Putting Homophobia Ahead of Patriotism

It’s bad enough that presidential candidate Rick Santorum wants to reinstate ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ after the nearly two-decade long policy had been sent to the scrapheap on September 20. Being the homophobe that he is, Santorum had made even more outlandish comments against gays during his unheralded career.

But when asked about “circumventing” the repeal if elected president during the latest Republican presidential debate on September 22 by a gay U.S. soldier serving in Iraq, this is the garbage Santorum could muster:

“I would say any type of sexual activity has no place in t

he military. The fact they are making a point to include it as a provision within the military that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege to and removing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell I think tries to inject social policy into the military. And the military’s job is to do one thing to defend our the military.”

Not only did he fail to acknowledge and thank the soldier for his service, but none of the other 8 morons at the podiums jumped in to do so. Nor did he or the other wannabes attempted to muffle the crowd noise, which was cheering during Santorum’s answer. No admonishment for disrespecting a soldier who is in harm’s way defending his country—something Santorum never did.

In the circus atmosphere that characterizes Republican primary debates (“Let him die,” applauding executions, etc.), hypocrisy wins out over their principles. Of those audience members who shouted “let him die” during last week’s debate in response to Ron Paul’s tortured explanation of how should a hypothetical 30 year-old without health insurance be dealt with if he was critically ill or those who cheered Rick Perry’s bragging that Texas leads all state in executions, one must question the sincerity of their “pro-life” principles.

And these same folks who normally applaud service members at the drop of a hat (as they should) but boo a soldier simply because of who he is, aren’t as patriotic as they claim to be. Homophobia over patriotism—that’s all it is.