Republicans.

You don't hear much cheerleading for the Republicans on this blog.

Here's the reason why: the GOP really isn't that big a friend to my family. It's not that I despise the ideals of defense of the family, limited government, lower taxes, and so forth. Far from it. I definitely do not feel undertaxed, and there's something more than vaguely degrading about the process of having to get my own money back every year. But the Republicans have never really delivered all that much, as Carlson's article shows.

And then there's that little problem of trying to square laissez faire economics with those of Leo XIII, which is much more of a conundrum than many faithful Catholics are willing to admit.

We happen to be one of those one-income families much touted in rhetoric and much ignored in reality. We made the decision, after much agonizing, that Heather would stay home after the Adventus Filii in 2003. Boom--bye-bye, 40% of the family income. But not 40% of the family debt load, alas. We don't regret it--not for a moment. But we have months where we scrape by in exactly the same sense the Titanic scraped by the iceberg on that April night in 1912. Am I asking for a coddling by a gummint nanny? No, not at all. All I want to see is families get, oh, say, 15% of the results the K Street Boys get when their wheels squeak.

Sure, the leadership talks a lot about "family values," but when it comes down to crunch time, the business wing crushes the "social conservatives." Period.

There was an anecdote in a recent Christianity Today where one of the evangelicals responsible for forming the global warming initiative discussed the icy reception the initiative received from the leadership of the GOP. A questioner asked if it was just another example of where there is a conflict between the corporate wing and the SoCons, the business interests usually win.

The evangelical leader paused, then said: "It is not the case that where there's a conflict, the business interests 'usually' win.

They always win."