Posted on 02/16/2012 1:23:19 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls. Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts, in which he said contraception is “not okay,” and that this would be a public policy issue he would tackle as President. In particular, he said he would “get rid of any idea that you have to have abortion coverage or contraceptive coverage” as a government policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at swampland.time.com ...
You're darned right he started this fight with the Catholic Church. But he did it as part of a strategy to scare his base into stampeding to the polls. He wasn't ever going to win a majority of devoted Catholics - instead, his target is urban/suburban agnostics and loosely-affiliated Catholics and Protestants who don't want to hear about social issues because they make them uncomfortable. Guilt sucks, man.
I know that's a terribly sad thing to say about the state of our country because moral issues really do matter. A lot. But that's where we are. I hope people wake up to the fact that they are being manipulated and lied to in the service of encouraging terrible behavior (some might say... sin), as if our government was the final arbiter of decency and morality in human affairs.
I don’t think any President is going to be a threat to rubbers being sold at the neighborhood gas station counter. People are gullible and stupid.
There are ways that the government can influence people’s views on a topic without either banning or subsidizing any particular choice.
They do it all the time - they call them “PSA’s”.
Smoking is a good example. Is smoking banned by the federal government? Nope. To the contrary. But they sure do spend a lot of time and money on advertising to reduce the usage of the product.
Well said. Holy mackerel, and Romney, Paul, and Santorum just turned down participating in the CNN debate for Georgia, a pretty chicken-sh*t way to deprive Republicans hearing from the horses' mouths their takes on issues, and MAINLY to avoid facing Newt and to avoid the OBVIOUS quesitons that these latest declarations from Santorum would bring up. I know, I know, folks will say, "Well, yeah, but they're just telling CNN to stick it." You Santorum supporters, do you seriously think that if it was any other place than Georgia, where Newt is heavily favored, Santorum and Romney would have done the same? That's the caliber of character those wankers have.
Hey, Santorum supporters -- are you at least beginning to see the handwriting on the wall??????? Wake up.
GODSPEED NEWT GINGRICH.
I work with mostly 22-35 year old women who are either middle of the road or basically conservative. None are outright liberal and they are now convinced through the ms media the Republican party is going to take away their birth control and they are running to the Democrat platform. Democrats are masters of doing this crap.
We call it wakin the bacon in these here parts.
It certainly isn’t the end of the argument.
Does he not want to regulate curtail or legislate it because he knows it is not a winning issue - or because fundamentally he doesn’t recognize the power of government to regulate such things?
Him calling it a “public policy issue” indicates he thinks it IS something under the aegis of government control.
Santorum has said he wants, as president, to give each state the right to ban contraceptives if they see fit.
One issue was Santorum’s opposition to the Supreme Court’s 1965 ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law banning contraception. Santorum said he still feels that a state should be able to make such laws.
“The state has a right to do that, I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that. It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statues they have. That is the thing I have said about the activism of the Supreme Court, they are creating rights, and they should be left up to the people to decide,” he said.
“You shouldn’t create constitutional rights when states do dumb things,” Santorum said. “Let the people decide if the states are doing dumb things get rid of the legislature and replace them as opposed to creating constitutional laws that have consequences that were before them.”
I am going to have to double check but you may have just won the internet.
“Stick in the mud”
“Don’t force your morals on me”
sigh...
How about “keep your rosaries off my ovaries” while we’re at it?
Tough to be a conservative anymore...even at Free Republic.
Should he also drop opposition to abortion? Opposition to homosexual marriage? Lets all just support Romney and have a big ole gay party with Breitbart and GOProud. Woohooo! Got to go with the polls! Lets watch Rianna have an alterboy pray at her ass as we let our kids watch GLEE!!! Just make sure taxes are low!
/s
Dick Morris saw this coming. Wow! Did he nail it.
The country is 16 trillion dollars in debt and you are consumed by whether are not your neighbor uses a rubber.
Amen
I strongly disagree that a state has any right to have any say about contraception for a myriad of reasons. And the majority of citizens will agree with me and this will be the end of Santorum’s campaign if he does not abandon it. It is a no win situation for him. Where are his advisors?
He used to write for Mother Jones. That's all that needs to be said.
Santorum talks of the government inventing rights, when obviously they have no such power to do so, and they did no such thing.
They recognized our natural right that has always existed, and at the expense of the government power to enforce compliance, in one of the most personal and private domains of human interaction.
He doesn't not want to outlaw or regulate contraception because he doesn't believe in Government power to do such things - he DOES want it to be outlawed at the STATE level.
Electoral considerations aside - his fundamental philosophy on the natural rights of man and individual liberty are anathema to me - and should be to any conservative who believes in a government of limited and enumerated powers and the sovereignty of the citizen.
Amen.
You said that so much better than I ever could have.
Thanks!
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