Santorum vs. Satan

An old “enemy” of Rick Santorum has “possessed” the Republican primary campaign: the Devil.

Ever since he began to campaign for the nomination to face the Democrat Barack Obama in November, Santorum never hid his Catholic fervor; on the contrary, he has shown his most intolerant side. But he did omit his obsession for the devil, conscious that if he has already won the sympathies of those Americans who vote with the Bible in their hand, he cannot permit himself the luxury of presenting himself in front of a moderate electorate and independents like a fanatic frightened with the presence of the malignant.

And yet, it is just what happened. A black hand (maybe Satan himself?) wanted to resurrect in the social networks the speech the Catholic senator, of Italian origin, gave in 2008 before students from the Ave María University. This is an excerpt of what he said; it is not wasted:

“A good, decent, powerful, influential country — the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age? There is no one else to go after, other than the United States”

“[Even in] the NBA,” in his apocalyptic vision, Santorum said, “he didn’t have much success in the early days. Our foundation was very strong, in fact, is very strong. But over time, that great, acidic quality of time corrodes even the strongest foundations. And Satan has done so by attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants.”

“The corruption of culture, the corruption of manners, the corruption of decency is now on display whether it’s the NBA or whether it’s a rock concert or whether it’s on a movie set…”

“Ayatollah Santorum.” The jokes and criticism in the social networks have not been long in waiting and many agree with the “Iranian stem” of the Republican presidential hopeful, who many call “The Ayatollah Santorum” for his effort in “contaminating” all of his campaign with religion. This includes the attacks to President Obama, who he considers “little religious” or an “atheist,” an insult to the majority of Americans.

The Republican presidential hopeful is in danger of being accused of being more of a fundamentalist cleric than a politician capable of taking the country out of the crisis if he does not quickly correct his obsession for mixing religious with earthly matters. This is why he tried to avoid the subject two days ago at a rally in Arizona, which holds its primaries on Tuesday. He admitted that yes, he believes “in good and evil,” but he removed its importance by signaling that his was “an old speech before a religious group” and that it is not “relevant” to the campaign.

Voters, however, see it as a relevant issue at hand, and the evidence is that while Santorum wins Republican voters with these more adept comments, the latest polls warn, on the other hand, that with this type of discourse, Obama will win over the Republican vote by a landslide.