It should almost go without saying that I despise virtually everything Little Ricky Rick Santorum stands for. Not his right to his beliefs, mind you; just his Neanderthal, anti-woman, anti-anything-that-doesn’t-fit-his-narrow-religiosity world view.
I’d thought about naming Santorum today’s “Worst Person in the World”, but that really would be an insult to those past “honorees” who earned that accolade honestly. Santorum wants to be the President of ALL Americans by imposing the views of a narrow-minded minority on us. His assertion that there’s no right to health care is just his latest attempt to divide Americans into “haves” and “have-nots.” The “haves” find themselves at the top of the economic heap because they belong there; the “have-nots” get what they deserve and really should acknowledge and accept that their role is to serve the interests of the “haves.”
In Santorum’s view, every aspect of life has an economic component. This means that if you have money, you get access to all manner of things. If you don’t, you don’t get, nor do you deserve, access. This includes health care, which to Santorum is just another economic transaction.
Why would health care not be a basic human right? Why (and how) is compassion and the idea of collective responsibility for society’s well-being considered to be a Socialist evil fraying the edges of the American experience? If we can carry on two wars simultaneously for years, why should we not be able to expect that a fraction of that money be diverted to care for the health of Americans whose taxes pay for those wars? Why is caring for our own considered Socialism but killing more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians is held to be acceptable?
It’s clear (though certainly not to Santorum and his supporters) that Little Ricky’s definition of “liberty” is possessing the ability to force his narrow, medieval religious bigotry on all Americans, “Freedom” means being free to enforce his belief that America would be a better place if only he can impose his religious convictions on all of us.
The question in need of an answer would be why Americans would willing participate in their own subjugation and oppression. Is the American Sheeple really so stupid that they’d give themselves over to a demagogue who screams about freedom and liberty while failing to understand the meaning of either?
WE DESERVE BETTER. It’s time we demanded it.
