Santorum Watch - Just Plain "Wow" Edition

Feb 20th, 2012
by F. Grey Parker

Last week, I had more than a little egg on my face after posting a bit of satire regarding Rick Santorum as if it were factual. When I realized my error, I updated it promptly and left it posted in the interest of disclosure. I do take responsibility for my mistakes.

Was the post I am discussing patently absurd? Yes. But nearly every actual pronouncement from the Santorum campaign has also been absurd. So, yeah, I got fooled. That said... can anyone blame me?

This weekend, Mr Santorum lamented the evils of federal involvement in public schools and pined for an America in which "parents educated their children, because it's their responsibility to educate their children." Yup. Home schooling for all and, if not all, a propagandized state takeover of standards for the remainder. Never mind that the vast majority of two parent households are living paycheck to paycheck and don't have the ability to spend 10 hours a day on lesson plans. What's frightening is this was the sanest thing he has said recently.

In the last week he has accused the President of imposing a "theology" on the country while simultaneously condemning him for not imposing theology on the country.

His attempts to walk this back exposed nothing less than the Christianist Supremacism I have accused him of repeatedly. The BBC reports:

"This is not questioning the president's beliefs in Christianity. I'm talking about the belief that man should be in charge of the Earth, and have dominion on it, and be good stewards of it." EMPHASIS MINE

That Santorum's definition of "stewardship" would reduce our environment to a festering, chemical slag-heap is no different than any of his other distortions of Church teachings.

For example, Santorum also declared that the roughly 45 million Americans who identify themselves as Protestants (of which I am one) are "gone from the world of Christianity."

He doesn't want freedom of religion in America. He wants to institute the Church Of Rick Santorum.

It gets better. He argued repeatedly over the last few days that "income inequality" is a good thing.



In the last few weeks:

He has declared that as President he would "overturn" Supreme Court decisions with which he did not agree.

He has suggested that President Obama is leading us to the "guillotine."

He has insinuated that prenatal testing is part of a eugenic plot to increase abortions of the disabled.

His proxies have outdone him. One publicly stated that the best contraception is for women to cross their legs and another stipulated that the President's environmental concerns are rooted in the fact that he is a "Muslim."

Perhaps this is by design. As Erin Gloria Ryan recently noted:

"Santorum shouldn't be defensive; he should be relieved. We've finally found someone with views so offensive they make him appear reasonable by comparison."

Santorum's ascension among the GOP base may be that party's death rattle.

Eugene Robinson gets it right:

"Santorum’s social conservatism is a huge iceberg, and his views on women and childbearing are just the tip. He not only opposes gay marriage but has criticized the Supreme Court decision that struck down anti-sodomy laws and declared that “I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts.” That alone would be enough to put him well outside the mainstream. But his Ozzie-and-Harriet ideas about family life place him in a different solar system."

Indeed, Rick Santorum may be poised to win the Presidential nomination of one of our two major parties based on a promise to restore a country that never was in a world that doesn't exist.

So.

Sorry about my failure to properly vet that post last week. I have a feeling you understand how the mistake was made.