Two of my favorite long time Catholic Monitor commenters apparently think I'm wrong to back Donald Trump. First, I'll give their take and then I'll give my response:
We may disagree about length of lockdowns and severity ... Democrat Governors go all in, R Governors are more circumspect, ALL (except two) are in consensus it is right and proper to suspend liberty at central government executive discretion .
And ultimately the first one to do so, who got us all to accept it - was Donald John Trump.
Kabuki might be the best description if this insanity [See: Les Femmes: "General Franco, President Trump, Archbishop Lefebvre - What do these three men have in common?": https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/04/les-femmes-general-franco-president.html]
On the lockdowns, you have Donald Trump who wanted to open up and you have Joe Biden as well as friends who want apparently forever lockdowns and forever "suspend[ing of] liberty."
As with Benedict and Francis so with Trump and Biden: they are not the same. [See: "If Pope Benedict was a Hegelian, does that mean he was a Full Fledged Modernist Heretic?":
As a side note, I loved your Kabuki theater analogy despite not totally agreeing with it. Here is Urban Dictionary's explanation it:
Kabuki
Theatre, artifice, fake, insincere, something done only for show. AKA lip service
Congress stated that mine safety would be a priority but I fear that it is just kabuki and nothing will happen...
... Showy posturing performed as an act of theater. Typically used by pundits to describe an empty political performance which serves to satisfy or distract an audience. The name refers to the Japanese tradition of Kabuki theater, eliciting imagery of heavily costumed characters performing sweeping gestures and holding exaggerated poses for an audience. The performance may appear as elaborate and sometimes strange (foreigners in drag).
While the public remained fixated on the Kabuki of the kind words and state visit by the charismatic leader, his administration was doubling down on trade violations and human rights abuses. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kabuki]
Francis Notes:
- Doctor
of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt
the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church
in such a situation:
"[T]he Pope... WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See."
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said "the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church."
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
- LifeSiteNews, "Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial
weight behind communion for adulterers," December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows "sexually active adulterous couples
facing 'complex circumstances' to 'access the sacraments of
Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'"
- On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
"The AAS statement... establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia
has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense."
- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
"Francis' heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the
Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters
magisterial documents."
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]