From the New York Daily News:
RICK SANTORUM on Sunday said President Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech pledging to keep Pope and politics separate “makes me want to throw up.”
He spoke about the importance of political leaders respecting people of faith — then slammed President Obama for apologizing for the accidental burning of Korans at an American military base.
“I think it shows weakness,” he told ABC.
“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.
“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up.”
On NBC, he said, “This idea that we need to segregate faith is a dangerous idea, and we’re seeing the Obama administration not only segregating faith but imposing the state’s values.”
Most Americans have always admired JFK for his ability to convince the voters that he intended to keep church and state separate. He later became the first (and to date, only) Catholic president. He assured America that he would not be under the control of the Vatican in a speech given to ministers in Houston, Texas in 1960. Had Kennedy left doubt in the minds of voters, he would have not been elected president of the United States.
Rick Santorum seems to be trying to tear down that wall of separation so many of us revere with his bare hands. He simply doesn’t get it.
On Saturday Rick Santorum dug himself deeper into the cultural warrior quagmire by calling President Obama a snob because he wants all kids to have the opportunity to go to college. According to the Washington Post:
“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob,” the former Pennsylvania senator said. “There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor to try to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”
Is wanting to go to college the making of a snob? Since when did going to college stop being the American dream? I will be the first person to say not everyone should go to college. Academically some folks simply don’t belong there. But not going to college shouldn’t be because of inability to pay. Santorum also took a slam about liberal arts colleges. Liberal Arts colleges, according to Wikipedia:
Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional humanities subjects taught as liberal arts.
A “liberal arts” institution can be defined as a “college or university curriculum aimed at imparting broad general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum.”
Since when is being literate and possessing general knowledge a sign of snobbery? Does he want us all to be dumb asses? That makes no sense if the United States is going to compete in a global economy.
Is it possible that any one would consider Rick Santorum for president? In one weekend he has managed to shred the very fabric of what makes most of us Americans. Rick Santorum makes ME want to throw up.
What is this foolish man trying to do? He attempted to dilute the first amendment and he bashed our egalitarian educational system. He is unelectable.
Hear Barry Lynn from Americans United for Separation of Church and State
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I hope he wins the nomination. Obama will win a landslide
This was Santorum at his worst. I heard him. Couldn’t believe that someone wanting to be President of the United States of America would egest such trash.
Talk about wanting to throw up!!!
I am including the speech JFK made to the Houston ministers.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkhoustonministers.html
This is one of my favorite speeches. Contrast it to today when fairly recently there was threat of denying elected officials holy comunion because they were considered pro-choice. In the case of a local supervisor, where the issue of choice is irrelevant, a letter was sent to the newspaper by his opponent, Chris Royse, requesting that he be denied communion.
Royse certainly is no Kennedy.
College can be many things in addition to a four-year liberal arts degree. Many people choose a two-year degree at a community college and do quite well with that. In fact, many people with the two-year degrees in applied fields make more money than four-year degree people. Did President Obama mean just four-year liberal arts degrees, or more inclusively refer to a broader range of degrees?
I agree strongly that everyone needs education or training beyond high school. For some, the four-year liberal arts degree is the best choice. For others, a two-year associates or technical/vocational degree is better suited. It depends on the person and what they want out of their career. The worst choice is dropping out of high school and getting no education.
I think that the best investment of our resources for education post-high school is the community colleges. They are usually able to be much more flexible in their curricula and programs to adapt to the needs of employers and the job market than four-year colleges and universities. Virginia has an excellent system. If we invested more in those schools, we would train many more productive people to be able to earn good livings for themselves.
With community colleges we would also be able to pull more people out of the for-profit schools, which often are just marketing firms living off Federal student aid and loan programs. They frequently leave people no more employable than when they started the programs, but saddled with enormous student debt. Some do a relatively good job, but not all and it’s hard for students to know which is which before it’s too late. Overall, the taxpayer money we are spending on post-high school education, including student loans and grants, would be much more efficiently used by focusing on the public community college systems around the nation.
I totally agree with everything you have said. The President just said college. He didn’t rule out anything. The labels were applied by Santorum. He is the one who brought up liberal arts schools.
Rick Santorum scares me.
I agree with Need to Know. The sooner the Woodbridge Campus of Northern Virginia Community College can build and open that Workforce Center, the better also.
Robert Bausch, writer and professor at the Woodbridge campus is bringing in well-known southern writers for the second annual Woodbridge Writers Retreat in May. (Dorothy Allison, Alan Cheuse, Richard McCann). Limited to 18 applicants to work with these writers over 4 days. A phenomenal opportunity for any writer — you would go to Sewanee in TN to get a workshop like this. Last year’s conference brought writers from MD, DC and VA.
Here’s the information – http://freepdfhosting.com/33463618d5.pdf
I agree with NTK also about the importance of community colleges. They offer a variety of curricula important in technological fields as well as a means of saving bucks when working toward a four year degree.
I think Obama was saying that he wanted all students who wished to go to college to be able to do so not that everyone had to do so. Santorum, who as an attorney obviously has pursued more than a bachelor’s degree, is just being his hypocritical self. When the sweater vest and blue collar family history don’t work, he pulls out the “Obama is a snob” card. This clown has got to be the Democrats’ dream candidate.
My 20 year old grandson, who is attending community college in California,
sent me an e-mail stating his very strong worry (and dislike) about Santorum.
I’ve got to think that most Americans are fatigued with hearing Republicans blame every aspect of human existence and national politics that one might oppose on the sinister Obama Administration. Now the seperation of church and state is an Obama thing. I try not to favor one party over the other, but the GOP is mired extremely deep in bull crap.
I wish I could get a like button for this blog. You would get a thumbs up. I am not a Democrat. That might all change. The GOP is showing its butt without even taking its pants down recently. @Rick
Meanwhile, I am glad you are here. What is your opinion of last night? I had only seen one of the films, The Help, which I loved. I plan on seeing Iron Lady as soon as it is out. I can’t imagine liking the film of the year, no matter how crafty or artistic The Artist is.
Politico shows Obama beating beating both Romney and Santorum, but USA Today/Gallup shows Santorum beating Obama, and Romney tying the President. See link below:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/27/poll-obama-holds-double-digit-leads-over-romney-and-santorum/?hpt=hp_t2
So far, the Republicans have been mostly bashing each other and paying little attention to the President. Once the Republican nominee is chosen, the negative campaigning will change direction toward the President. Negative advertising tends to work, as we’ve seen as Republicans have been rising to the top of the polls, then knocked off, and in past elections. The same will happen with the general election. At present it’s way too early to call.
The main factors will be the economy and the price of gasoline. The rising stock market makes people feel better, but if unemployment is still above 8.0% making people feel insecure, and gas prices are above $4.00 reelection will be very problematic for Obama. Voters pay much more attention to those issues than to whatever Santorum says about the Pope or any other social issues.
I’m not ready to call a winner yet. This election is tight and volatile. Too many things can change between now and November that would impact the outcome. Also, the chances are at least 50/50 that Israel attacks Iranian nuclear facilities before the election. I have no idea how that would impact the vote in the U.S.
REmember that USAToday was also first developed as a newspaper for people who had an 8th grade reading level. In other words, one big Weekly Reader for adults.
If Romney wins, perhaps there will be a few dicey moments. If Santorum wins, hear the laughter.
I have complete faith in the Democrats to be just as low life as low life as the REpublicans as far as negative campaigning goes. There is probably also a little blood in the eye after the swift-boating of John Kerry.
The President will win.
I am reminded again of why I hate politics. Its all play on words, lying about someone else and living proof that money is power and power is money. REally nothing else matters and it never has. The founding fathers (how I have grown to hate that expression) knew it better than anyone else and they played well themselves. They had an edge also. They were the quintessential intellectual snobs. Our country was founded by snobs.
@Moon-howler
Moon, I could not agree with you more about the power of money (over ideas and reason) in politics. That’s true from the White House all the way to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.
I’m still not ready to make a prediction for this election. It’s close and too many things could happen between now and November to swing it one way or the other. There will be, however, massive negative campaigning on both sides.
The election is really light-years away, isn’t it? @NTK
I just don’t think there are enough extremists in America to elect Santorum. The only way he could win is if all the normal people stay home in complete and utter election disgust.
Does anyone know whether Santorum’s older children are attending college?
Does he plan to “home-educate” them to their college degrees and past?
Who is doing the home schooling these days, what with both Rick and his wife on the
campaign trail?
So many things to wonder about.
Isn’t it interesting that a man who has three degrees has the effrontery to say that people who advocate other people going to college are snobs? He obtained an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, and a law degree degree from the Dickinson School of Law. A case of the river calling the ocean water and then denying that it, the river, is water.
Of course Santorum wants the church involved in government because that is what the Catholic church wants. Those of us of a certain age remember that not too many years ago the Catholic church told its followers what to eat or not eat on certain days, what books they could read, what movies they could see, how they could practice birth control and what politicians they should vote for. Not much has changed except now, many of those things are simply lying dormant waiting for the right conditions–sort of a Jurassic Park in waiting.
JFK was absolutely right–keep the Pope out of our government. The Republicans keep bringing up our fore fathers and their religious beliefs yet they forget to mention that while those same fore fathers were deeply religious, it was a private belief. George Washington occasionally visited the Pohick Episcopalian church just down the road from Mount Vernon but the emphasis is on “occasionally”, he was not a regular attendee. Thomas Jefferson went so far as to cut up the Bible and create his own. He thought Jesus was a very moral man and a good example of how people should treat people but I am not certain that he thought Christ the savior or that he wanted him to run for president.