So, Rick Santorum. Huh. Why not?
The former senator from Pennsylvania seems to be the Republican party’s flavor of the week in a game they’re playing called, “Which one of you is not Mitt Romney?”
I’ll give Senator Santorum this: He believes what he says. Of course, that’s the difference between liars and mad men. Liars know they’re full of it, while mad men completely believe the crazy things they say.
Take the latest example of “Republicans saying stupid things,” which Santorum provided during an interview with Bob Schieffer of CBS’s Face the Nation: “The bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions.”
This is Santorum’s response to President Obama’s suggestion that birth control and many types of pre-natal care should be provided free of charge by employers and health insurance providers.
For so many in the leadership of the Republican Party, “family planning” and “abortion” are synonyms. From their perspective, the only purpose for Planned Parenthood is to provide abortions. Never mind the fact that 97 percent of what the organization does is everything else. All that matters is that three percent of the time, they perform abortions every time.
I’d like to state two facts, one which is readily apparent and the other, which anyone who’s followed my career already knows.
1) I am not a woman.
2) I’m pro-life.
That said, as much as I abhor abortions, I also abhor the divisive politics being played here by Senator Santorum.
To make a parallel-logic statement, if you find out you’re suffering from a deadly disease, you may engage in risky behavior, so you shouldn’t be screened for certain types of cancer.
Of course, that sounds stupid. But following the if-then schematic laid out by GOP flavor No. 5, it’s pure logic.
Of course, if you really follow their logic, you should be forced to smoke non-filtered cigarettes first, too.
At some point over the course of the past decade or so, knowledge became the enemy to the Republican Party. For many of the rank-and-file, science is evil and facts just get in the way of a good invasion, so they encourage that we bury our heads in the sand and not offer pre-natal screening or birth control.
The scariest part for me is that an increasing number of people seem to agree with Santorum’s view.
I’m all for replacing Barack Obama come November, but only with someone better. And the GOP hasn’t found that person yet. It sure isn’t Rick Santorum.