Santorum's Phony "Authenticity"

You've probably noticed that Rick Santorum is spending a good deal of time "mis-speaking" about President Obama, and then backtracking to explain what he claims he actually meant. Conservatives are worried that Romney is too moderate, and conservative pundits like half-term governor Palin and Rush "Oxycontin" Limbaugh regularly reinforce that talking point.

So, in their wearying search for a candidate that reflects their far-right, tea partier positions, Republican primary voters are susceptible to Santorum's shtick that "he is a politician who says what he believes. In a turbulent primary season, Republican voters have placed as much importance, if not more, on candidates’ biography and authenticity as on policy."

It's unlikely that a well-educated man like Santorum (who holds undergraduate, MBA and JD degrees) isn't thinking before speaking. It's unlikely that he confused "theology" with "ideology" as he claimed; it's even more frightening if they equate as interchangeable words in his mind.

Santorum's gaffes aren't random; they are contrived to appeal to primal white folks' fears about the bluh people. Whether it's saying that Obama is a "Jeremiah Wright Christian" or Santorum's media aide describing President Obama's "radical Islamic policies", the accusations are designed to raise irrational suspicions and fears.

Strong words, those: frightening, irrational. But Santorum has played in that "One Toke Over the Line Sweet Jesus" sandbox before, when in 2008 at Ave Maria College he declared that "this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."

Some of us would assert that it's the Catholic Church in a shambles of its own making: engaging over decades in an international conspiracy to aid and abet criminal pedophiliac clergy from detection and prosecution.

But do the Santorum supporters know of his warped assessment of the state of Protestantism? Of his chameleon-like changeability? Is that the authenticity they claim to seek? Will it hurt him or help him?

In the WP Politics section, Felicia Sonmez gives Five Reasons Why Santorum's Campaign-Trail "Misstatements" May Help Him.

How ironic it will be if the Republican primary voters shun "Milque Toast Moderate" Mitt for the "Mis-Speaking, Flame-Throwing, Bat-Shit Crazy" Santorum - all in the name of authenticity, of course.

After publishing this, I found that Drudge is reporting on Santorum's Satan War.

The former senator from Pennsylvania warned in 2008 how politics and government are falling to Satan.

"This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America.

Time to review Lawrence Britt's 14 Characteristics of Fascism, in particular, the 8th:

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.