Well, it's that time again. A few months before a federal election, Catholic publishers,

media figures, and of course the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, put

out reminders and sometimes new books and PDFs and links on the theme of Catholics and voting.

Yes, it's Catholic voting guide season again. All these people mean well and they're smart and none of them are striving to do evil.

The problem is with these voting guys is the advice

tends to be very weak and very vague, spectacularly nonspecific, afraid to

describe things as they really are, afraid to quote what

the candidates have publicly said already that they will do if elected, afraid

to quote from the websites of the political parties platform, afraid to name the political parties that they're talking about and these voter guides.

That's a lot of fraidy catness. What are we afraid of?

Before I get into why I think electing President Trump is a no-brainer option for faithful Catholics,

I want to talk a little bit about possible reasons for this fraady catness and the reluctance on the

part of Catholic publishers and influence and indeed our bishops to help us actually

vote properly as Catholics. The main tap route here of the fear seems to be that

the 501c3 status will be jeopardized that if they go political or dare endorse a candidate, then their tax-exempt status might be taken

away because of a little thing called the Johnson Amendment, which was passed by Congress

in 1954. This amendment and the ideology behind it have been lauded ever since by admirers

of its sponsor, the anti-Catholic extremely liberal then senator Lyndon Baines Johnson who eventually became the Democrat

president in 1963 immediately following the assassination of John F. Kennedy his

predecessor. Here's the thing. The Johnson Amendment might be used as a cudgel to keep

pastors and Catholic apostolates in general in perpetual zip-the-lip mode

regarding specific politicians and policies, but nowhere does it claim

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