More On Criticizing Santorum

I had another observation about the criticisms of Santorum.  Where Santorum went wrong was the times when he went along with his party when it was going wrong.  Voting for appropriations bills that hadn't had Planned Parenthood funding stripped out of them, endorsing his GOP colleague for re-election, supporting No Child Left Behind and the Medicare Part D entitlement.  These were Republican things that the party should have done better.

By contrast most of the criticisms of Romney, Gingrich, and Paul are on things where they departed from the party to join the Democrats:  government healthcare, the couch commercial with Nancy Pelosi, opposing support of Israel, support for abortion rights, etc.  (I leave out TARP, which was a bi-partisan boondoggle, supported by Bush, McCain and Obama.)

Is it so credible to believe that Gingrich wouldn't have voted for that appropriations bill?  That Romney would have opposed Medicare Part D or No Child Left Behind?

Archbishop Sheen Disproved

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen famously remarked, "There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing."

Unfortunately,  this sentiment appears to be out of date.

The Thing About Criticisms of Santorum

The thing about all the criticisms of Rick Santorum:  even if I take all of them in the worst light possible, which I don't, there are far worse things to be said about all the other candidates.

The Devil and Rick Santorum

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) told California Democrats last week that Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor were demons:

“I saw pictures of Boehner and Cantor on our screens,” the California Democrat said in remarks posted online. “Don’t ever let me see again in life those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. These are demons.” [Emphasis added.]

Does Waters really believe in such things as demons? Does she really mean that Boehner and Cantor are, in actual fact, demons?

Senator Rick Santorum campaigning for President

I'm inclined to guess that Waters probably does, at some level, believe in demons, angels who have abused their free will to embrace evil and follow Satan. But I highly doubt that she honestly believes that Boehner and Cantor are real demons, or even men who are possessed by demons. I take her to mean that the House Speaker and Majority Leader are bad men whose political agenda must be opposed; I think her rhetoric was extreme and over the top, but I think her meaning was simply that the Republican Congressional agenda must be energetically opposed by Democrats.

I'm sorry that she chose such inflammatory language, however, as I think that such language makes more difficult the sort of communication I imagine must take place in a well-functioning legislative body, such as the U.S. House of Representatives in which Waters serves with Boehner and Cantor.

The reaction to this incendiary language has been remarkably tame, I think, and so I'm amused to see how many folks on both the right and the left have gotten the vapors and taken to their fainting couches upon hearing that, in a speech four years ago at a Catholic University, Catholic former Senator Rick Santorum mentioned Satan:

If you were Satan, who would you attack, in this day and age? There is no one else to go after, other than the United States. And that’s been the case for now almost 200 years, once America’s pre-eminence was sown by our great Founding Fathers... But over time, that great, acidic quality of time corrodes away even the strongest foundations. And Satan has done so, by attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.

Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil in "Bedazzled" (2000)

Frankly, I don't see what anyone who professes to be a Christian, Jew or Muslim of any stripe could find to object to in these remarks.

Does Rick Santorum believe in Satan? Almost certainly he does. Does he really believe that the Prince of Lies, the ruler of Hell, is waging spiritual warfare against the United States of America? I think he really does believe that.

And so do I. And I can't understand why any Christian would disagree. Nor why any non-Christian would view these remarks as a bad thing. Unless they were on the side of Satan in the spiritual warfare under discussion.

Not only do I believe in Satan, I also believe in America. I believe in an America where you can't destroy a political candidate by successfully painting him as an orthodox Christian.

Rick Santorum opposes abortion. But Barack Obama said in a debate as a U.S. Senate candidate "no one is pro-abortion." Why is it that Santorum is the one who is demonized by the left? Because Santorum is the one who means what he says.

Rick Santorum opposes gay "marriage". But Barack Obama said as a presidential candidate that marriage is between a man and woman, with God. Why is it that Santorum is demonized by the left? Because Santorum is the one who means what he says.

Rick Santorum has a plan to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. But President Obama says he wants to create jobs and get people off public assistance, too. Why is it that Santorum is demonized by the left? Because Santorum is the one who'll really do it.