Catholic club called Legatus that claims to be  “the world’s premiere [sic] organization for Catholic CEOs and Presidents.” In 2018 Legatus named Bryan its “Defender of the Faith,” a title he shares with Henry VIII and the current Queen of England. Catholic Vote is just another wing of the Republican Party, trying to camouflage itself with religion, evangelical and Catholic, another group struggling to defend the “American Way,” i.e., predatory capitalism, patriarchy, and bigotry.