To Your Health! X-raying Sins

One of the most interesting political races in the world is going to swing into action. It started in Iowa last week and today, in New Hampshire, one can watch another primary in which a Republican candidate is going to be selected to run in the presidential election.

Democrats don’t have to worry as we all know that their candidate is Barack Obama. When it comes to Republicans, there has been a fascinating political and marketing spectacle, the finale of which is unpredictable.

Just two weeks ago, none of the commentators were even interested in Rick Santorum, who was at that time without money, had no sponsors and traveled alone through Iowa in his pickup. But finally, the largely unknown candidate moved into second place. Over the weekend in New Hampshire, the rooms hired by Santorum could not accommodate all of the eager people. Furthermore, he is likely to win in a week’s time in South Carolina.

With the increase of support, a completely different game has kicked off. First, money has begun to flow, which surprised even the candidate himself — in fact, thousands of dollars. Second, the right wing of the Republican Party has seriously begun to esteem him. So far, he has not been a serious enough candidate to be held in regard, but the support gave him strength in the form of structures, people and of course lots of money. And third, the media has shown curiosity about him.

Rick Santorum, barely noticed by the media and rivals and despised the same way as Jimmy Carter, who also worked hard in Iowa and as a result sat in the White House, has now been screened with the precision of X-rays. No facts from his past — political or personal — have been ignored. His speeches in Congress have been instantly drawn from the archives, including that one in which he spoke about President Bill Clinton with contempt calling him “this guy”. Also, he called the leader of the Senate a “mad dog”.

His extremely conservative views have been widely discussed, analyzed and commented on — even regarding homosexuality (he regards this as bestiality) and abortion (he is definitely against it). He can talk about it with passion and fire in his eyes, which surely attracts undecided conservative voters to whom Mitt Romney is too liberal. Not only have his views and utterances been targeted, it seems that all his numerous contacts with lobbyists have been also analyzed in detail from when he sought unions for voting in Congress, where he sat for several terms.

Everything has been X-rayed; exactly everything he has done since losing the election in 2006. For instance, one story was described on one of the news portals. Apparently, Santorum hired himself onto the board of a health company that, as it turned out, later was accused of negligence in the care of handicapped and difficult boys, including cases of rape and exorcism. The charges relate to the period when Santorum worked on the hospital’s board of directors. Did he have something in common with it? Did he know about it? Santorum denies it indignantly and these questions remain unanswered.

It also turned out that Santorum loves Poland. That confession was forced when the candidate described us as one of the most dangerous countries in the world, then he was made to expound on this.

We can come to some conclusions from the observation of American primaries since we all love to invoke the “American-style campaign”. Here, if a candidate were subjected to vetting like that which Santorum had to go through (and God forbid if it concerned a candidate from the right wing), voices would appear immediately that this is the result of a campaign of hatred and massive action by an unfair media.

Our political life looks like an innocent fairy tale from the land of happiness in comparison to the U.S. primaries. The question is whether America is so degenerate, or our media and political rivals so weak. Does what is happening in America have an authentic value, or is everything a matter of the marketing machine? It seems reasonable to follow the American candidates’ example as none of them avoids debates. They are held in every state almost every day, and only thanks to them do voters, bombarded with an incredible number of negative spots, have a chance to get to know the candidates, their views and knowledge. Not everything can be staged.