My colleague and good friend, Charles Rice, wrote a column recently advising us to vote as Benedict XVI would ("Vote with Benedict," Oct. 10), presumably in the forthcoming congressional elections.
But if you are an independent voter appalled by the nation's entry into an unjust war, horrified by the loss of life and limb in Iraq, ashamed of America's complicity in the bombing of Lebanon, shocked by the use of torture in Guantanamo Bay, scandalized by tax policies favoring the rich, alarmed by the backsliding on global warming, distressed by a deepening congressional culture of corruption, worried by an out-of-control national budget deficit, angered by the attempt to privatize social security, embarrassed by a national health policy that has left 40 million people uninsured and discombobulated over the negligent response to Katrina, you really have to wonder how Benedict would in fact cast his ballot on Nov. 7.
I'm inclined to think Benedict would vote much as this independent voter is likely to vote.
Donald P. Kommers
professor
political science
Oct. 24
