Frontline of the Class War: The History of the World According to Santorum

The Republicans are right, there is a class war going on in this country. And they're the ones waging it against the middle and working class:

• Fox News wants you to know that those making only $250,000 a year in New York are still struggling financially.  Of course this is the same Fox News who thinks that paying a maid in New York $60,000 is a "nightmare."  So if someone making a quarter of a million dollars is 'struggling', what's the best word to describe someone making less than a quarter of that?

• Don't worry though, while corporate profits are increasing, employee wages aren't.  Which probably explains why Georgia Republicans are trying to outlaw union picketing.  Because God forbid that the people actually doing the work to generate the profits be able to even ask to make a livable wage, there are shareholders to think about!

• Rick Santorum has a novel new theory of what caused the financial crisis: rising gas prices.  Which would make speculating in commodities futures responsible for the recession as opposed to speculating in the derivatives market.  Fortunately, that still makes his statement that, "Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can’t function well if people can’t trust each other and people aren’t honest, if a deal isn’t a deal," deeply deeply stupid.

• Just to keep mocking Rick Santorum for a moment, here's his take on human history: "In the previous 2,000 years, life did not change.  And then America came around and said, 'No, no more dictators, no more kings, no more classes, no more nobility.' We believe in limited government, not an all-powerful state. We believe that if we liberate people, we recognize the rights that God has given every person then the world will change. How many people have a cell phone?  The young folks here, 20 years ago, there were no cell phones to speak of. And now people who 20 years ago couldn't conceive of a cell phone, now can't live without one. Let me assure you if the government had taken over the technology sector of our economy 25 years ago, no one would ever have heard of a cell phone. Because what we would be doing is we would be making sure everybody had pagers and allocated them equivalently across everybody."  Now there's a lot to mock there so I'm going to try to be efficient:
• Amongst the crusades, invention of the printing press, 'discovery' of the Americas, and the Black Plague, Rick Santorum apparently also does not believe that the creation of Christianity changed humanity in any way.
• Now rather than focus on the fact that 20 years ago 10 million Americans owned cell phones and in fact the first mobile phones were deployed during World War II, I instead want to focus on the fact that he thinks 20 years ago people "couldn't conceive of a cell phone."  Like he admits that pagers existed in 1992, and that phones existed in 1992, but no one could possibly conceive of combining the two?

• Now I'm going to take a break from mocking Santorum...to focus on why his worldview is so flawed.  In explaining why he hasn't given more money to charity, Santorum said: "I was in a situation where we have seven children and one disabled child who we take care of, and she’s very, very expensive. We love her and we cherish the opportunity to take care of her, but it’s an additional expense. We have to have around-the-clock care for her, and our insurance company doesn’t cover it so I have to cover it."  And it's true.  Without insurance the cost of caring for a disabled child who is in and out of hospitals, requiring life saving surgeries, and around the clock care is crippling even to a multi-millionaire like Rick Santorum.  Which is maybe why he should realize that for the rest of us who aren't sponsored by the Religious Right, health insurance is a necessity not an option.

• Speaking of insurance, Ron Paul believes that if you can't afford insurance against natural disasters you should just move, because the Federal government shouldn't be providing aid.  Now given that pretty much the entire United States is in a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or blizzard affected area, and that insurance actually does a terrible job of covering inevitable disasters that will effect thousands if not millions at a time, Ron Paul is basically saying you better hope that Newt Gingrich is elected President, because the only place you're going to be able to afford to live is the Moon.

• Finally, Sean Hannity pretty much sums it up when he refuses to celebrate that the economy is improving, preferring instead to wait to celebrate until "Obama is fired."  Stay classy Republicans.