lunadelcorvo: (Civil liberties)
[personal profile] lunadelcorvo
(The list is not mine, it comes to you courtesy of ThinkProgress.org; the original article is HERE.)

1) ANNUL ALL SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: Arguing that gay relationships “destabilize” society, Santorum wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships and has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages if elected president. During his 99-country tour of Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer, and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on gay people. As Santorum explained back in August, religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays: “We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.”

2) ‘I’M FOR INCOME INEQUALITY’: “They talk about income inequality. I’m for income inequality,” Santorum said during an event in Pella, Iowa in December. “I think some people should make more than other people, because some people work harder and have better ideas and take more risk, and they should be rewarded for it. I have no problem with income inequality.”

3) CONTRACEPTION IS ‘A LICENSE TO DO THINGS’: Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

4) GAY SOLDIERS ‘CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN CLOSE QUARTERS’: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday in October, Santorum defended his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by arguing that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.” He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.”

5) OBAMA SHOULD OPPOSE ABORTION BECAUSE HE’S BLACK: During an appearance on Christian television in January, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people,” he explained.

6) WE DON’T NEED FOOD STAMPS BECAUSE OBESITY RATES ARE SO HIGH: Speaking in Le Mars, Iowa in December, Santorum promised to significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps, arguing that the nation’s increasing obesity rates render the program unnecessary.

7) ABORTION EXCEPTIONS TO PROTECT WOMEN’S HEALTH ARE ‘PHONY’: While discussing his track record as a champion of the partial birth abortion ban in June, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to carve out to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.” “They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,” he said.

8) HEALTH [CARE] REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.” “Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.”

9) UNINSURED AMERICANS SHOULD SPEND LESS ON CELL-PHONE BILLS: During a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in August, Santorum said that people who can’t afford health care should stop whining about the high costs of medical treatments and medications and spend less on non essentials. Answering a question about the uninsured, Santorum explained that health care, like a car, is a luxury resource that is rationed by society and recalled the story of a woman who said she was spending $200 a month on life-saving prescriptions. Santorum told her to stop complaining and instead lower her cable and cell phone bills.

10) INSURERS SHOULD DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Santorum sounded like a representative from the health insurance industry when he addressed a small group of high school students in Merrimack, New Hampshire in December. The former Pennsylvania senator not only defended insurers for denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he also argued that individuals who are sick should pay higher premiums because they cost more money to insure.
Now, I don't really think Santorum is going to be the nominee. (Then again, taken individually, I'm not sure I can actually see any of them as an actual presidential candidate, but one of them must be. I just think this one is a little more outrageous than most.) However, I think that his near-miss in Iowa is informative on many levels. In 2008, Huckabee won Iowa, and look where that got him. Nevertheless, now, as then, I think that as non-predictive as these early caucuses may be, they bear noting, in that they tell us something about where the discussion ranges, about whether or not there are actual people who will go so far as to say "I think this is the best man to be the President of the United States."

Regardless of whether Santorum is as current in two month's time as Huckabee was in his turn after Iowa, he got this far. So did Ron Paul, come to mention it (whole post on that another time). I have tried to refrain from primary commentary (it's hardly been needed - all this lot needs is microphones, and the satire writes itself!), but I have been watching all of the GOP hopefuls and what they have been saying in the primaries (because we will, of course hear a totally different tune from whoever ends up the actual candidate. It's good to have notes to look back on to see what they've said to their own...)

What are your thoughts on Iowa, the primary at large, and the upcoming Nov 2012 election?

Date: January 6th, 2012 04:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] girlspell.livejournal.com
Well Santorum is a sanctimonious moron. Almost as pious as Ben Laden. If he gets elected, the public that got him there are entitled to reap what the hell they sew. Santorum and Texas deserve each other. The theocracy of Ireland is more enlightened then Texas right now.

Date: January 6th, 2012 02:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Well, I'd certainly willing to let Texas go in the name of proving that these people are idiots (and dangerous ones at that). Sadly, It's not just Texas at stake...

Date: January 6th, 2012 04:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pixie117.livejournal.com
*headdesk*

That's all I have to say about Santorum. I am very liberal, so what I want to see is Obama remain in office. I hope I can say that here and not get slaughtered for that by someone. I would think Mitt would be the likely person to go forward for the party, but early caucuses don't have to mean anything and I do see a heavy anti-Mitt camp forming too.

It's proving to be very interesting to watch, to say the least.

Date: January 6th, 2012 02:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Agreed - Obama has in no way been all I, for one, hoped, but it's that or... well, none of the alternatives bear thinking about. But I don't know about Romney; I've spent the last several years watching the Religious Right pretty closely, and while they've certainly been willing to entertain some strange bedfellows for the sake of their agenda, I really think Romney being Mormon is a bridge too far. So even if he did end up as the GOP candidate, how many hard right evagenlicals will either stay home, or advance some third party spoiler?

Paul's supporters won't back Mitt either, but they won't go for any of the others, either. Santorum (I have to believe) would lose by a mile to Obama, as would Gingrich. It's a weird group, and I think the final result may depend more on who stays home in a snit in November than who gets fired up in support of a candidate....

(Oh, and as far as being slaughtered for being liberal, I think you're pretty safe here!)

Date: January 6th, 2012 05:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] believe.livejournal.com
They are all unqualified, greedy, political thugs.

Date: January 6th, 2012 02:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Well, yes. This has been the case of pretty much every politician for at least the last 50 years! LOL

Date: January 6th, 2012 09:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] believe.livejournal.com
This country was founded by them. Voting is just an illusion of choice.

Date: January 6th, 2012 08:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Just where do you folks get these morons from? Is there a factory producing them somewhere? :oZ

I just hope he and Phred Phelps never breed

Oh, wait!

Date: January 6th, 2012 02:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Yes, we have lots of factories producing these morons! In fact we have them in every city, town, and even neighborhood in America. They're called churches. /snark

Sorry, I just get so bloody sick of all of this political insanity fueled by warring interpretations of thousand year old scribblings about the tribal gods of sacrificial cults. And anymore, well over three quarters of the political maneuvering here is either fueled by, excused by, or justified by religion. It's madness!

Date: January 6th, 2012 03:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
That's the difference between there and here, I guess- our right may be a pain in the arse, but they're not motivated by religion, just self seeking and greed. When they tell you to suffer due to their screw ups, they at least don't pretend that they're getting that policy direct from the almighty!

Fwiw, I'm a Quaker, but we tend to be reasonably sane. :o)

Date: January 6th, 2012 04:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Well, I think our problem is that the RR here have managed to make self-seeking and greed into a holy calling. After all, Jesus was against capital gains taxes, (http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4366/jesus_hates_taxes%3A_biblical_capitalism_created_fertile_anti-union_soil) and most of the parables were capitalist in nature, (http://blueingreen.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/the-conservative-bible-project-not-a-hoax-apparently/) don't you know....
Edited Date: January 6th, 2012 04:09 pm (UTC)

Date: January 6th, 2012 04:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Yet who was it who threw the moneylenders and sellers of sacrificial birds out of the temple?

The rich, camels and eyes of needles?

I can play that game too and it's fun! :o)

The Evangelion Luke has a lot to say about hypocrites.........

Date: January 6th, 2012 01:41 pm (UTC)

Date: January 6th, 2012 02:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
Couldn't have said it better myself! Love the icon, BTW, how appropriately odd! :D

Date: January 6th, 2012 04:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thesammichfox.livejournal.com
LMAO I know right? It's the perfect icon for outrage of the effed up kind.

Date: January 6th, 2012 09:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lucretiasheart.livejournal.com
I try to be an optimist; at least crazy lady bowed out and Gingrich is knocked down a little.

Ug. They're all so AWFUL!!!

Date: January 7th, 2012 03:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] templeghosts.livejournal.com
This makes me super sick. :(

Date: February 8th, 2012 08:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] girlspell.livejournal.com
Santorum got this far because he's a Republican. He's struck a nerve with some very dissatisfied people. He'll have his time, and then Romney will be nominated. He'll propbaly try to railroad some of his ideas on the platform. But I don't think he can (other then abortion, because it's historically in the Republican platform) The Republicans want to win. They need an acceptable platform.
Edited Date: February 8th, 2012 08:33 pm (UTC)

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