We’re a Democracy Senator, Not a Theocracy

Seems Mr. Santorum wants no separation between church and state. He sounds like he’s interested in creating a Christian Democracy. That’s the only thing I can think of when he continues his diatribe about religion being under attack. He went on to attack President Kennedy’s speech about the separation of church and state.

Santorum said this:

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he said. He said on This Week: What kind of country do we live in that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?

Too bad Santorum can’t understand what the speech is really about. Eugene Robinson put it best in the Post today:

I have to assume that Santorum knows what Kennedy meant — that when he says “the idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country,” he’s just trying to appeal to religious conservatives. If Santorum is serious, his views are not just misguided but dangerous.

Then there is the silly and out right stupid attack on Obama from Santorum on education. Obama is a snob because he thinks people should go to college. Well again that’s not exactly what Obama said. He was talking about college or trade school so that people can be competitive in this job market. Santorum seems to be unaware or simple doesn’t care that the unemployment rate for college graduates is just 4.4 percent, compared to 9.5 percent for high-school graduates. But as long as you can pander to the far right fringe that is now the Republican party facts don’t seem to matter at all.

Case in point his take on euthanasia in the Netherlands:

“In the Netherlands, people wear different bracelets if they are elderly. And the bracelet is: ‘Do not euthanize me.’ Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands but half of the people who are euthanized — ten percent of all deaths in the Netherlands — half of those people are enthanized involuntarily at hospitals because they are older and sick. And so elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital. They go to another country, because they are afraid, because of budget purposes, they will not come out of that hospital if they go in there with sickness.”

The Post looked into this in its Fact Checker Column. The conclusion:

There appears to be not a shred of evidence to back up Santorum’s claims about euthanasia in the Netherlands. It is telling that his campaign did not even bother to defend his comments.

But once again why should “facts” matter to this guy. What matters is whipping up the base and winning by any way and any means.

Getting back to the religious aspect of this new tack by Santorum, The Post had an editorial on this issue. The last couple of paragraphs really hit home:

When he so misreads Mr. Kennedy, when he perceives a war that does not exist, he shows a lack of appreciation for the First Amendment. When he accuses President Obama of harboring a “phony theology” — “Not a theology based on Bible. A different theology” — it seems he does not understand the line between policy and religion. Mr.. Santorum later explained that he was not questioning Mr. Obama’s faith, only his environmental policy. But theology means “the study of God and of the relations between God, humankind and the universe.”

That Mr. Santorum believes he has the standing to declaim on the rightness of Mr. Obama’s faith, and whether it is sufficiently Bible-based, is in itself disqualifying.

Seems Santorum needs to be reminded yet again: The United States of America is a Democracy not a Theocracy.