So, how was your Valentine’s Day? Do anything nice? The highlight of my day was being handed a chocolate heart by an ill-at-ease college freshman promoting a Libertarian Summer Camp. Where’s Cupid’s arrow when you need it? The rest of the day I spent telling friends: “I love you, with or without VD!”
I’m a curmudgeon, it’s true. It’s just that that day, the most fabricated of all the fabricated marketing days, was especially tough this year. You see there’s a new man in my life. He arrived on the scene a few months ago but I didn’t pay him much attention at first. Now, he’s everywhere. He’s really popular and people seem to hang on his every word.
He doesn’t even know I exist. Yet still, and worse: he hates me. He’s telling everyone and they seem to be taking note. His name is Rick, and a significant proportion of the US population want him to be the 45th President of the United States of America.
For anyone unfamiliar with former Philadelphia Senator Rick Santorum, he’s a front-runner in the Republican Party Presidential Candidate race. So far, Rick has come out on top in four out of nine possible primary ballots. In the eyes of Republicans in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, Santorum is seen as the man to depose Barack Obama, come November’s election.
His outlook is as follows: Marriage is between one man and one woman. Sanctioning same-sex marriage is equitable to “man-on-child or man-on-dog” unions. Homosexuality, along with bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery, “undermines the fabric of society”. Gay adoption is dangerous… The sound bites go on, but my favourite is the succinct: “I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts”. Oh, Rick.
Some of his comments would be enough to end a political career back home in the UK. There’s been backlash in the US too, of course. Sex advice columnist Dan Savage even coined a new meaning for “santorum”, in response to Rick’s endless stream of homophobic remarks. Google the name and within the top few hits, you’ll find the following definition: “Santorum (san—TOR–um) n. 1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”
Others have opted for pithier analyses. The New York Times, in an article discussing Santorum’s appeal, recently reiterated the infamous barb made in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Rick Santorum has one of the finest minds of the thirteenth century”. I laughed when I read that one. But we laughed at Bush’s gaffes, too, and I’m not sure he was too hurt by it.
We need to take Rick seriously. Not because he could implement regressive—at best—policy as president. It’s unlikely he’ll get that far. We should sit up and speak out because it really doesn’t matter if he wins the nomination, or not. He’s already made his mark.
Santorum’s successes highlight to Republican strategists that homophobia, along with casual racism and sexism, wins votes. It strikes a chord with a section of the electorate. Terrifyingly, it holds appeal. Why blame the voters? Their fears are being stoked, and the information they are fed is purposely limited and biased.
As unemployment and social inequality are rife, movements such as Occupy are making waves. The fanatics atop the money pile need scapegoats. Luckily, America is imagined, packaged and sold as a strong, white, straight, virile male. All people need to hear is: “America is under threat”, and minorities become demons.
We should be worried, and more vocally challenging hate speech, rather than simply condemning or ridiculing it. Because the last thing the world needs is a military superpower endorsing homophobic, racist and gender-based inequality in the name of family values.