The Catholic doctrine of lesser evil allows us to realize that Europe's dependence on the United States is better than its dependence on Russia and Communist China. However, the appropriate goal and irrevocably perfect is to reconstruct Catholic civilization. prof. Roberto de Mattei writes about it.
There is simply a Catholic doctrine of lesser evil, which can be summed up in the following sentences:
1.You can never do even the slightest evil in a affirmative and direct way;
2. To avoid greater evil, lesser evils committed by others can be tolerated, provided that they do not approve of it as specified and that there is simply a greater good to be sought.
This doctrine is fundamental to uncovering orientation in the era of confusion, in which the very concept of the rule is lost: «Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu» (St Thomas of Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-IIae, q. 18, a. 4 ad 3).
In the light of this principle, Catholics must never vote or approve abortion laws, even to a limited extent, but may vote for a candidate who is not an integral anti-abortionist. It is so possible for an American Catholic to vote for Donald Trump, although his position on abortion, as Edward Fester (American Catholic philosopher and writer – ed.) noted, leaves much to be desired.
Trump advocates the legality of abortion in the event of rape, incest and a threat to the mother. It is besides limited to treating specified a "state murder" as a purely procedural issue which the government, central or local should regulate. The Republican Party's programme announced at the Milwaukee Convention on 8 July for the first time in forty years did not mention to a national ban on abortion. Unlike his counter-candidate, Kamali Harris, Trump does not nevertheless snort abortion on his flag.
The Socialist and egalitarian program Harris provides for the restoration of the constitutional right to abortion, which introduced the 1973 Roe w. Wade ruling, and which was cancelled by the ultimate Court decision of June 24, 2022. Moreover, during the 2019 primary, Kamala announced that on her first day of office in the White House, she would sign the Equality Act, which is to warrant all rights to the LGBT planet (see her book: The Truths in Hold. An American journey, Vintage 2021, pp. 112-120.
If at all possible, even more left-wing than Kamala Harris is Democratic candidate for vice president, Tim Walz, associate of the Minnesota party. If the Democrats win the November elections, despite media force on Kamala Harris of moderateness, the process of the moral decadence of the United States will be accelerated by the Harris-Walz duo, 1 of the most progressive in the past of the country.
It is regrettable that the Republican organization has not managed to elect a better candidate than Donald Trump. Kamala Harris, however, undoubtedly represents a greater evil to be avoided. Trump deserves criticism for a number of reasons, but it is not entitled to let Harris to win by voting for her or abstaining.
In the case of global policy, a major change is unlikely, whether Kamala Harris wins or Donald Trump wins. It is said that if Trump wins, the United States will retreat from Europe and NATO, but this is an exaggerated narrative. Kamala Harris represents Wilsonian school (from the name of Thomas Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921). Trump in turn is an adept of the Jacksonian School (from Andrew Jackson, president from 1829 to 1837). The erstwhile keep that the United States has a moral work to spread democratic values worldwide. Others believe that the United States should not provoke external conflicts. In any case, as historian Walter Russell Mead pointed out, Jacksonian's opinion is consistent with what General Douglas McArthur (1880-1964), said that in the case of war, “there is no alternate to victory”.
During his first term, president Donald Trump photographed himself in the Oval Office with a image of president Jackson. His monuments were targeted by “woke” activists who accused him of being racist and a supporter of slavery. The mentioned Mead pointed out the relation between Trump and Jackson in an essay that he published in 2017 in "Foreign Affairs". Meanwhile, the vice-presidental candidate, J. D. Vance, in an interview given “New Statesman” on February 14, 2024, drew attention to Trump’s “Jacksonianism”, stating that it is “a mix of utmost skepticism towards abroad interventions, combined with an highly aggressive position in situations where intervention occurs”. The United States, said Mead, is incapable to wage an crucial global war without the support of the Jacksonians, and erstwhile the war has begun, they cannot end it differently than on their own terms.
There is no uncertainty that Kamala Harris' abroad policy is more focused on interventionism. However, despite the isolationist tendencies, Republican candidate puts America's national interest as a priority. Is the fall of NATO and the transition of Europe to Russia in the interests of Washington? Trump wants to focus on the theatre, which he considers to be the most disturbing, that is, the Indo-Pacific; however, Europe is building the foundation of the imperial American power. If Trump was elected, he would most likely push Europe to make the economical and military effort essential for her defence, but he would not leave her to her own fate.
Democrats accuse Trump of supporting Putin; however, the primary goal of the Russian dictator is not to win Trump or Harris, but to destabilise the American continent, which will facilitate its expansion programme in east Europe. The spectrum of civilian war or even strong interior tensions is always alive in the United States. No wonder Putin’s preferential script would be the collapse of an American empire akin to what happened to the Russian Empire in 1991.
On the another hand, real support for Putin is not Trump, but all those who believe that the Russian-Ukrainian War is simply a consequence of the Kremlin's legitimate reaction to American imperialism. If this were true, America would be Europe's biggest enemy, as the utmost European left has always claimed, both before and after the collapse of the russian Union. For any man of common sense, however, it is clear that Europe's economical and military dependence on the United States is little evil than vassalization towards Russia – Russia, which itself becomes a vassal state towards communist China.
Consent to lesser evil does not mean to renounce the greater good. The greater good has nothing to do with American liberalism or Russian-Chinese despotism. The irrevocab perfect is the “renewal of all things in Christ”, that is, the restaurant of Christian civilization, as the West knew in the mediate Ages – and at the same time bringing it to even greater perfection.
St. Pius X showed us the way: «Civilization is no longer essential to discover or build fresh societies in the clouds. It was and is simply a Christian civilization and a Catholic society. It is only about establishing them and continually renewing them on natural and supernatural foundations, against the ever-resurrectioning attacks of harmful utopias, rebellions and impunity: Omnia instaurare in Christo» (Notre charge apostolique, August 25, 1910).
Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
Pache
