In the United States, throughout my entire lifetime, there have been only the most modest of effective differences between the candidates fielded by the two dominant political parties. Despite differences in rhetoric, there never seems to be a great deal of difference in the long-term direction of their ultimate policies. Government continues to grow, regulations become continuously more burdensome, the waste of material and human resources increases apace, personal morality erodes, social stability declines. Policies denounced by the loyal opposition are typically endorsed and continued once the opposition gains power, only to be denounced in turn by the dispossessed original party....

 

The unworldly are generally a small and ineffective minority: Those who are willing to embrace the self-denial necessary to form themselves in truth, obey the natural law, and respond to God in sacrificial love are generally a small minority. They are called to be an important and vital leaven, but they will seldom be more than that. Their political victories will most often occur only when what is right can be shown to correspond to a widely understood self-interest. Thus moral progress in the social order is actually most likely under the pressure of disasters which demonstrate the bankruptcy of old attitudes and habits....

 

Dr. Jeff Mirius is the founder of CatholicCulture,org, from where this excerpt is adapted.