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Friday, September 23, 2011

Proof that Republicans simply cannot check their own impulses
Posted by Jill | 6:46 AM
This answer from Rick Santorum to a question from a gay soldier serving in Iraq tells us more about Rick Santorum than he realizes:



Most bloggers are emphasizing how the audience boos a man who is SERVING HIS COUNTRY, but for me the more interesting part of this exchange is that the soldier is talking about sexual orientation, but Santorum answers a question that wasn't even asked about sexual activity.

I'm straight. That is my sexual orientation. That doesn't mean I'm having sex all the time. I have friends who are gay. They have jobs, kids, hobbies, pets, they participate in their communities, they work for a living. Some gay people in America are soldiers. This does not mean that THEY are having sex constantly either.

That Rick Santorum can't seem to get that through his head tells us a lot about Republican sex scandals, and about why they feel they have to control the behavior of everyone else. It's because they are simply unable to control their own impulsivity, and they can't imagine how anyone else can.

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9 Comments:
Blogger PurpleGirl said...
Want to drive Baby Ricky crazy? Google santorum and then pick SpreadingSantorum as the web site your want and keep it #1 in Google rankings.
9/23/11, 9:49 AM  
Anonymous dcMartin said...
EXACTLY!!!!!
And this, too, from Alternate Brain:

Santorum: People in the military do not have sex. Especially faggy sex.

Santorum: I would also re-segregate the Army because doing social stuff in the military [is] always terrible

Santorum: Penises terrify me, especially sweaty, military penises.


If you can't control your penis (or vagina), do the next best thing - regulate the hell out of everyone else's.
that's the Republican way.
9/23/11, 10:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I don't know how better to put it than to steal from an Amazon review of Erich Fromm's The Heart of Man

"No matter what their political, religious, or ideological affiliations, they share the same basic traits & worldview. They worship strength, toughness, a lack of tender emotions; they glorify the mechanical & do their best to become machines themselves: they loathe yet are fascinated by decay, disease, filth. Hence they often have rigid ideas about sexuality (one of the most uncontrollable aspects of living things), and espouse strict, letter-of-the-law moral codes concerning it ... although their private lives are frequently an immersion in what they publically denounce as disgusting.

A familiar picture begins to take shape: the stern, self-righteous, excessively judgmental, often uniformed strong man, one who prides himself on being able to make "the tough decisions," untroubled by reflection or regret. The uniform can be military, or a business suit, or a minister's collar, or any clothing that embodies status -- because it's status, rank, and power that matters most to them. And they have no problem killing others in the name of some greater good, if anything seeing it as an outward emblem of their unyielding virtue.

The poet Lew Welch wrote about this sort of mentality in "The Basic Con" - "Those who can't find anything to live for, / always invent something to die for. / Then they want the rest of us to / die for it too." Whether it's for their god, their politics, their bank accounts, or their own desperate need to believe in their own superiority, they project their inner loathing & emptiness onto the rest of us, making us scapegoats for their own inability to face the uncertainty & wonder of life. They must have answers for everything, and can't tolerate questions, or doubts, or ambiguity." - William Timothy Lukeman

I have a copy of Escape from Freedom at home onthe shelf, I guess I need to read this one as well.

James
9/23/11, 11:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Rather than poor impulse control, his latent homosexuality causes him to obsess about gays.
9/23/11, 12:27 PM  
Blogger Nan said...
I'm not sure which was worse -- the reaction at the debate or the way all the candidates got busy the following day trying to tap dance their way out of the mess. They seem to be falling all over each other now blathering on about thanking the soldier for his service, and how it was just appalling that they were all so caught off guard by the boos (or didn't hear them)that they didn't respond the way they should have at the time, which is basically that the boos were wrong and that they should have done the token (and completely meaningless) "thank you for your service" while dodging the actual question. At least Santorum was honest enough to admit that he'd go right back to discriminating; the others all seem to be busy trying to figure out a way to say they would try to reinstate DADT (or worse) without actually saying it -- Gary Johnson being an odd exception. Maybe Johnson figures he's such a long shot that it doesn't matter that he 's not in lock step with the rest of them.
9/24/11, 10:28 AM  
Blogger Grung_e_Gene said...
"any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military..."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ick Santorum, like 95% of Republicans these days, is a chicken hawk who has no idea what military life is like.

Go to almost any military base in the US, guess what businesses are well represented around the base; barbers, tailors and "dancing" clubs...
9/24/11, 11:34 AM  
Blogger jurassicpork said...
Unfortunately for Republicans, they seize on sex because it's the only thing that distinguishes straight people from gay and bisexual people: What they do behind closed doors.

Which is no one's business.

To the rest of us who are more or less on the side of the angels, we realize it's incredibly stupid, hateful and even perverted to obsess over such a relatively unimportant issue.

But that's what it all comes down to: What gays and bis do behind closed doors. Beyond that, we go to work, pay bills and taxes, need food and oxygen, go to the dentist, walk our dogs, risk our lives for our country and fall in love just like everyone else.
9/24/11, 1:38 PM  
Blogger Ahab said...
As usual, Santorum's words reflected his rigid homophobia and anemic understanding of REAL gays and lesbians.

I don't know what was more unsettling: Santorum's stale rhetoric, or the way the audience booed the gay servicemember.
9/25/11, 11:49 PM  
Blogger Pangolin said...
Call me crazy but I just heard a Republican Presidential candidate claim that straight married people have no place in the U.S. military as well as gay people.

Does nobody listen anymore? Or are we just all assuming that Rick Santorum really doesn't mean what he says and is simply trying to find a way to condemn gay service members without actually saying it out loud.
9/26/11, 5:50 PM  
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