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Pope Francis’ intervention  in the  US Presidential election

By Our  Foreign correspondent

Washington :  Pope  Francis waded into  the U.S. Presidential elections during press  conference  on the  flight back to Rome  on Sept 13, saying  of  the choice  between Vice  President Kamala  Harris and  former president Donald Trump, “One  must choose the  lesser  of two evils. Who is  the  lesser  of two evils? That  lady or  that  gentleman ? I don’t know.

They  are both against life. The  one who  throws away the  migrants as well as the one who kills children” the  pope said.

The   Republican candidate for Presidential election Mr Donald Trump stands   for mass  deportation of  migrants. The  Democratic candidate and Vice  President Kamala Harris   has  promised to try and restore abortion right  nationwide  if she  was elected to the  post of the covetous US President.

U S Presidential election  scheduled to be held  on November 05,  has hogged the limelight of abortion and immigration.

According to official estimates, around 10 million people  entered the  US illegally  during the Biden-Harris  administration. Trump campaign alleged  this  number  is  22 million  and tries  to pin  the  entire blame on Ms Harris. She has been promising a strong border policy besides  blaming Mr Trump for blocking border management measures  proposed by the Biden administration.

The abortion  debate  has been politically rewarding for  the Democrats and costly for the Republicans in recent past. In the  2022 mid-term elections  that  followed the  U.S. Supreme Court  ruling that  abortion was not  a  constitutionally  guaranteed right, Democrats  retained control of the  Senate and performed  above  expectations  in the  House  of Representatives.    This was attributed largely to an increased support among women for the Democrats.

According to  an  American University poll last  week,Ms Harris  is increasing her lead over Mr trump among women voters, and 86 per cent  of  women disapprove of any government intervention in reproductive choices.

Mr Trump  who had earlier claimed credit for the overturning  of  the constitutional   right  to abortion, is  now trying to mellow down. Trump’s wife  Melania is reportedly  in support of  protecting abortion in her memoir  slated for release on October 08.

Both Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump  would  like  to  sharpen polarization  on one, and diffuse  the  debate on the  other.  Both  sides  misrepresent   each other  in pursuit of  a favorable framing of the   contest.  In the  chaotic mess of  issues that  confuse  Americans  -from inflation  to global wars to  fracking and climate –these  are  two issues  that  both parties hope can help them build  clarity in their favor.

At  the same  time, both  (Democrats and Republicans) are  trying  to reposition  themselves on the  issue  that  put them  on the defensive –Ms  Harris wants  to  appear  tougher than  she has  been on  the  issue of illegal immigration and  Mr. trump  wants  to  appear    softer  than  he  used  to be  on the  question of abortion. 

Pope  Francis  reportedly  said that  Catholics  had  to form  their consciences when deciding    for whom to vote.  The  U S  Bishops, in adopting  a  new introductory statement  to their  quardrennial document  on voting “forming  Consciences  for  Faithful Citizenship” were  less even-handed  in their  appraisal  of  the  two major  political  parties.

Last  year, they voted  to state that  abortion is “our pre-eminent  priority in the  2024  election, repeating phrasing first used in the  2020 version of  the  statement.  Previous  iterations of  the  document  had  refrained from such  explicit emphasis on one  issue, because  that  level  of specificity is precisely where  conscience  formation is  required.   It  is not  clear that  this  year’s  federal elections will  have  any  consequence  on national  abortion policy, given the  evenly  divided Congress, so  making  that  issue a  priority  that  strikes  many  observers  as odd.

Of  the  total  population of a tad over  33  crore, 24  per cent  constituted Catholics. One has to wait and see what  would be  the  result of the Pope’s   reported statement “One  must   choose  the lesser of two evils”.  It is  a  great consolation that the pope did not tell who is the  lesser  evil candidate.

The  attitude  of  the Catholics’ votes  would be  a  deciding factor  in the results of the US president’s election, though  at  present   Ms. Harris is   leading over her rival Trump. 

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