When The Village Idiot Writes A Book

By Allen J Duffis
Published: November 17, 2005

     Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania has written a book entitled “It Takes a Family.” The feat in and of itself is not all that remarkable, for Santorum is not that remarkable a person or, for that matter, member of congress.

     What Mr. Santorum represents is a frightening reflection of the advanced state of deterioration in the leadership pool of this country. Looking past him we can see the bottom of the barrel, and its not all that far away.

     The point of incredulity is that the book was published at all. But on Sunday, July 31st 2005, the Senator had the gall to attempt to defend it during an appearance on “This Week” with George Stephanopous. This book has spawned controversy in the political ranks of the thinking class, and even among a few Republicans.

     The following excerpts are representative of the tone of his literary effort:

     “In effect, Roe vs. Wade created a private license to kill a certain category of Americans, the unborn, and raised this license to a Constitutional principle.”

     “Judicial restraint should be decided by the public, not nine un-elected, unaccountable judges.”

     “Respect for the ‘stay at home mother’ has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders, war on the traditional family and radical feminism’s misogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only measure of social value and self respect.”

     It should be noted that when pressed, he couldn’t name the radical feminists openly involved in this ‘misogynistic crusade’, but was willing to make a wild stab at Gloria Steinem (the radical Right’s all time favorite ‘whipping girl’).

     What Senator Santorum fails to mention, assuming he’s even aware of it, is that American married women, with particular reference to Middle Class housewives, have work outside the home. The federal government made it necessary for them to do so in order for their family unit to survive financially.

     Let’s face it, Senator, if the fictional Moms of the “Leave it to Beaver”, or “Ozzie and Harriett” television shows of the 1950’s were around today, to render a reasonably true depiction of American life, they’d all have jobs too. Unless that is, their TV husbands earned in excess of $150,000 per year; at which point they would be crossing the frontier of a major tax break from the self same federal government.

     In essence, Senator Santorum is the ‘poster child’ for the problem with our leadership: they are completely out of touch with the daily reality of people they purport to serve.

      If Senator Santorum had done a little research, he would have realized that the Middle Class, from it climb to Great Society heights after World War II, reached its apex about 1979. During this time, a good proportion of them occupied the work force as Middle Management and Supervisory Blue Collar. And it was at this time they fell victim to brutal corporate downsizing. Now, as an entity, they are dwindling as rapidly as are their incomes.

     Santorum however is not completely useless as a senator. When it suits his purpose, he can come up with bold useful legislation – seemingly out of nowhere.

     In September of this year he introduced - The Social Security Guarantee Act of 2005 (S1750). This is legislation requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to issue a written guarantee of a monthly benefit for each Social Security recipient, along with an accompanying guaranteed annual cost of living increase, specifically, to any qualified individual born before 1950.

     This is a brilliant piece of legislation, well suited to address a growing and critical problem for the times. Even more unbelievable is the well thought out reasoning behind this proposal:

     “I have held dozens of town hall meetings throughout Pennsylvania, and the main theme I heard from seniors was that they were concerned that efforts to strengthen Social Security for younger worker may jeopardize their benefits. It’s important to let our seniors know that the benefits that they worked so hard to for will not change.

By guaranteeing benefits to seniors and eliminating those fears, the Social Security debate can focus on real solutions for Americans who were born after 1950.

This legislation is an important first step to broader reform, reassuring seniors that their benefits will be there for them –guaranteed.”

     Why is this legislation so important? Well few are aware of the following: In 1960, the U.S Supreme Court ruled (Fleming v. Nestor) that Americans have no legal right to their Social Security benefits.

Senator Santorum’s proposed Social Security Guarantee Act would create a legal right for seniors to receive a monthly Social Security benefit. His proposal is an excellent amalgam of law, morality and social responsibility.

     “ Many Americans rightly feel a powerful sense of ownership over their Social Security benefits, after contributing a lifetime’s worth of hard work into the system,“ said Senator Santorum. “By guaranteeing benefits, we can now begin to focus on ensuring benefit for future generations, while providing the peace of mind to seniors they deserve.”

     It should be noted that Santorum is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security and family Policy, and is also a member of the Senate Select Committee on Aging.

     His miraculous transformation to Super Senator begs the question, why did it take so long for such an undistinguished member of the senate to come up with this clear-cut solution to addressing the Social Security mess?

     Quite simply, being a Republican whose congressional seat is in jeopardy due to the growing unpopularity of President Bush (which he of recent makes a point never to be seen with), this spurt of unexpected creativity was prompted by the need to survive - politically.

     This should teach all Americans a very important lesson. Our elected representatives do not respond to the fear of God, as much as they do to losing the best and cushiest job in the whole Goddamned world.