Santorum: Make War, Not Love

So Rick Santorum has become the latest Tea Party favorite to be granted immunity in the Survivor-like reality show that the GOP primary has become and it’s my prediction he’ll now be in the game for at least another month.

In a field of “me too’s” Santorum has distinguished himself by promising to do his best to get the US involved in another war while waging a one-man campaign against too much sex. It is as if he has boldly declared war on the 1960’s: “Make War, Not Love!”

Speaking on “Meet the Press” over the weekend, Santorum promised that if he were to become our Commander-in-Chief, he will be in favor of launching airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. In other words, he wants to start another preemptive war. Earlier, when President Obama announced he would be bringing all US troops home from Iraq by the end of the year, Santorum claimed that this meant we have now lost the war in Iraq. He made it clear that if he were President, he would have managed to have keep our troops there for a really, really long time. A decade of war is just not enough for Rick.

The majority of Americans seem to feel quite differently. A recent poll showed that 78% of Americans support the President’s decision to bring the troops home from Iraq. And by an almost two to one margin, Americans say that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost in lives and treasure.

Beside these stances, Mr. Santorum also sees great danger lurking for our country in another sphere: sex. He is against non-procreative sex, sex outside of marriage and all forms of “artificial” birth control. This puts him rather sharply at odds with the way Americans live their lives, and slightly to the right of Cotton Mather. Studies have shown that 95% of American report having had sex before marriage. You are probably not surprised by this statistic if you have ever actually met a teenager.

Among all women who have had sex, 99% have used a contraceptive device. Among Catholic women, the percentage drops – to 98%. You will probably not be surprised by this statistic if you have ever met an actual woman. According to his website, Santorum wants to repeal the mandate for contraceptive services in the healthcare reform bill.

Mr. Santorum also says that as President, he would advocate for a Personhood Amendment to the Constitution. This would result in prohibiting all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Thus, this “small government” conservative would use the coercive powers of the state to compel even minors to bear their attackers’ children, and give birth to their own siblings. This again puts him sharply at odds with what the vast majority of Americans believe is right. In a recent survey, only 20% of Americans said that abortion should be illegal under any circumstances.

Mr. Santorum’s extreme right wing views may have found some support in Iowa, though they won’t play particularly well in New Hampshire. But watch out as the game moves on to South Carolina. A recent poll there showed that about a third of Republicans and Republican leaning Independents believe that Obama is a Muslim who was not born in America. There are some lovely people down there, but reality is just not their strong suit. And “Make War, Not Love” could be a real hot seller. So all you sinners out there may want to make whoopie while you still can. And by the way, Happy New Year.