Santorum: Because Of Same-Sex Marriage ‘People Aren’t Getting Married’ (Video)

Watch as Rick Santorum says that, thanks to same-sex marriage changing marriage to no longer have anything to do with children, “people aren’t getting married.” 

Rick Santorum has joined the likes of other Republican GOP presidential candidates voicing extremism that can only be described as incoherent, illogical, and just plain false – candidates like Mike Huckabee. On CNN Sunday, Huckabee denounced love as too “sentimental and emotional.”

Also on Sunday, Sen. Santorum spoke with CBS News’ “Face The Nation” (video below) to explain his comments earlier this week that the Supreme Court’s ruling supporting same-sex marriage “disrupts the foundation of the world.”

Claiming that “there’s a real question here about the role of the courts in our society, Justice Scalia I think said it best,” Santorum explained. “He says when the — when we subordinate the rights of the people to nine unelected judges, we can no longer be called a democracy.”

That’s a great soundbite but the reality of the situation is that the people elected our presidents and our Senators and they in turn, as happens in a constitutional republic – the United States, Sen. Santorum, is not a democracy – nominate and vote on Supreme Court justice nominees. So, there’s that.

But secondly, in the two years since the Supreme Court ruled on DOMA, in 65 court cases judges ruled in favor of marriage equality, as did the Supreme Court on June 26 when it found that same-sex couples actually do have a constitutional right to marriage. So, this was not a case of “nine unelected judges,” or even five unelected judges, this was a case where 65 court cases were decided on the side of marriage equality.

But I digress.

Santorum continues his diatribe, claiming, “there’s an assault on religious liberty here. The [Supreme] Court basically said, no, churches, you’re allowed to teach what you want but it really didn’t say you’re allowed to practice what you want. I mean, this is, again, a huge infringement on the foundational right that we have which is the First Amendment.”

That’s suggesting a lie, plain and simple. How are churches being prohibited from practicing their religion now that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry in all 50 states?

Santorum goes on to say that the same-sex marriage ruling “put the nail in the coffin that we now disconnect the nuclear family from the idea that it’s there for the purpose of having and raising children.”

Baloney.

“Marriage no longer about kids. It’s simply about adults. And I think that — now that United States is a — it’s still the moral leader of the world, that we’ve now disconnected marriage from children, I think that has profound consequences for not just for America but for the world.”

Isn’t it ironic that many if not the vast majority of same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry, those 65+ cases that were decided in their favor, often sued for the right to marry so they could have the protection of marriage for their children?

And that’s when the former Pennsylvania Senator totally lost it.

“If you have laws that say, you know, marriage isn’t about children, now for the first time in the history of our country a majority of children born out of wedlock, which is about 40-45 percent of children in America today, are born in homes that the father is still living. That’s — they’re seeing a huge increase in this,” Santorum said, totally leaving out the part where same-sex couples are not the ones who are creating families and then divorcing, leaving the children in non-two-parent homes.

“Why? Because we have now said marriage isn’t — I mean, children — having children has nothing to do with marriage so people aren’t getting married. That’s not a good situation to maximize the potential for each and every one of our children.”

Let’s play that back: “Because we have now said… having children has nothing to do with marriage so people aren’t getting married.”

Seriously?

People who want to marry are going to marry. People who want to have children are going to have children. The vast majority of the people who want to have children are marrying. If they cannot maintain their marriages, Sen. Santorum, you’re focusing on the wrong issue. Same-sex marriage isn’t the problem – same-sex couples are bringing a new respect to marriage and modeling that pretty damn well for their children.

“And,” Santorum concluded, “that’s really what I’m talking about here, is setting up policies that orient ourselves toward the best end, which is a healthy, stable family for children.”

Great. Let’s include those same-sex couples who are raising currently an estimated one or more million children today. 

Or do those families not count, Senator?

By the way, does Senator Santorum support extended paid family leave for new parents?

No.

Santorum is full of bunk when he claims he wants to set up “policies that orient ourselves toward the best end, which is a healthy, stable family for children.”

“Out of 185 countries,” as Think Progress reports, “the United States is one of just three that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave, the others being Oman and Papua New Guinea.”

Here’s the video:

 

Image: Screenshot via YouTube