Preaching to the Perverted

The recipients: The far-righties who continue to morph to such extent that they have become the  frighties.  Among them are religious zealots whose entire view of all things American are framed by an orthodoxy of faith.  They are the wingnuts who think there is almost no place in governance for government.  To this group add the haters who rejoice at every opportunity to turn their sights on President Obama regardless of the issue, his position, his logic, his strategy, his accomplishment.

The sender: Much easier to identify: Santorum.  Each day brings increased evidence that he is playing to what is presumptively the Republican base.  This wasn’t always that party’s base.  They were righties, not frighties. There had been a place for them in public debate.  They are not, to my mind, the base of an American political party.  They are the base of the base.

Consider the definitions of base:

noun– the lowest part of something.

adjective– ignoble; without moral principles; mean, vile, low, sordid, scurvy

verb– use as a point from which (something) can develop.

I know, I know. There is a liberal base, a progressive base, a moderate base, an independent base. But are these groups being manipulated and stretched to the point that they become unrecognizable as legitimate political entities?  I used to have a greater number of friends who took different positions on the issues.  We talked. We reasoned. We often reached some appreciation of the other’s point of view. As a left-of-center moderate I may have disagreed with their views, but I was not repulsed by them. No longer the case. It’s become a real problem.

Romney is straining with all his might to play to that morphed base. But no one can morph that far. What was it that P T Barnum was known to say?  When Romney tries they don’t believe him. They roll their eyes in disbelief when he tells them he likes the height of their trees. His bark is higher than their bark?  They cringe when he slips and slides toward frighty positions on immigration, stimulus, health care, just name it.

But Santorum–the self-proclaimed leader of the frighties–persists in not only distorting traditional conservative values, he contorts the English language to convince the base that he can be meaner than the others. Vest or no vest, smile or no smile, Santorum is mean to the core. That smile will not long fool too many people.  What was it that P T Barnum was known to say? Many of those who have worked with Santorum know the angry, mean side of  him. And they don’t like it.  Wait and see if he wins Michigan. But the polls suggest the frighties either don’t yet see his attack-dog side or, more than likely, are besmirched by it.

Preaching to the perverted is all about winning the Republican nomination this time around. it appears to be working and a Santorum victory in Michigan and/or Arizona will ratchet up his rhetoric. 

That’s why YWC!LI contributor Stefan Deutsch shares this: Do you still think Santorum can’t win?  I think we need to be after him…big time.  Romney is Gore incarnate….zero personality….can’t carry independents with his flip-floppy . . . 1% credentials. 

How much farther can Santorum go? Speaking to his frighty minion in Oklahoma, Santorum told the crowd that the science of global warming is a myth.  He said that its scientific underpinnings have been totally disproven. He sent his audience into a frenzy by informing them that the left uses science to make people feel guilty in order to control them. Hence, carbon gas overload is a precious natural resource. Fracking is our best way to energy independence.

On another day Santorum has said,  In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality. 

As if he had not driven his audience far enough to the right on the matter of marriage, Santorum ranted, If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.

Santorum has compared contraception to deodorant and soap to make his a point about why he believes birth control should not be covered by health insurers. Let’s mandate that every insurance policy covers toothpaste. Deodorant. That might be a good idea, right? Have everyone cover deodorant, right? Soap. I mean, where do you stop? 

More recently, the former Senator Frighty accused President Barack Obama of advocating a world view that is different from that of most Americans and accused him of promoting the ideas of radical environmentalists and encouraging more abortions by requiring insurers to pay for prenatal tests. Shortly after, as if he had not taken his point far enough to the fright he clarified what he had meant by President Obama’s ‘phony theology not based on the Bible’–

I’m not criticizing the president’s Christianity. I‘ve repeatedly said I don’t question the president’s faith. I’ve repeatedly said that I believe the president’s Christian. 

He’d just not match up to the standards of Christianity that Santorum would establish as president.

Santorum’s thinking is that he has a chance at actually capturing the Republican nomination. A better chance of being elected a bishop than president. It isn’t going to happen. There isn’t a serious conservative that is going to allow him to pursue his agenda of state mandated morality.

While I understand Stefan’s concerns at this time, it is my sense that should Santorum get the Republican nomination, that such an outcome wold all but guarantee the election for President Obama.  After all, Santorum’s preaching to the perverted in the frighty primaries.

A general election, Santorum vs Obama, that’s a very different story.  It would sew up another four years for our incumbent.

I sure hope I’m right–uh, correct.