Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Santorum: State Murder as a "Moral Enterprise"




“God did not just give us rights,” pontificated His High Holiness Rick Santorum during a January 17 campaign stop in Lexington, South Carolina. “He gave us a moral code by which to exercise them. See, that’s what Ron Paul sort of leaves out. He leaves out [that the] rights and responsibilities that we have come from God…. And he says, `No, we just have rights, and then that’s it.’ No, we don’t. America is a moral enterprise.” And morality, Santorum believes, is best instilled through State coercion, including officially sanctioned murder.

Santorum presented that assessment just a few hours after a GOP debate in which Dr. Paul precipitated torrential booing from the pious Republican crowd by insisting that government is bound by the central tenet of the Christian moral code – the Golden Rule. 

According to Newt Gingrich – whose General Urko act drove the assembled Republicans into a simian frenzy of bloodlust – it is “irrational” of Paul to insist that there are limits on the government’s powers of discretionary killing. 

Elaborating on that idea in a January 18 interview with South Carolina pastor Kevin Boling, Gingrich asserted that Dr. Paul’s insistence on applying the Golden Rule to foreign policy demonstrated that he had absorbed the “anti-American, self-hating attitude of the American Left.” 

That accusation of moral lassitude against Dr. Paul – who served in the military as a young father with two small children – dribbled down the multiple chins of an impenitent Chickenhawk who used his wife as a draft deferment, then spent the last few years of the Vietnam Era schtupping college girls. ("We would have won in 1974 if we could have kept him out of the office, screwing [a young volunteer] on the desk,” lamented his congressional campaign director.) 

 In the same interview, Newt -- who is the Hogarthian embodiment of several of the deadly sins – reiterated the indolent smear that most of Paul’s core supporters are young people obsessed with recreational drug use (something in which Newt indulged before emerging as the self-appointed “Teacher of Civilization”). Perhaps inspired by Santorum’s example, Newt used that caricature as the basis for his own little collectivist homily.

“We have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, but that means we have to be citizens,” Newt decreed, claiming that “a heroin addict or a methamphetamine addict [has] lost the ability to be a true citizen.”

There is nothing in the Declaration of Independence that describes rights as contingent on citizenship. According to that document, individual rights are innate and unalienable; government, on the other hand, enjoys a contingent existence, and can be altered or abolished whenever it imperils those rights. In that scheme, the purpose of citizenship is to restrain the government, rather than to submit to its supposedly ennobling influence.

Like most of the people who support him, Dr. Paul has no interest in drug consumption, recreational or otherwise. He simply understands that the federal government has no constitutional authority to wage war on drug consumption, and that no government anywhere has the moral authority to regulate what individuals choose to ingest. He likewise understands that prohibition always engenders lethal violence – something vividly illustrated by the horrendous death toll exacted by Washington’s proxy drug war in Mexico, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 2006.

Once again, Dr. Paul’s perspective on this question is informed by the New Testament: “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man…. Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceedeth out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, blasphemies....” (Matthew 15:10-12, 16-19) 

While Jesus of Nazareth never uttered a syllable endorsing drug prohibition, He had a great deal to say denouncing war and related violence. To judge from the priorities and behavior of the “Christian” Right, one would assume that exactly the opposite were the case. 

Although Rick Santorum’s politics are detestable, he is a robustly decent husband and father. That certainly isn't true of the human pustule called Newt Gingrich. Although sharply different in terms of their personal deportment, Santorum and Gingrich share a totalitarian worldview: They assume that while nobody is virtuous enough to govern himself, they belong to a consecrated caste that is holy enough to rule over others. 

Reaching for a big historical idea and falling badly short, Santorum attempted to depict Dr. Paul as a Jacobin:

“I would argue that [Dr. Paul’s] understanding of the Constitution was similar to the French Revolution…. Their founding watchwords were the words, `liberty’ and `fraternity.’ Fraternity. Brotherhood. But no fatherhood. No God. It was a completely secular revolution. An anti-clerical revolution. And the root of it was, whoever’s in power rules.”

Bear in mind, once again, that Santorum offered that description of the candidate who – just hours earlier – had been publicly ridiculed for insisting that God’s law, the Golden Rule, applies to everybody, including those who preside over the criminal enterprise called the State. Furthermore, among the current GOP presidential contenders, Dr. Paul is the only candidate to extol the Constitution as a law that restrains the government. Santorum, on the other hand, consistently seeks to restrain the individual and emancipate the State. While he insinuates that Ron Paul is an anarchist (he isn’t -- none save One was perfect, after all -- but he should be), Santorum has giddily celebrated State lawlessness. 

During an October visit to South Carolina, Santorum endorsed assassination as an instrument of policy when employed by the U.S. government.

“On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead," he explained, broadly intimating that the U.S. government was responsible. "I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly….I think we should send a very clear message that if you are scientist from Russia or North Korea or from Iran, and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a nuclear bomb for Iran, you are not safe."

Santorum, who is regarded by some misguided conservatives as a champion of the pro-life cause, warned those who doubt that the U.S. government would assassinate civilian scientists should take heed to the way it treats American citizens designated enemies of the State: "When people say, `You can't go out and assassinate people' — well, tell that to al-Awlaki…. We've done it. We've done it to an American citizen."


Actually, the Obama administration not only assassinated U.S.-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — who was never charged with a crime of any kind, let alone convicted and sentenced by a court -- but also al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Adbdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike in Yemen while he was having dinner with a cousin (who also perished).


The Obama administration circulated the story that the 16-year-old was actually an adult “suspected” of being a “militant,” thereby redefining the killing as a strategic success. But the family was able to document that the youngster — who had gone to Yemen in a frantic search for his father, known to be on a U.S. assassination list — was born in Colorado in 1995.


Behavior of this kind is generally associated with the likes of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il. Proponents of an aggressive foreign policy often characterize the regimes ruling countries such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea as despotisms that routinely "murder their own citizens," and thus pose a threat to the peace of the world. Yet Rick Santorum — who yields to nobody in his zeal to wage war against distant and relatively powerless regimes — openly celebrates the summary execution of U.S. citizens, and describes it as a model for similar "wet work" operations against citizens of other countries. 


For Santorum, the defining principle of politics is power, not liberty. His chief ideological inspiration is not the imperfectly realized individualist James Madison, or even the centralizing constitutionalist James Madison, but the arch-authoritarian Joseph de Maistre, the 18th Century apostle of absolutism. His role model in policy terms could well be the murderous “Operative” from the film “Serenity.”


Maistre taught that “all greatness, all power, all social order depends on the Executioner; he is the terror of human society and tie that holds it together. Take away this incontrovertible force from the world, and at that very moment order is superseded by chaos, thrones fall, society disappears." 


Santorum visibly shares the fear that society will disintegrate if the State is deprived of the discretionary power to kill people. In the film “Serenity,” the Operative acted as Maistre’s Executioner on behalf of a galaxy-spanning bureaucratic empire called the Alliance. He spent most of the film pursuing River Tam, a brilliant and irrepressibly individualistic young girl with psychic abilities who had been abducted by the regime and programmed to be an assassin.


River’s brother, a gifted physician named Simon, sacrificed his future to free River, and the two of them wound up aboard the Serenity, a merchant ship commanded by a noble but embittered man named Malcolm Reynolds. Years earlier, Malcolm (or Mal) had fought with the “Browncoats,” a group of separatists who waged a valiant but losing battle for impendence from the Alliance. 


In his pursuit of River and Simon, Alliance forces commanded by the Operative lays waste to an outpost called Haven, where Mal and his crew had briefly found refuge. Similar Alliance attacks have destroyed every other colony where Mal might have taken cover.
“I’m sorry,” the Operative explains to Mal following the massacres. “If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to…. [D]id you think none of this was your fault?”


“I don’t murder children,” Mal replies with frigid disgust.


“I do,” the Operative unblinkingly replies. “If I have to.” 


“Why?” Mal demands. “Do you even know why they sent you?”


“It’s not my place to ask,” the Operative wearily explains. “I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.” 


Although he possesses none of the Operative’s fearsome martial prowess, Rick Santorum likewise believes it is possible to build a better world through State murder – not just Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, and (soon) Iranian children, but American children like Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. 


It’s little wonder that Santorum – like Newt Gingrich and the death cult adherents who compose much of the GOP’s rank and file -- finds Ron Paul’s devotion to the Golden Rule to be morally unsatisfactory. 

Thanks, once again...

... to everyone who has donated so generously, and expressed concern on behalf of Korrin during her most recent hospitalization. We really appreciate your help and your kindness. 

 




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Dum spiro, pugno!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another excellent article.

One word

Psychopathy

See how many traits they display:

"What "Psychopath" Means
It is not quite what you may think", By Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, November 28, 2007

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-psychopath-means

"THE PSYCHOPATH - The Mask of Sanity"

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm

This isn't an election campaign, this is "Psychopaths On Parade"

Worse, the numbers of people (majority of us) who continue to allow these kinds to get away with their psychopathic behavior and actions.

Megalomaniacs, pathological liars, similar are also appropriate descriptions of the characters of these people.

Time to end this nightmare and put these kinds where they belong - the looney bin.

Kent McManigal said...

I have a little scheme to shake up the worshipers of these murderers: link

Anonymous said...

Thanks Will for yet another biting expose of the warmonger Sanitarium...with your slice and dice verbiage...always a pleasure to read your writing...

Thanks!

PS my moms family is from Calabreze...she is a Verdicchio....vast landowners/famous vinters for hundreds of years....so....ama notta very ahappy witha Senor Sweaterman and his emulation of his parents dialectical "opposite" Mussolini..

aferrismoon said...

Santorum Muerta?

cheers

Bob said...

These are the kinds of people (Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum) the Rush Limbaughs and Mark Levins of the world would like to see in power. Guys like Rush and Mark thrash the one true conservative in the race (Ron Paul) as if he were an illegal alien.

Anonymous said...

"According to Newt Gingrich...it is 'irrational' of Paul to insist that there are limits on the government’s powers of discretionary killing."

Actually, if you think about it, Gingrich is right. It is irrational to imagine the state will not kill. Certainly it is better to have decent people running it, than vile scum like Gingrich and Santorum, but all we'd get from Paul being in charge is a temporary reprieve. The state by its very nature is evil, and the sooner we recognize that fact, the better.

Anonymous said...

Sanctimonious Santorum? The man is clearly another goose-stepping fascist who liberally uses religion and the state to crush dissent. The man is yet another Trojan horse of deceit. And what gets me is that too many Americans are too stupid to think outside of the box. Their moral blinkers are kept very narrow to purposely lead them by the nose. That Christians pretend to follow the Prince of Peace and yet bellow for yet another King Saul is proof they are not what they claim to be and are in fact hypocritical tares amongst the wheat.

willb said...

Another Yankee Puritan who is going to force me to bend the knee for my own good.
God help us.

John Regan said...

Really good read, Mr. Grigg. I wonder when, if ever, we can finally repudiate the idea that the way to establish justice in the world is to do murder and bend people to our will.

Sans Authoritas said...

John Regan,

Your statement reminds me of what Malcolm Reynolds said concerning the State in the very movie that Mr. Grigg cited, Serenity. "Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people . . . better. And I do not hold to that."

Anonymous said...

Well, it would appear that the Pilsbury Doughboys evil twin has "captured" the South Carolina primary. What happened to Mitt? The Sanctimonious one? The sad thing is that Dr. Paul had to share the stage with these warmongering snakes and their moronic enablers. I so despise the idiots who voted the way they did for their stupidity and for all the so-called Christians who swallow their lying bilge. They should know better and I'm tired of hearing their excuses.

Bob said...

I wonder if Rick Santorum supports Eugenics.

willb said...

Matthew 7:22-24
King James Version (KJV)
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for keepin it real for us regarding the idolatry of state worship vs. the empowerment message of Ron Paul. Santorum lied about Ron Paul, who has always said our rights come from our Creator. There is an article on Infowars.com about Santorum that I recommend which will show how he treats veterans - ripped off for his church's designs on their land.

mark edward marchiafava said...

his name is Rick Sanitarium.

Workingstiff said...

Excellent analysis as always, Grigg.
The Maistre reference was particularity enlightening in boiling down the essence of the State methods.

Sadly, we live in a historical vacuum. Newt, Santorum, and the rest of the neo-cons and libs think they are either being original and innovative, or following a tried and true pattern based on a false cinematic John Wayne USA ethos that does not exist in reality. But as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun, and they are merely repeating the same errors that have brought other nations down.

Bob said...

Heil, Rick!

JJane said...

Thanks, Will Grigg, for making me hold my breath!

We are evolving though, right?

Many thank yous for always teaching me a new word or two :).
Excellent marvelous breathtaking work.

Yossarian said...

Will, you wrote Santorum and Gingrich share a totalitarian worldview: They assume that while nobody is virtuous enough to govern himself, they belong to a consecrated caste that is holy enough to rule over others.

Where does that come from? What makes some people that way? During the illegal Constitutional Convention, Hamilton said, “All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people…The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give, therefore, to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second… Their turbulent and uncontrolling disposition requires checks.”

Hamilton was neither rich nor well–born, so how did he get in that class? Jefferson wrote that governments are instituted to protect our God-given “inalienable” rights, and Hamilton wrote that government is instituted because men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. Did neither of them notice the elephant in the living room? Did they not notice that there were already governments in every state? And why were these God–given inalienable rights not discovered until the 13th century? And why can't I find them in the Bible? Rights really just make up the Golden Rule, don’t they?

Santorum also said: Ron Paul has a libertarian view of the Constitution. I do not. The Constitution has to be read in the context of another founding document, and that’s the Declaration of Independence. Our country never was a libertarian idea of radical individualism. We have certain values and principles that are embodied in our country. We have God-given rights.

He’s so stupid. The word “values” (as in “family values”) was not mentioned in the Constitution, the DOI, or the 85 Federalist papers, unless it was used as the value of silver or something. From Washington’s to Cleveland’s Inaugural addresses, 1789 to 1893, the word“values” are never mentioned. From McKinley’s to Bush’s Inaugural addresses, 1897 to 2004, the word“values” is mentioned 14 times, probably in its current meaning of “We have values which change daily.”

I’ve noticed in the Inaugural addresses that Washington and Adams did nothing much more than tell us what to do and what not to do. From GW’s Farewell Address: RESPECT for its [ the Constitution] AUTHORITY, COMPLIANCE with its Laws, ACQUIESCENCE in its measures, are DUTIES enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty… But the Constitution which at any time exists, ’till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is SACREDLY OBLIGATORY upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish Government presupposes the DUTY of every individual to OBEY the established Government.

Anonymous said...

I'm late to the party here, but my observation on Gingrich is that someone had to assume the mantle of National Dissipate once the Tumor Named Mary Jo finished devouring Ted Kennedy's brain. Who better to inherit that title than this quintessential jester? The crocodile tears over "Mom" from someone who once delivered divorce papers to his wife while she was hospitalized with a life-threatening illness had me howling with laughter. As a voluntaryist/agorist I have foresworn the vice of voting, and I heartily revile the current Potus. But if Gingrich was the GOP nominee, I swear that I'd have to consider voting against him. Hopefully that destructive impulse would not get past the thinking stage, and fortunately, it appears that Gingrich may be too much for even the sheeple to swallow.