So what if it is? I'm not the one holding the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven...
...for a price.
What point are you trying to make here? The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven in Catholicism are a symbol of the Church's eternal authority to bind and loose, and being in communion with the Church means recognizing and assenting to that authority.
Not that you know -- or would care -- but I was a Catholic once. This is the sort of nonsense that drove me away.
If you mean defects among the leadership, that's unfortunate but unsurprising. If you mean what I said, then I'm not really sure what to tell you. Regardless, you should know that unworthy reception of the Eucharist is a thing, and to do so knowingly is to commit a grave sin.
In any case, I think you'll find I don't need anyone's permission to have an opinion on their political doctrine
You were opining on whether or not the bishops should withhold the Eucharist from a public figure based on his political support for access to something that the Church considers to be a very grave matter. That's not "political doctrine". Abortion might be purely political for you, but we don't see it that way.
And yes, you're certainly free to have an opinion on it, but we as Catholics are under no obligation to take your opinion into consideration.
I can't help it if I respect the beliefs more than the politicians (in or out of the red robes) do.
If your opinion is, in fact, cynical and politically-motivated, then no, you do not actually respect the beliefs any more than the bishops you are accusing of acting that way.
If that's not the case, however, then I still think you're projecting. I'll concede it's possible that some of these bishops are purely driven here by political power and influence. I don't
think that's the case, but I suppose it's possible. Still, as I said, this isn't a purely political issue from a Catholic perspective. I don't think the bishops in question are political operatives operating to support a GOP agenda and undermine the Democratic president, and to characterize this idea as "political extortion" is to misrepresent what's going on.
