While I could happily vote for Gingrich, as well as for Santorum or Paul, I see that this thread is attracting some who are allowing the left to live rent rent-free in certain corners of their minds.
1. “Separation of church and state” is not part of the Constitution, and the meaning given this phrase today would have been abhorent to the Foundering Generation that ratified it and the generations of Americans that immediately succeeded them.
2. The phrase “separation of church and state” is actually Klan-speak for a KKK doctrine advocating suppressing Catholicism. (I, by the way, am not a Catholic)
3. The phrase “separation of church and state” was inserted into the Everson case in 1947 and was used thereafter to unconstitutionally suppress Christianity in this country. The SCOTUS judge who inserted the phrase in his opinion was Hugo Black, A KLANSMAN and a notorious anti-Catholic bigot.
4. As a purely nominal Catholic, it isn’t surprising that JFK was willing to embrace this doctrine at a time when, unlike today, people still knew what it meant. Nevertheless, it was wrong and harmful.
5. The left wins because it is epistemologically self-conscious, unlike the average conservative. As a result, the left asserts its metaphysical views, directly and indirectly, very forcefully. We, on the other hand, because we have been conditioned by the left’s media to flinch when someone on our side does the same thing, turn on conservatives who raise the issues that must be raised to ultimately overturn the left’s cultural hegemony. We also hand our children over to be indoctrinated by the left’s government schools and allow them to consume hours and hours of leftist media. We, too, consume large amounts of leftist media and make huge income transfers to the left through cable subscriptions and other purchases we make.
6. Santorum isn’t wrong to raise this issue. We are wrong for criticizing him for it. Perhaps the criticism reflects that many here think,like most of the WSJ editorial page writers, we can have a free economy and lots of stuff without worrying about all that “uptight, icky” moral stuff. This is not merely wrong, it is foolish.
7. Politics won’t save us. The leftist policies we complain about are a product of our failure to defend the Christian culture that the Constitution rested on. Leftist politicians are culture warriors, but we, in contrast, turn on our candidates who raise cultural issues in a serious way. Any political victory that is not also clearly a cultural victory is hollow. Both Bush presidencies illustrate that. Candidates who don’t even make a Bush-like pretense of raising cultural issues lose - but maybe we like our Doles and McCains.
8. The political discussion of candidates on FR this primary season has been the most childish I’ve ever seen. With the exception of Mittens, Huntsman, and Pawlenty, our candidates have been good to very good. But, instead of discussing relative strengths and weaknesses in a reasonable way, we have been stupidly tearing decent candidates apart.
9. Conservatives don’t deserve to be taken seriously, and won’t be, until we entirely delegitimize and shut down government schools and destroy the MSM by getting rid of our televisions and refusing to buy from sponsors of leftist (both cultural and political) programming.
The longer I read FR, the more convinced I am that Pogo was right.
Rick? Is that you?
Many countries are filled with people of faith but they are “developing nations” because they don’t have what we do, a rule of law based on English common law. We are vetting candidates to be our presidential nominee and we want to focus on States Rights and local government; address a Federal government that has taken away our liberties; strengthen our national defense and repair our relationships with our allies, etc.
I believe it is time for Santorum to broaden his platform. He has made the electorate aware of his religious and moral underpinnings. By continuing to raise it, he is intentionally inviting the MSM to write about it. The electorate wants work, a strong economy, a safe country, and to live without fear of a government taking away our freedoms that are granted to all men in the Constitution.
Is he running for the office of the President or is he on a Crusade? Did he enter this primary to carry his message of faith and Life? Does he not see a path forward to the White House so has decided to parley his time on the stump into a sermon?