Santorum Suggests Obama Takes Us a Step Closer to the Guillotine
Yes, Virgina, there have been and there are highly thoughtful conservatives and Republicans who can discuss an issue without lowering themselves to use demonizing exaggerated rhetoric that is sure to scare away a good chunk of the voters that the Republican Party must win if it wants to get the votes of more people than Rush Limbaugh and Fox News fans. And judging from some of his newest comments, up and coming conservative-favorite Republican aspirant former Senator Rick Santorum is not one of them.
First he somewhat broadly suggested that the Obama administration is conducting a war against religion that is similar to the French revolution that ended in the kinds of cold cuts not served by Subway:
SANTORUM: They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is the government that gives you right, what’s left are no unalienable rights, what’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re a long way from that, but if we do and follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are headed down that road.
He got a lot of media traction on that — hey, in American politics now the more outrageous you are, the more controversies you spark, the more publicity you get (like in this post) by people who may be dismayed or the people who reside here who believe such exaggerations. And, yes, there are people on the left and right who use this kind of rhetoric and some on each side who believe every word of it.
And then he added this on health care reform, indicating he likes the response he’s gotten and we can expect to hear a lot more of it or things like it:
SANTORUM: It was a secular revolution on which we relied on the goodness of eacother. This is the left’s view of where America should go. And of course where did France go? To the guillotine. To tyranny. If there are no rights that government needs to respect, then what we see with ObamaCare is just the beginning of what government will do to you.
So now there’s a danger that “the left” is toying with the kind of politics that can get foes heads chopped off. His saying “we are a long way” away from that is not sufficient.
Santorum’s use of this kind of language when talking about those with whom he disagrees is equally as reckless and over the top as people on the left and right who toss around the phrase “Hitler” and “Stalin” or “Stalinism” without having read more than a few Wikipedia references or watched a short documentary on Netflix. The French revolution, Hitler and Stalin all involved state sanctioned, brutal murders of opponents or perceived opponents and scapegoats.
The real, authentic no-joke problem with this kind of political polemics is that there are people who will take these kinds of comparisons serious, indeed, and will feel that it’s almost a matter of life and death to stop political opponents. It is not that difficult to aggressively, assertively and seriously lambast opponents with out taking to that level.
But, then, this is what succeeds in American politics which increasingly relies less on serious arguments on policies and controversies than whipping up hatred of and fears about those who see things differently. This is not new in American politics. What is new is the reduction in people who’ll talk about issues seriously without framing them in apocalyptic terms.
P.S. And YES there are serious things over that opponents of Barack Obama, the Obama administration and Democrats can seriously — and aggressively — take issue with.
Or pick some topics from this web search.
But who wants to do that?
It’s so more enjoyable linking political foes with historical murderers.
And it gets better voting results.
7 Responses to “Santorum Suggests Obama Takes Us a Step Closer to the Guillotine”
Rick Sphinctorum and his wife say,”let the eat Food Stamp cakes.”
But Florida Republicans won’t allow food stamps to let them eat cake.
http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9195&Itemid=331
http://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/the-real-ronda-storms/
Rick Santorum is dumb as a rock which explains his popularity among the Republican base.
The irony of a Rick Santorum playing the religious card is crushing. That doesn’t mean the crazies won’t flock to him like moths to the flame.
Hmmmm the tyrannical left could use the guillotine instead of death panels– much cheaper and more efficient. Thanks, Rick!
WHo needs death panels? We’ll just give everyone private HMO coverage.
So his argument is that religion and governments that are strongly influenced by religion are somehow less violent? His startlingly poor grasp of history is a common theme amongst the far right, especially the religious conservatives. Religious states are historically corrupt and violent, and almost never enjoy the rights we have come to think of as “American”. There is a reason the founders put a wall between state and religion, and based our rights on the ideals of the Enlightenment, not the Bible.
Ironically he is preaching very un-American ideals and pushing it to ignorant people as patriotism. And those who at their heart really believe we are a white christian nation as a matter of law eat it up.
And more specifically he thinks the violence of the French Revolution was spawned by something other than MASSIVE inequality in money and rights for their people. Give me a break. That is the situation we are heading to that will give us guillotines. The GOP better look to its own fiscal gameplan if they want to see what the next iteration of Occupy Wall Street will be setting up in public squares.