Rick Santorum, yes, the one term ex-Senator from Pennsylvania who ran a strong race in Oklahoma as a 2012 GOP Presidential contender collecting 33.8% of the Sooner State’s GOP delegates, is making noise again. The noise the former senator is now making is the sort that forces once again the query is this man a genius who is putting us on or an imbecile who really means it? Based on his known track record I am inclined to assume it is the latter. Now, according to Mr. Santorum, the concept of separation of church and state isn’t just misguided, it is downright communist!
Regardless of who Mr. Santorum is trying to win over with such over-the-top rhetoric, backhanded proclamations such as this make it increasingly difficult to extend him the benefit of the doubt. It is almost as if he has no concept of the first clause of the First Amendment which states verbatim: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” Indeed, President Thomas Jefferson, himself a framer of very document which the First Amendment is a part, made clear the intent of that clause in his response letter to the Danbury, CT Baptists. So, separating Church and State is communist?!? Begging Mr. Santorum’s pardon, in communist dictatorships the State IS the Church! It is my belief that extremists are as extremists do and it is the nature of the present day Republican Party for its candidates to out-conservative each other so to appeal to a maximum number of the party’s fringe members. The problem I have with Mr. Santorum’s position on Church and State is that there are enough pro-theocratic GOP members in Oklahoma to give it traction. I don’t ask any of them to quit their views or position on the issue. I only ask that they think it through as completely as they can and understand that tearing down that wall will create a litany of problems which will effect all citizens. I also ask that they be careful, BE VERY CAREFUL, what they wish for!