Rick Santorum: Stay in Your Lane
Rick Santorum wants his federal government both ways.
There are two flavors of federal government. One with strong central powers, that has its hand in the day-to-day of life. Then there is the “states rights,” model, which the GOP promotes, that keeps everything split up into 50 different flavors of government. States rights has always been code for keeping the status quo in states which don’t want to change their ways, whether it be desegregating a school or flying the Stars and Bars over a capitol building well into the 21st century.
While Mr. Santorum preaches for the latter, much of the social agenda he wants to push for the Far Right requires that “socialist” top-down model of governance.
The President of the United States is the only official elected to govern by the entire country. That means that from Key West, Florida to Barrow, Alaska we are all represented by the same person. Whether one is Black, White or Brown, Americans’ ultimate Representative-in-Chief is that one person. Mr. Santorum says that he wants to be the guy, but his positions are so far out of the mainstream that the only America he really speaks to is a sub-set of white America that fears diversity and the growing tolerance of points of view other than their own.
Mr. Santorum likes to think of himself as the constitutional sheriff. Like other GOP candidates, he brandishes the Tenth Amendment like a states rights six-shooter.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Tenth Amendment has been interpreted to mean that the powers that have not been specifically granted to the Federal Government are retained by the governments of the states.
The GOP interprets this as the States having the majority of the power with minimal federal intervention.
The current GOP Presidential candidates, despite this party pronouncement, argue for bigger “G” government intervention in the lives of citizens.
Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum has made no bones about the fact that he is against homosexuality in any way shape or form, even going so far as to compare homosexuality to bestiality.
Mr. Santorum hasn’t been silent on the subject of homosexuality and same-sex marriage on the campaign trail, despite the GOP’s insistence that this election is about jobs and the economy. His most offensive statements came after the three member panel of the Ninth Circuit of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold the lower court ruling California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.
Proposition 8 was the voter initiative placed on the ballot in 2008 to remove the rights of same sex individuals to marry. In essence, this law went above and beyond the bounds of human decency to strip citizens of their rights and place them into a life of second class citizenship.
This dehumanizing law was a referendum, passed by 52.4% of California voters in 2008. It has been challenged in the court ever since.
In yesterday’s decision, Justice Reinhardt states:“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”
In a statement made in McKinney Texas, Santorum told the crowd:“Where is the tolerance of someone having a belief structure that is based in nature, that is based in reason, that is based in faith…The intolerance of the left, the intolerance of the secular ideology, it is a religion on to itself, it is just not a biblical based religion. And it is the most intolerant — just like we say from the days of the atheists in the Soviet Union.” [1]
The Left is intolerant, yet the right is trying to legalize bigotry and second class citizenship. Santorum is looking at same sex households and saying to them, that their lifestyle is so deplorable and reprehensible to him as proscribed by his religion, that it is his duty to ensure that they live their lives in a state of inferiority for as long as they choose this way.”
That’s not right.
People are impression that it doesn’t matter what they say during a primary, because they are pandering to the prejudices of their base and once in office these issues will be long swept under the rug.
Sure, the candidates, again Santorum in particular, attack women’s rights, make racist statements and decry homosexuality as part of their campaign strategy to get selected as the party nominee. The idea is that in a general election these issues don’t resurface.
There are some who don’t even believe it’s possible for Santorum to be the nominee, so it doesn’t matter what he says.
Rick Santorum swept all three primaries last Tuesday. He bested Romney in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota. As we pointed out in Florida Should Worry Romney and the GOP: Miles from Momentum and Mandate, he and Gingrich ruled the red part of Florida. Romney only won GOP votes by a landslide in counties that go solidly Democrat in most elections.
Santorum justifies statements about legislating bigotry and intolerance because his small slice of America believes that their religion is being attacked and insulted by the existence of people with different values and beliefs.
If religious people and organizations feel that way, great. Don’t engage in the things that you do not believe in. How you live your life, though, in a free America, does not give you the right to tell someone else who does not share your beliefs how to live. We are a society of many beliefs, many lifestyles.
If you can’t tell someone that they don’t have a right to hunt and tote their gun in their truck around town, then whom they date or marry is equally a personal rights thing. Some conservatives are starting to get the inconsistency of non-intrusive government in your wallet but intrusive government in your personal life, but not Mr. Santorum.
I don’t want institutionalized bigotry in my President. I don’t want a President who is going to beat us over the head with their ideology, creating policy that strips rights from others to satisfy his own Religious leanings.
There are some places that Presidents and Governments do not belong. My bedroom and my uterus are two of them.
Mr. Santorum, stay in your lane.
About LPB
Stay Connected.
Top Posts & Pages
Get Forward Thinking
Subscribe to Our RSS Feed
The Forward Thinking Store
Get your t2p gear at the Forward-Thinking Store
Deborah Shlian
Jane Moss
John Ling
kennatoney
LPB
Brian Ross