Yeah, here is yet another whingy post about the neo-Stalinist right's war on plurality in America and why the crazy shit Santorum bloviates about AmericanValuesTM matters.
Since Ol' Frothy acquitted himself well in Iowa, some of his past remarks have been showing up in various forums I read, so I thought it might be a good time to review the bidding while we're all thinking about it...
Let's start with the basic principle I have been annunciating to friends on Facebook and other places around the web and in person for about four years now: What Santorum and others like him are interested in has nothing to do with, has never had anything to do with and never will have anything to do with "family values" much less "American morals."
Their sole interest is, ultimately, control of the individual; socially, politically, spiritually, culturally and any other way you can think.
The short hand is that any government that can prohibit abortion or contraception can also compel it! That is the bottom line.
So let's look at Santorum's remarks and see if we can observe any tells...
Sure there is the low hanging fruit, like Think Progress' Top-10-Oh-My-Ghod-Did-He-Really-Say-That-In-Public-Moments.
For instance: he's "for income inequality," contraception is a license to do "things," obesity rates argue against the need for AFDC, health insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against pre-existing conditions, but ObamaCare will kill his child...
Like I said: low hanging fruit.
But here's where it gets real. Linda Hirshman over at Salon has a pretty good break down on how Santorum is basically chaneling St. Augustine.
Her argument is that this is the kind of crap that happens when the Oligarchs start to feel like they're losing their grip on the masses and that they are somehow "behind the times." Santorum may or may not really buy into the medieval Roman Catholic sexual politics he endlessly vents about, but I promise you he is interested in making you and I do what he says.
And at the end of the day, that's all that counts for the culture warriors.
To my mind, the most salient point Ms. Hirshman makes is thus:
Western history since the Enlightenment has been peppered with such revolts against the modern world. Usually they are a sign of desperation and find their way, unassisted, to the dustbin of history. On the rare occasion when they take hold, however, they can be extremely dangerous."
Unfortunately, it's the last graf in the article, but it pretty well sums up the entire point: this is a pushback against the Enlightenment and what are considered some of its core ideals of personal empowerment, intellectual and academic freedom and the idea that no one is born inherently to rule or to serve.
So an immediate question leaps to mind here: "mojo, why would someone interested in such control over society -- as you posit -- be so vehemently against Big Government?"
As always, the answer is encoded in the question and its assumption. Santorum and his ilk are not opposed to "Big Government." Let me repeat that: Santorum and his like minded culture warriors are not opposed to Big Government.
They are opposed to "big government" based on and dedicated to those aforementioned Enlightenment princples and that enforces the idea of maintaining a relatively level playing field across all segments of society.
We will let Ol' Frothy make the point himself, via Ms. Hirshman's article. Here's yer money graf:
If family and moral values break down, government gets bigger and bigger. Social issues are central to every issue we deal with in America. Unless we get the moral issues right, we will never get the economic and foreign policy issues right.”
The "social issues." Cultural hegemony is central to their ability to control the state and it's basic apparatus, while maintaining an illusion of participatory democracy. I have said this again and again; these people don't want a theocracy. They want a society where theocracy would be redundant.
When he complains about moral relatavism making government grow, what he's doing -- apart from some low rent retail politics -- is really complaining that the more we recognize the legitimacy of citizens of all backgrounds and beliefs, the more we are compelled to make our government protect the rights of those citizens, particuarly with regards to their ability to participate in civil society.
Interestingly enough, but not surprisingly, El Rushbo, The Big Oxy, lept to St. Frothy of Hippo's defense yesterday morning and made the point even more succinctly:
But "big government" to the left means income redistribution, universal health care, union government workers, cradle-to-grave socialism. Those are things that Santorum vehemently opposes! Santorum by no means supports big government in that regard. The big government Santorum supports is a government that protects people by enforcing the law -- be it the right to life, be it the border and immigration or anything else...Be very careful, folks, not to fall for this big government stuff, because Rick Santorum... There is not a Republican out there that is "big government" in the sense that the left is "big government."
Parse some of that out. "Big Government in that regard." "There is not a Republican out there that is big government in the sense that the left is big government." (Seriously, read The Big Oxy's whole rant, it's a masterpiece of dada. Just make sure you haven't eaten first and don't go swimming for at least 30 minutes after.) That is some interesting equivocating, and I think it gets pretty clear that we are not talking about libertarians here in any modern political sense of the word.
Believe me, we will not have seen intrusive government until we live in a place that's run by these control monkeys. Previously, I referred to guys like Santorum as "neo-Stalinist rightists." I stand by that.
Their idea of big government would very much resemble a Stalinist state except where the real power in government -- instead of The Party -- would be an ad hoc collection massive corporate interests aligned in a truly unholy matrimony with old school culture warriors who nevertheless manage to somehow scam a seat on the excape saucers, once they understood that cultural hegemony can be pretty lucrative when you get in on the ground floor.
mojo sends
