Tea Partyers at Debate and EACH 2012 Conservative Presidential Candidate Snubs Active Duty, In-Country Gay Soldier [81]

AT THURSDAY night's Fox New's-Google GOP 2012 Presidential candidate debate, the Tea Party and Conservative candidates hit a new low. During that debate, the candidates took a question from a now openly gay soldier in Iraq. His, Stephen Millers, question was "My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that’s been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"

Senator Santorum, to whom the question was directed, had a totally illogical answer, to any thinking person that is; from his, and those who think like him, it probably made all of the sense in the world. Santorum ended up saying two things, 1) no, he wouldn't throw gays out of the military right now and 2) he would work to repeal the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" law (the actual name). To come to this conclusion, Santorum used the following "logic":

1. "Sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military" (yes, he really said that, lol)

2. "repeal of the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' was injecting social policy into the military."

3. "What we’re doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now..."

4. "... we would move forward in conformity with what was happening in the past, which is, that sex is not an issue"

5. "Leave it alone, keep it to yourself, whether you are a heterosexual or a homosexual."

Almost sounds right, doesn't it, but it has a fatal flaw, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" actually does what Senator Santorum wants, it takes sex out of the military. Prior to that, the Christian Right inserted it's moral code into the Military Code of Uniform Justice by insisting being a homosexual be illegal in the military! Now, THAT, Senator Santorum is "injecting social policy into the military!" and not what you are suggesting. (I am not picking on the Christian Right, btw, if this were an Islamic country, then I would be saying the Islamic Right, but we are not, as the Christian Right constantly remind us, this is a Christian country; the proper phrase, actually, is the Monotheistic Right.) Of course, the Christian Right didn't do this overtly, but bigotry against homosexulity is a fundemental part of their religious belief set; it always has been and, until the last ten years, has insinuated itself in all of secular American society; including the military.

I don't think the good Senator meant quite what he said regarding "sexual activity" in the military, but we know what he was trying to get across, I think; maybe; possibly.

• His second statement is much more clear and, on its face, false logic.
• I guess the answer to his third point, if not now, when; it will always be social experimentation for the Religious Right because they will never see homosexulity as provably a creation of God, which it is, but a choice by Man, which it is definitely not. They simply rely on the interpretation of a document written by fallible men with an agenda by fallible men with an agenda.
• Santorum's forth statement is almost laugablly illogical, if it weren't so devastating to human dignaty - he want's to revert to bigotry in the military as a matter of federal law. Doesn't he see that making homosexuality illegal in military again IS making sex an issue?? How can any intelligent man not?

SORRY, THIS was going to be a really short hub, then I got on a roll with Senator Santorum. What I had started out wanting to write about was that after Stephen Hill presented his You Tube question, several members of the debate audience loudly booed; it was clearly audible. This is not surprising, given the audience.

What was surprising was the response from the panel of candidates, or rather, the lack of one. The question was directed at Senator Santorum, who did not chastise the audience for booing an American soldier serving his country in Iraq and, who did not thank the soldier for his service. In way of explanation for the former gaffe, Santorum said later that "he never heard the boos"; he must be very hard of hearing; for the latter point, well let me say, it has been a very, very long time since I haven't heard a politician thank a soldier for their service; it is like wearing the flag on your lapel, you just do it; Santorum didn't.

Worse yet, none of the other candidates took the opportunity to score points with America and correct Santorum for his oversights, not one of the other eight! To me, that speaks volumes about the lack of character of those who are aspiring to be the next leader of a country that believes in human rights for all, not just a select few.