Rick Santorum Embodies the Politics of Moral Aggravation

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa—The good news for Rick Santorum is that, unlike current Republican presidential campaign frontrunner Newt Gingrich, he is actually in Iowa interacting with its citizens. The bad news is that he speaks while interacting. Monday, according to ABC News, the former senator engaged in a back and forth on the subject of gay marriage and gay sex with a recent graduate of the Christian college he was visiting; the result was, to put it kindly, vintage Santorum, whose acceptance of any reality that is not his own lives deeply tucked away within the vast black hole called his brain. “Jason Kornelis, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Dordt College, asked the former Pennsylvania senator about his anti-same-sex marriage stance comparing it to when interracial marriage was illegal in this country,” reported ABC. “Clearly agitated, Santorum seemed astounded when Kornelis said he couldn’t contemplate how this would ‘be a hit to faith and family in America.’” Santorum found that hard to believe but Kornalis insisted that he did not, to which Santorum replied, “If same-sex marriage was legalized then ‘their sexual activity’ would be seen as ‘equal’ to heterosexual relationships and it would be taught in schools. “Really—wow—um okay, well, let’s see if we can have a discussion,” he added. “We can flesh out some, well, let’s look at what’s going to be taught in our schools because now we have same-sex couples being the same and their sexual activity being seen as equal and being affirmed by society as heterosexual couples and their activity.” Now, the fact that Santorum sees gay people as inherently inferior to straight people is hardly news, but the “clearly agitated” part of the exchange is interesting. It seems the moral crusader just can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see the world the way he does, and his tolerance level for those who do not appears to be somewhere between nil to nonexistent. It seems that he is increasingly susceptible to falling into a state of moral aggravation. “So what is going to be taught to our people in health class in our schools,” he continued. “What is going to be taught to our children about who in our stories, even to little children—what are married couples? What families look like in America? So, you are going to have in our curriculum spread throughout our curriculum worldview that is fundamentally different than what is taught in schools today? Is that not a consequence of gay marriage?” Santorum seems to be under the illusion that same-sex relationships are not already a part of many early-grade curriculums, with the distinct purpose of teaching young un’s not to be prejudiced against people who are different. The idea behind that is precisely to eradicate the “we are better than you” attitude that Santorum believes was handed down to him and his ilk by God. In the same article, during the same stop, the great proponent of Christian values also had some similarly illuminating comments to make about Americans without health insurance. This particular sentence stuck out: “People die in America because people die in America.” That remark reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld’s comment early in the Iraq war to the soldier asking about the lack of equipment soldiers needed to protect themselves from roadside bombs: "You go to war with the army you’ve got," Rumsfeld said. Except that in the case of Santorum, he would extend the prohibition on sexual equality as far into the future as his God can see, which means, forever. Really ... wow ... um, okay. George Washington, indeed.