Thursday night’s GOP debate between Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, and Gary Johnson showcased the anti-gay politics of the GOP, but especially of Rick Santorum. While it took almost an hour for the DOMA and “gay marriage” question to be posed, it was. Rick Santorum, introduced as the most socially-conservative of the candidates, did not disappoint.
Asked, “Are you willing to tone down your positions on abortion and homosexuality in an effort to reach more voters and help the GOP coalesce behind a more fiscally focused platform?,” Santorum replied, staking his ground and bashing his in absentia opponent, Governor Mitch Daniels, “Anybody that would suggest that we call a truce on the moral issues doesn’t understand what America is all about.”
“America is a country that is based on this concept, and the Declaration of Independence, that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Rights come from God and the first of which is life. The second of which is liberty,” Santorum preached.
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But what Santorum really means is “Allow straight people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community.”
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“Those two concepts really transformed the world because it said that government was going to be limited. Allow people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community. That is only possible if we have strong families. Strong marriage is at the root of strong families. And if we have a respect for human life because of course we’re all created equal.”
The irony of Santorum’s argument obviously escaped him. “Rights come from God,” Santorum said, applauding a limited government. A limited government would allow marriage equality, but that concept is lost on Santorum.
(Santorum has the embarrassing distinction to have won Politifact’s “Pants on Fire” award.)
“Allow people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community,” Santorum says, but what Santorum really means is “Allow straight people to be free, and to pursue their own dream and to serve their god, to serve their family and community.”
Santorum is the ultimate bigot. Same-sex couples want to build strong families too, but to Santorum, families haeaded by same-sex coupes aren’t real families. According to Santorum, single-parent families aren’t real families, either. Essentially, only white, married middle- or upper-class families are real families.
Ron Paul was asked, “Are you advocating legalizing gay marriage in this country?”
“I’ve spent an entire chapter in my new book on marriage,” Paul replied, plugging his book, adding, “the government should just be out of it.” Paul said he favors marriage by the church or private contract, and that “we just shouldn’t have this argument.”
READ: Does Ron Paul Want To Stop The Supreme Court From Ruling On Prop 8?
“I have my standards, but I shouldn’t have to impose my standards on others,” the Texas Congressman, married 53 years said,suggesting that same-sex marriages don’t meet his standards, but hthat he has to allow them to stay true to his principles. “Others have their standards, but they shouldn’t have the right to impose their marriage standards on me.” Paul said he believes marriage, if it must be regulated by the government, should only be at the state level.
Paul supports DOMA because it “protects” the states. “The Defense of Marriage Act was really designed to make sure the states have the privilege of dealing with it [marriage].”
Never mind that laws, and the state itself, exist — or should — to protect people, not the state.
Herman Cain said Obama’s decision to not defend DOMA was “a breach of presidential duty bordering on treason.” He then gave a history lesson on DOMA, then misstated the presidential oath of office to fulfill his position.
Cain’s reason for disagreeing with Obama’s decision on DOMA is because “that is asking the Department of Justice to not uphold a law.”
That was the entire depth of his reasoning.
(Oh, by the way, Frank Luntz, the GOP pollster, after the debate said that Cain won. Go figure.)