What Republicans will do to find a no-brainer Wedge Issue ... almost anything.
But the GOP's latest crusade against access to Birth Control, will probably only drive a wedge between themselves and their future ambitions for power.
Here's what, the latest GOP contender Rick Santorum, thinks is wrong with America -- good thing he wasn't born "King of World", eh?
9 controversial Rick Santorum quotes
theweek.com -- January 5, 2012
1. Opposing birth control
Quote: "One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.... Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that's okay, contraception is okay. It's not okay. It's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be."
Talk about driving a wedge between himself
and his dictatorial ambitions -- perhaps Rick should get acquainted with what
MOST Americans think about Birth Control, and their personal access to it ...
Rick Santorum is coming for your birth control
The GOP presidential candidate is against non-procreative sex -- even for married couples
by Irin Carmon, salon.com -- Jan 4, 2012
[...]
Speaking to ABC News’ Jake Tapper, Santorum recently reaffirmed his opposition to Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 Supreme Court decision that struck down a ban on discussing or providing contraception to married couples, and established a right to privacy that would later be integral to Roe v. Wade [...]
[Rick Santorum] thinks, using the currently popular states’ rights parlance, that “the state has a right to do that, I have never questioned that the state has a right to do that. It is not a constitutional right, the state has the right to pass whatever statues they have.” This is a view Santorum has held at least since 2003.
The trouble with this is that not only have more than 99 percent of sexually active women used at least one form of birth control, helping people get access to birth control is actually a popular issue. According to a June survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, 82 percent of Americans actually want to expand access to birth control for women who cannot afford it, while only 16 percent were opposed.
Rick, let me spell it out for you,
MOST Americans don't want the Government in our bedrooms ... It's just that simple.
Next Rick, and his GOP cohorts, should get acquainted with a little early American history (after they get their staff to explain what the numbers in that last poll mean, first).
There are reasons why our Constitution, keeps Religion out of governing. When any State starts enforcing Religion, by law -- all sort of misdeeds and misery can result. History is full of endless painful examples of what happens when a country dares to mix "Church and State" ... it rarely ends well.
Separation of Church and State
theocracywatch.org -- December, 2005
The Godless Constitution
The word "God" does not appear within the text of the Constitution of the United States. After spending three-and-a-half months debating and negotiating about what should go into the document that would govern the land, the framers drafted a constitution that is secular. The U.S. Constitution is often confused with the Declaration of Independence, and it's important to understand the difference.
The Declaration of Independence is seen as that document that established the new nation of the United States. It was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. It was signed by the Continental Congress and sent to King George III of England. It is a very eloquent document that is celebrated every July 4, but it is not the law of the land. It is a statement of sentiments directed to King George III in reaction to unfair taxation. The U.S. Constitution was ratified on March 4, 1789 -- thirteen years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence refers to "the Creator:"
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence is not a legal document; it is not the U.S. Constitution. Foes of the principle of separation of church and state often refer to the word "Creator" in the Declaration of Independence as proof that the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended for the United States to be ruled by a sovereign being. Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States Constitution was written and ratified by elected officials representing a coalition of Enlightenment rationalists and evangelical Christians who were deeply concerned about entanglements between religion and government.
The U.S. Constitution is NOT a religious Document.
By design.
Freedom of Religion means the freedom of having any Religion.
Or the Freedom of having No Religion.
It is really none of the Government's business. Religion is a personal choice, as aptly illustrated by the personal choices made by America's Founders, in this regard. The State did not tell them what to believe. Neither should it tell us, now.
The White House Wasn't Always God's House
by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., commondreams.org -- 2004 Los Angeles Times
[...]
The founding fathers did not mention God in the Constitution, and the faithful often regarded our early presidents as insufficiently pious.
George Washington was a nominal Anglican who rarely stayed for Communion. John Adams was a Unitarian, which Trinitarians abhorred as heresy. Thomas Jefferson, denounced as an atheist, was actually a deist who detested organized religion and who produced an expurgated version of the New Testament with the miracles eliminated. Jefferson and James Madison, a nominal Episcopalian, were the architects of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. James Monroe was another Virginia Episcopalian. John Quincy Adams was another Massachusetts Unitarian. Andrew Jackson, pressed by clergy members to proclaim a national day of fasting to seek God's help in combating a cholera epidemic, replied that he could not do as they wished "without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion now enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the general government."
So Mr. Rick Santorum, believe what you want -- that's
your right. Just don't force America to "believe just like you". Don't force America to take up your religious Crusades, however petty or ignoble ...
you imagine them to be ...
9 controversial Rick Santorum quotes
theweek.com -- January 5, 2012
3. Re-spinning the Crusades
Quote: "The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. And that is what the perception is by the American Left who hates Christendom. ... What I'm talking about is onward American soldiers. What we're talking about are core American values."
Fighting endless religious, imperial Wars --
THAT is not what America is about, Mr. holier-than-thou Rick.
And that's by design.
... by design of its very human and diverse 'creators' ... who had their fill of kingly rulers, forcing compliance from afar.