Opinion poll: Voter fear; Radicalization of Catholicism?; Forced birth war update

NPR reports that poll data indicates that fear is a significant concern among voters:

NPR poll: Democrats fear fascism, 

and Republicans worry about a lack of values

The fear factor is real in America, but Democrats and Republicans are scared for the country's future for different reasons, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.

They also believe very differently about what children who will inherit that future should be taught.

Looking at this year's presidential election, the survey also found big shifts with key voter groups, along generational, racial and educational lines.

It also explored how third-party candidates and so-called "double haters" — who have unfavorable ratings of both President Biden and former President Donald Trump — could affect the race.

Finally, the poll finds a jump in Republicans now believing Trump has done something unethical, as he continues to contend with dozens of criminal charges and legal troubles. The number of Republicans saying Trump has done something unethical has jumped 12 points since February, from 34% to 46%. Still, only 8% of Republicans think he's done something illegal, compared to almost half of respondents overall (47%). A whopping 77% overall think Trump has done something illegal or at least unethical, and a majority believes the investigations into his conduct are fair.

Biden's 2-point lead with all adults and 5-point lead with registered voters evaporates when RFK Jr. and others are considered. RFK Jr. takes in 11% of the vote, which is about how much he's been registering on average in previous Marist polls and other surveys. It's no secret that there's a lot of cynicism and disaffection among many voters. Highlighting the country's partisanship, respondents said both men essentially represent equal threats to democracy, and majorities say they dislike both.

Assuming the data is meaningful somehow, whether all of that collectively is good, bad or about equally mixed is not obvious to me. Any thoughts? I just keep getting feelings of unease from a lot of the news these days.

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An AP article reports about what appears to be a surge of radical fundamentalism in the American Catholic church:

‘A step back in time': America’s Catholic Church 

sees an immense shift toward the old ways

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It was the music that changed first. Or maybe that’s just when many people at the pale brick Catholic church in the quiet Wisconsin neighborhood finally began to realize what was happening.

The choir director, a fixture at St. Maria Goretti for nearly 40 years, was suddenly gone. Contemporary hymns were replaced by music rooted in medieval Europe.

So much was changing. Sermons were focusing more on sin and confession. Priests were rarely seen without cassocks. Altar girls, for a time, were banned.

At the parish elementary school, students began hearing about abortion and hell.

“It was like a step back in time,” said one former parishioner, still so dazed by the tumultuous changes that began in 2021 with a new pastor that he only spoke on condition of anonymity.

Across the U.S., the Catholic Church is undergoing an immense shift. Generations of Catholics who embraced the modernizing tide sparked in the 1960s by Vatican II are increasingly giving way to religious conservatives who believe the church has been twisted by change, with the promise of eternal salvation replaced by guitar Masses, parish food pantries and casual indifference to church doctrine.

The shift, molded by plummeting church attendance, increasingly traditional priests and growing numbers of young Catholics searching for more orthodoxy, has reshaped parishes across the country, leaving them sometimes at odds with Pope Francis and much of the Catholic world.

The changes are not happening everywhere. There are still plenty of liberal parishes, plenty that see themselves as middle-of-the-road. Despite their growing influence, conservative Catholics remain a minority.

This is discomforting. Conservative Catholicism, whatever it is, strikes me as inherently anti-democratic and authoritarian. That mindset seems to be similar to, or about the same as, America's radical right authoritarian wealth and power movement, roughly Trump and his radicalized Republican Party. The mindset also seems to align with the NPR poll data discussed above. 

It is now obvious that America's radical right authoritarian movement is completely comfortable with harsh, aggressive minority rule over the objections of the majority of Americans. In my opinion, that is a solid evidence of anti-democratic authoritarianism. 

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Forced birth advocates are getting very aggressive. The WaPo reports about an apparently new tactic to stop abortions in states where it is legal (not paywalled):

Texas man files legal action to probe ex-partner’s 

out-of-state abortion

The previously unreported petition reflects a potential new antiabortion strategy to block women from ending their pregnancies in states where abortion is legal

As soon as Collin Davis found out his ex-partner was planning to travel to Colorado to have an abortion in late February, the Texas man retained a high-powered antiabortion attorney — who court records show immediately issued a legal threat.

If the woman proceeded with the abortion, even in a state where the procedure remains legal, Davis would seek a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abortion and “pursue wrongful-death claims against anyone involved in the killing of his unborn child,” the lawyer wrote in a letter, according to records.

Now, Davis has disclosed his former partner’s abortion to a state district court in Texas, asking for the power to investigate what his lawyer characterizes as potentially illegal activity in a state where almost all abortions are banned.

The previously unreported petition was submitted under an unusual legal mechanism often used in Texas to investigate suspected illegal actions before a lawsuit is filed. The petition claims Davis could sue either under the state’s wrongful-death statute or the novel Texas law known as Senate Bill 8 that allows private citizens to file suit against anyone who “aids or abets” an illegal abortion.

The decision to target an abortion that occurred outside of Texas represents a potential new strategy by antiabortion activists to achieve a goal many in the movement have been working toward since Roe v. Wade was overturned: stopping women from traveling out of state to end their pregnancies. Crossing state lines for abortion care remains legal nationwide.

Anti-abortion advocates constitute a powerful, aggressive minority that is not ever going to stop trying to impose forced birth law nationwide. These people are theocratic zealots fighting God's sacred war. They do not compromise. If this minority of people ever get enough power, America will be ruled under the iron fist of intrusive Christian Sharia law administered by a corrupt, cruel male Taliban. 

Christian theocrats do not believe 

in that reasoning

Their religion does prohibit everyone

from whatever it makes illegal