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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Rick Santorum should be the GOP's presidential candidate

Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 09:21 AM

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Rick Santorum

Ladies, it looks like the hot fashion trend this year - thanks to the GOP - may soon be a burqa.

After all, Mitt Romney has just announced that as president he would cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Don't look startled, at this stage he's probably cut America's military spending if he thought it would help him clinch the GOP presidential nomination.

But not to be outdone in the jaw-dropping rightward lurch, Rick Santorum is already reminding us a women's place is really in the home, bearing children. For Santorum abortion rights are a non-starter, and even contraception is out of the question.

'Sex is supposed to be within marriage,' says Santorum. 'It's supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal… but also procreative. That's the perfect way that a sexual union should happen…. This is special and it needs to be seen as special.'

Santorum maintains that contraception is 'a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.'

Santorum hasn't spelled out what 'how things are supposed to be' yet but you can be certain, ladies, that it involves you being barefoot and pregnant (and probably doing the dishes).

It's like the GOP are determined to take us back to the 1950's, to some bogus land of white picket fences and enforced silence, to the days when men like themselves literally laid down the law.
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During discussion of the mandatory transvaginal ultrasound bill that looks like passing in Pennsylvania (it already has passed in Virginia) Republican Governor Tom Corbett this week dismissed criticism of the invasive procedure by saying that any women who undergoes it will 'just have to close' her eyes.

That's right ladies, if you want medical care you'll shortly need a permission slip from the elderly white conservative men who run your state. How could you have a problem with that?

But did you know that 55% of all reproductive aged women now live in states that are hostile to abortion rights?

Did you know that the Republicans won't support the Violence Against Women Act because it includes same sex couples and migrant women in programs for domestic violence?

There is a bill making its way through the Arizona state legislature that will require women to prove to their boss they need birth control in order to treat a medical condition if they want their prescription to be covered by their insurer. Women will be forced to share their personal information with their boss in order to have access to basic health care.

How does that sound?

But it goes even further. This bill allows a woman's boss to fire her for using birth control as a contraceptive. You read that right, he can FIRE her. This bill has already been passed in the Arizona State House and is now up for debate in the State Senate.

Don't think this can't happen to you. It's already happening.

Personally I hope that the GOP pick Santorum to be their candidate this year. In past election cycles the hard right have moaned their party would have stood a better chance at the ballot box if they'd run a real conservative instead of a moderate like McCain or Romney.

So let them run their man. It would cool their ardor and stem their rhetoric to see how enthusiastically all 50 states reject this fundamentalist throwback. And perhaps a little real politic would have positive consequences for the presidential selection procedure in years to come.

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irishmathair | Mar 18, 2012, 08:21 PM EDT

MegK311: You are 100% right!! This country has much more important matters to worry about then providing contraception. If girls want to have sex, why should I or anyone else have to provide protection for them. How about the boyfriends they sleep with providing some of that protection instead of expecting everyone else to????? Our economy is in such bad straights now why are we to be expected to foot even more for someones decision to have free sex. We have the biggest debt this country has ever faced along with mass unemployment just to name a couple of urgent matters that need the attention of the White House. You can be sure my vote will not be for Obama just as it was not the last time. Wake up America and smell the coffee.

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mairint | Mar 18, 2012, 08:17 PM EDT

So you at Irish Central think it is your right to fornicate all around - and women should face the consequences and abort any children you might beget? Oh yes, you must not forget the bit of rubber, but if it fails and a child is conceived then you do not think the mother should be allowed to see the same child in her womb - she should "close her eyes" as you say if she is to have a scan so she knows what she is aborting. She might not want to kill the baby you see and you so called MEN just want the fun of it all....women to be receptacles for your ejection after which you scarper off to the next foolish woman. No wonder you are fans of Planned Parenthood, alias Planned Barrenhood. You consider aborting your children as "rights". You lot are revolting in your selfishness.

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MegK311 | Mar 18, 2012, 07:22 PM EDT

I don't beleve all the B. S. I am reading here today. Are you all trying to scare women into voting for Obama. Nobody is going to take away contraceptives. Every election the Democrats try to scare people into voting their way. I am 76 years old and I have heard it all over and over again like a broken record every election. They have told us that the Republicans want dirty air, dirty water, take away Social Security, keep women at home bare foot and pregnant. The list goes on and on. They will drive your grandmother over the cliff in a wheel chair. Enough of your crap we've heard it all before and it doesn't happen. Contraception has been available to people as long as I can remember, even for my parents. Have you ever passed Planned Parenthood about 8 a.m. in the morning and noticed all the very young teens lined up at the door. I wonder how many of them are pregnant and going for abortions? Do their patrents know they are there and what they are doing. It is a sorry sight. I think this whole thing about contraception has been blown out of proportion because they want to make it an election issue. Well I am more intrested in the economy and people finding jobs. If people want abortions or birth control fine but pay for it yourself. There are more important things we need to worry about right now not some propaganda dreamed up by Obama to take our minds off what we should be talking about. He doesn't have a record to run on so he comes up with all this B.S. He is the one taking away our rights not the Republicans. I know a lot of women of all ages and none of them are worried about birth control so why are we making it a big issue this election year? I don't know who I will vote for but it wont be Obama.

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seanomelb | Mar 18, 2012, 05:54 PM EDT

The only people who would vote for Santorum drag their arms along the ground like some posters below.

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eiriamach | Mar 18, 2012, 04:55 PM EDT

No, you're not excused, "Sophium," not by me... What kind of name is that anyway? "Sophium" looks like an ignorant attempt to Latinize a great Greek word, 'Sophia"-- Wisdom-- as in "phil-o-sophia," "love of wisdom." Delving into philosophy might enlighten "Sophium" about the discipline of logic, and he/she certainly needs a ray of enlightenment. Sophium might learn that an ad hominum argument, such as Sophium "constructs," is lazy, insulting, unpersuasive, and not a sign of any remote acquaintance with "reason." Really, if the powers that be are going to keep sending this cadre of CaDefs (Catholic Defenders) onto the Internet with their ridiculous insults and anti-feminist memes, they might at least give their mouthpieces some basic science education, perhaps a quick course in logic, and screen names that don't scream "I know nothing except how to insult people." But most of all, they need to give them a lesson in keeping their arrogance from leaching through their words.

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just4fun | Mar 18, 2012, 04:45 PM EDT

God answers all prayers Sometimes He says Yes Sometimes He says No But when it comes to the Santorum Culties He says You've got to be kidding... Santorum will use anything including sicko religion to get his foot in the Whitehouse but like his female counterpart Palin it's not going to happen the boys behind the Green Door will make sure of that.

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alisaann | Mar 18, 2012, 04:21 PM EDT

but, if mitt gets the nom. obama WILL WIN....and that's what we NEED...other wise, women can KISS OUR RIGHTS GOOD BUY...and other rights HARD faught for will be also be lost. alisa

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seanfer7 | Mar 18, 2012, 03:30 PM EDT

He was the cyber crook now he is Ayatollah Santorum

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mayoman | Mar 18, 2012, 01:50 PM EDT

Barry Goldwater only wanted to nuke Vietnam "into the Stone Age", but Rick Santorum is declaring war on all American women. Why would any woman want to vote for this fool?

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CitizenWhy | Mar 18, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT

Monsignor Santorum is a tad irrational, nothing new from his crew.

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peggydf | Mar 18, 2012, 12:45 PM EDT

It amazes me that the party that claims to want to "get government off our backs" has absolutely no qualms about getting up inside my vagina. Perhaps this craziness will fly in s few conservative states, but the GOP is in for a big surprise when they present this platform on a national level. Bring it on! I can't wait to watch them crash and burn.

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colkelley | Mar 18, 2012, 11:42 AM EDT

Santorum simply demonstrates that organized religion - in this case Christianity - is centered around male dominance and subordination of women. In pre-Christian Ireland women had property rights, rights of inheritance, the right to divorce their spouses, the right to be warriors, the right to be clan Chieftains, and a religion in which there were dominant female deities. Seems that when Ireland became Christian women lost their rights in what was one of the most beneficial societies for women. Women need to reject any organized religion that does not recognize and respect their rights as human beings - and that means BOTH Islam and Christianity. As an atheist I rejected long ago the subjugation and subordination of women and as a former Naval aviator I found many of them to be outstanding pilots and military officers.

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jamthecat | Mar 18, 2012, 11:38 AM EDT

Right wing talibangelicals like Rick Santorum do not want to end abortion; they only want to make it illegal. They know perfectly well that will not stop the practice; it will only drive it into back alleyways and dark rooms, where women will die from botched procedures, just like they did before Roe v. Wade. The only way you end a practice is by making it unnecessary, like with education on how to prevent pregnancy and contraception, but these communistic-style right-wing-nuts want to end that, too. And they do not give a damn about the kid after it's born; they're also cutting education, food programs, health care...you name it. On top of it all, they scream about governmental intrusion into business affairs but have no problem with the government deciding whom you may love and what sort of sex you're allowed to have. Don't forget, until 1986 in Texas, it was illegal for even a married couple to have sex in any way other than the missionary position, and there are some in the Legislature who'd like to reinstate that law. So the operative word for these religious freaks is -- hypocrisy. Again, nothing new about that. I just wish I shared Cahir's optimistic assumption that when Santorum gets the nomination, the GOP will see the error of its ways. Like the Mullahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan, reason does not enter into the realm of possibility for those people. Facts do not matter. All that matters is what they believe, and that will not change because they are incapable of rational thought.

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J.D.McCaffrey | Mar 18, 2012, 11:35 AM EDT

Good comments. Santorum will have us all marching bravely back into the Victorian era and will bring about the cancellation of all the progress we have made since then. The man is running for political office, but apparently doesn't understand that his religious views should be his alone, and he shouldn't try to force the rest of us to follow his own particular conscious. As a matter of fact, our constitution recognizes the separation of church and state, and as he tries to impose his Church's teachings on the rest of us, he will run into trouble, as he should.

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pilib04 | Mar 18, 2012, 11:32 AM EDT

Start stockpiling your condoms and IUD's now. These nutjobs are going to try to put their foolhardy politics into law. Maybe even a return to the Inquisition.

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