SANTORUM IS NOT A BAROMETER

A number of web pundits (here, here, here) are getting rather long-winded fretting over Sen. Rick Santorum's statements on a Texas sodomy law. First, folks were shocked that he would make such an anti-gay statement and the gay lobby wanted him ousted from any leadership position (I assume Tim Robbins wouldn't want any such repercussions because that would be a chill wind blowing down the constitutional right to free speech). Then, folks realized that what Santorum said wasn't an attack on homosexuality, but on certain "immoral" practices. Andrew Sullivan nails the real meaning of the words spoken by the Senator -- support for federal government action to restrict what consenting adults may do in their own bedrooms, regardless of orientation or preference.

But while Sullivan nails the real meaning of the words, I don't think he gets Santorum's real meaning. Yes, we should judge the words he spoke and it is dangerous to try to "look into [his] heart and know whether he is animated by hate or not", but I'm going to look into his heart anyway and I find he is not animated by much. I suspect that the tortured reasoning, the disjointed phrasing, the incoherence of what Santorum said is just evidence that he hasn't put nearly as much work into the construction of his position as the analysts have put into its interpretation. Santorum was trying to dress up a basic anti-gay attitude with statements about Griswold v. Connecticut, the right to privacy, historic Constitutional law, polygamy, pedophilia and morality. I think he really wanted to sound opposed to a "gay-favorable" policy without sounding anti-gay, in an effort (at least a subconcious one) to impress his constituents by appearing anti-gay yet not bigoted. A tough task, thus the incoherence. Santorum doesn't know what he thinks about these issues, he is only concerned about what he appears to think, so let's not indict the Republican party as a whole for some incoherent and uninformed rambling by a Pennsylvania senator.