10:26 am Feb. 27, 20122
It's not often that Republican presidential candidates compare themselves to Democratic senators from New York.
But on "Meet the Press" on Sunday morning, when he was pressed by David Gregory about wanting to impose his views on social issues on America, former senator Rick Santorum said he wasn't, and that in fact by talking about the importance of family he was following in the footsteps of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
"There are important issues that this country is confronted with right now, and that's what I've been talking about," he said. "And I will continue to talk about the role, for example, of the family with respect to our economy, and how stable families and fathers involved in their families and out-of-wedlock birthrates are in fact a serious problem in this country what we need to do. And by the way, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was talking about that in the 1960s."
Moynihan, who served as senator from 1976-2000, described himself as a "born Democrat." But he was also a sociologist who, as an assistant secretary of labor in the 1960s, attempted to grapple with the problem of urban poverty. In 1965, he authored a report called "The Negro Family: The Case For National Action," which offered a theory for the widening gap between the income and achievement of black and white Americans.
"The fundamental problem, in which this is most clearly the case, is that of family structure," the report said. "The evidence — not final, but powerfully persuasive — is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling."
The report recommended federal action "directed to a new kind of national goal: the establishment of a stable Negro family structure."
The report was initially embraced by President Johnson, but after considerable criticism, including from a meeting of more than 100 prominent religious and civil-rights leaders, he backed away from Moynihan's recommendations. (Later, Moynihan would recommend to Richard Nixon that "the issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect.'")
Santorum has made the same essential argument—that the two-parent family is the root of economic stability and prosperity—but has been less explicit in tying it directly to race. At an Iowa town hall in January he was quoted as saying: ”I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families."
But ABC News said it was unclear whether he "simply stumbled" over his words in citing black Americans specifically, and Santorum later said he didn't single out any one group.
On "Meet the Press," Santorum said stable families were a practical solution to economic problems.
"This is not something that is some sort of religious idea," said Santorum, who has frequently discussed his religion during the campaign, and who just a couple of minutes earlier on "Meet the Press" denounced John F. Kennedy's historic speech advocating separation of church and state. "These are practical problems that we're dealing with in America. And that's what I talk about on the campaign trail. And the problems that I'm looking to confront are creating jobs, reducing government role in people's lives, reducing the budget deficit and getting to a balanced budget, making sure our country is safe around the world."
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In Rick Santorum’s interview on ABC he condemned John F. Kennedy for his pledged as president to protect all citizens’ freedom of religion by abiding by the nation’s long standing separation of church and state, and though just as much a Catholic as Santorum will ever be, he also made it clear that the exercise of the duties of his office would not be subject to dictation of the Vatican. Santorum says watching John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to the Baptist ministers in Houston made him want to “throw up.”
Rick Santorum, you are not fit to clean up after JFK.
Another president of historic renown, Thomas Jefferson, in support of the separation of church and state proposed that Virginal disestablish the Anglican Church as its official religion. When such legislation finally came to be it went beyond protecting those of other Christian belief but also Jews, desists, skeptics and those with no religion at all. Later Jefferson viewed his contribution to the statute his greatest effort to protect individual freedom.
Rev. William Linn, a Santorum like fanatic of Jefferson’s time, proclaimed in a political pamphlet: “the election of any man avowing the principles of Mr. Jefferson would destroy religion, introduce immorality and loosen all the bonds of society.”
A tolerant Jefferson maintained: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my legs.”
One can be assured that Jefferson’s respect for the religious views of others would also make Santorum want to throw up.
Santorum can talk about his religion til the end of time & it still won't make him a man of God. Things spewed out of his mouth is the total opposite of God's teachings. Same for willard & newt. I don't know what entity they and their followers praise but is not the God I know! If you find nothing wrong with these people, prepare to follow them to hell.
He says Obama is a snob because he wants every one to go to college? Referring to the Pres as a snob is opposite of God's teaching.
What moron would not want their children to go to college? What is wrong with obama or anyone wanting young people to go to college? I have no understanding. He is absolutely absurd especially since he said the opposite in 2006.
Sadly, many people will vote for these idiots because they share the same beliefs. This makes me want to throw up!