Monday, August 15, 2005

The Santorum litmus test?

Yep--it's a two blog day.

Ok, here is what stole me away from the lovely dinner that Za is preparing for me right now: an article in the Gettysburg Times about the Santorum-Casey race. I am reading along in the article when I stumble on this paragraph:

"Santorum, an energetic and tenacious politician, in recent weeks has earned the ire of liberals for comments in his book . . ."(my emphasis)


Why does this interrupt me from an otherwise perfect evening?

Well, a couple of reasons. First of all, Santorum is not just pissing off the "liberals" with this book. For evidence of this, just read further down the article where it reads:

"Santorum's rhetoric has alienated some voters like Neil Cohen, 62, of Pittsburgh, a conservative who worked on Santorum's last campaign, who says he'll vote against him next year. 'This nation was founded on religion, but it's not run on religion, and I believe he's attempting to now, and he will attempt to run this nation on a religious basis,' said Cohen, who works at a law firm."


Secondly, I am sick of the MSM contributing to the polarizing that we are all currently suffering from. Why must someone concerned or critical of Santorum's book necessarily be a liberal?

Maybe, there is an upside to this. When you set up the dichotomy: either you are a Conservative or a Liberal, and then use a book like It Takes a Family as your litmus test, you might get more folks in the liberal column than you bargained for.

As Jon Stewart said on Crossfire : Stop! You are hurting the Country!

UPDATE: You can read the original story on the LA Times website.