The World According to Frank Rich

Frank Rich tries to present a coherent argument, but he fails--miserably.

His column, "A Culture of Death, Not Life," offers nothing but raving, theophobic ramblings--the hallmark of the New York Times.

Mortality - the more graphic, the merrier - is the biggest thing going in America. Between Terri Schiavo and the pope, we've feasted on decomposing bodies for almost a solid month now.

As a critic, it is reasonable for Rich to give his analysis of television programming. However, the manner in which he spouts his opinions is disgusting. "Feasting on decomposing bodies" is a positively uncivilized way to express what he sees as a trend in the media to fixate on death. It is a shameful way to refer to the heart-breaking Terri Schiavo saga and the passing of John Paul II.

I thought Rich was against graphic imagery, like that employed by Mel Gibson in The Passion of the Christ. His fixation on that film became pathological long ago and is well documented. I do find it funny that he has no qualms about using disturbing metaphors in his column, yet condemns Gibson for being explicit.

Rich writes:

When those leaders, led by the Bush brothers, wallow in this culture, they do a bait-and-switch and claim to be upholding John Paul's vision of a "culture of life." This has to be one of the biggest shams of all time. Yes, these politicians oppose abortion, but the number of abortions has in fact been going down steadily in America under both Republican and Democratic presidents since 1990 - some 40 percent in all. The same cannot be said of American infant fatalities, AIDS cases and war casualties - all up in the George W. Bush years. Meanwhile, potentially lifesaving phenomena like condom-conscious sex education and federally run stem-cell research are in shackles.

He has to be kidding. Rich insists George W. and Jeb Bush are actually proponents of the "culture of death" rather than being advocates for John Paul II's "culture of life." With all due respect, his argument is lame, or to borrow his words, "one of the biggest shams of all time."

Uh, Frank...the Pope was vehemently against condom use and embryonic stem-cell research. He found the practice of abortion to be an act against God. Any abortion was one too many. True, the Holy Father was not in favor of war in Iraq. However, it is simply disingenuous to portray the Bush brothers as wallowing in what the Pope called the "culture of death." The Democratic party, with its blind support of death in the name of selfishness and convenience, also known as "choice," hardly seems in step with the late Pontiff's stance on the sanctity of life.

Rich blabs on:

If there's one lesson to take away from the saturation coverage of the pope, it is how relatively enlightened he was compared with the men in business suits ruling Washington. Our leaders are not only to the right of most Americans (at least three-quarters of whom opposed Congressional intervention in the Schiavo case) but even to the right of most American evangelical Christians (most of whom favored the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, according to Time magazine). They are also, like Mel Gibson and the fiery nun of "Revelations," to the right of the largely conservative pontiff they say they revere. This is true not only on such issues as the war in Iraq and the death penalty but also on the core belief of how life began. Though the president of the United States believes that the jury is still out on evolution, John Paul in 1996 officially declared that "fresh knowledge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis."

We don't know the identity of the corpse that will follow the pope in riveting the nation's attention. What we do know is that the reality show we've made of death has jumped the shark, turning from a soporific television diversion into the cultural embodiment of the apocalyptic right's growing theocratic crusade.

Is Rich actually trying to say that because the Pope was against the war in Iraq and the death penalty, he was really more in favor of the policies of Democrats? If he is, the man has lost touch with reality. First, MANY Dems supported the Iraq war. (Check the voting record of the House and Senate.) Second, MANY Dems are in favor of the death penalty. (Remember presidential nominee Vice President Al Gore? How about President Bill Clinton?)

Moreover, Democrats in agreement with the majority of the Pope's beliefs are an aberration, not the norm. Rich chooses to avoid the tremendous moral chasm that exists between the liberal agenda and the Church's positions.

Rich keeps yapping about the right's theocratic crusade. It's a crusade that exists in the warped minds of some liberals--nowhere else.

He resorts to this tactic of creating a monster hiding under the bed only to frighten. Rather than being afraid of an imaginary theocratic crusade he should fret over the state of the Democratic Party and the rejection of liberalism in America.

For liberals like Rich, it's Apocalypse Now.