AL SMIITH'S DINNER EATEN UP BY RANCOR

 I just tuned into the roast hosted by Cardinal Dolan. Trump is using his speaking time to attack Clinton, directly and artlessly! He Isn't even trying to be funny. How can this man be the better choice and be such a monumental asshole? My first inclination is to just not vote and let History take it's coarse without my insignificant participation. Sincerely I say, may God help us all.

After a day…...

I will vote, and vote for Trump. That doesn't mean I will delude myself about the character of my choice.  The Alternative to Trump is just too awful.  I spent a lifetime in politics and have seen the sausage being made and have gotten really close to some of the butchers who make it. They, both sides, feed on the enthusiasm of a well-meaning public. 

As to the Al Smith dinner, I can remember when opponents did sit at the same table and treated each other in a civil, jocular manner. I miss that. I miss it because what happened at this years dinner reveals the sad fact that we now live in a society with too competing cultures. These cultures are irreconcilable and are heading to open conflict. This will end badly and the Old Republic in which I was born will not emerge no matter who wins.

The Al Smith Dinner has been a mechanism for the Catholic Church to remind politicians that ultimately politics is not the highest human endeavor.  We are called to live together in one society as people with obligations to each other and the common wheel. Sadly, our ideological and racial divisions make this almost impossible. Too much rests on our established politics of division and envy.