Rick Santorum is publicly waging a culture war. Whatever the issue Mr Santorum can be counted on to take the regressive, anti-choice viewpoint regardless of how absurd the absolutist traditional view may be and no matter how settled the modern view is. He has a lot of support which we all knew, but pretend not to, and his supporters are happy to get out of the closet and into your face, or into any other body part they think needs regulating. As a staunch believer in free speech I certainly approve of the radical fringe making their opinions known but more than that I welcome it; what better way to see the absurdity of Mr Santorum's attack on choice than to hear it spoken in the light of day, or on some news source other than Fox? What better method can be constructed for careful examination of the right-wing conservatives belief that America should be flung back to the 19th century than to hear them state it publicly?
Stopping the building of nuclear weapons was a very important issue for me. I marched, wrote letters and raised money for nuclear awareness causes, in particular to protest the most expensive and the most egregious of all weapons system; the nuclear submarine. Armed with enough firepower to kill every human being on the planet, two or three of these multi-billion dollar super killers roamed the oceans ready to deliver a thousand year death sentence to civilized humanity if ordered to do so (Think of Mr. Santorum having That kind of power at his fingertips!). Every 4 years or so one of these subs would publicly show itself at our very own Seafair celebration and oh! how the ire in the anti-nuke community would rise! The outrage poured out upon the sailors, who responded with courtesy and thought-provoking analysis of their own occupation, the Navy and fair officials who allowed this abomination to be displayed in our own backyard! In response the defenders of the doomsday machines shot back the absurd and unintelligible rationale for having the subs along with some nasty personal comments about the folks protesting. What I hoped for was More displays of nuclear weapons.
Like the Soviets we should have MX missiles roll down Greenwood Avenue during its Seafair parade. In every city for the 4th of July the anti-nuke folks should have demanded the government display the deadly result of the billions Americans spent on our national defense. We paid for them, lets all get a good long look at the bombs we built and then we can explain to our children why we need these more than schools and healthcare. A good friend of mine who worked in the Peace movement told me that after every time a sub visited membership in his organization increased. Like a visit from a nuclear submarine Mr Santorum is letting us see clearly the danger lurking close at hand.
The American people are benefiting greatly from hearing and then taking some time to imagine the kind of world Mr Santorum sees for us, a place without a right to privacy, where government can tell you what you can do in your bedroom, with your body, and very likely your soul. Freedom isn't free and every now and then it seems to be necessary to be reminded of how fragile freedom is. Thank God for Mr. Santorum's aggressive attack on the American way of life, we needed a wake up call.
I concur, Steve. When you put it together with Rush Limbaugh's tirade, hear Mitt Romney talking about closing Planned Parenthood down, and realize that several states are mandating pre-abortion ultrasounds (thank you Garry Trudeau for the fabulous comic strips of late) you really see that this is a well-represented state of misogyny.
ReplyDeleteI am rather envious of your ability to keep thinking so clearly and creatively in the face of such provocations. Your basic point about hearing clearly the craziness so we can know our enemies is critically important. It is the quiet bigotry of the genteel that really kills us, the sly anti-semitic smirk, the "unintentional" racist phrase, the claim that pointing out racism is racism that all try to force us into forgetting what is really happening and who is doing it. Better to hear the racism, bigotry, prejudice, hateful speech. Too easy to deny reality otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYour comparison of the nuclear missiles with Santorum is terrific. That's why we need to have a military draft, so that no one can pretend that life goes on as usual, "Let's go Shop," in the face of our military in perpetual warfare. We wouldn't have this if there were a draft. We need to see the missiles and hardware, but even more we need to see the human suffering we are inflicting on our own. Notice there is no discussion of Afghanistan by any of the GOP nor by the President. No one wants to own this failure, but no one has the guts to shut it down.