Other Road: The Father of Lies in America

"This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?" - Rick Santorum speaking at Ave Maria University in Florida, Aug 29, 2008[1]

Because Rick Santorum is rising in the polls in his run for President, he recently made headlines for something he said four years ago at Ave Maria University when he spoke of Satan, the Father of Lies, attacking America. Santorum might have been describing his own political candidacy.

Santorum and other conservative politicians have mastered the rhetoric that attracts conservatives and Tea Partiers. They fill their pre-election talks with obligatory references to being pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, protecting the unborn, being anti-tax, and advocating major cuts in federal spending. It’s easy to dupe the gullible electorate with fine words about Christianity, morality, and family values, and lies.

Pro-Life?

“On occasion scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that’s a wonderful thing, candidly.” – “Pro-life” Rick Santorum campaigning in S. Carolina (video), Oct 27, 2011

If evil is the absence of good—there’s a void in America as US citizens cheer their potential rulers, who spout off about murdering Iranian scientists or embargoing Iran.

Embargoes are another lie. Politicians make them seem like business transactions. But embargoes are acts of war that kill people: the US embargo of Iraq killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis before the US invaded Iraq (video).

The war in Iraq was fought over a lie: as a US senator, Rick Santorum supported George Bush’s invasion of Iraq in search of WMD when Iraq had no WMD. Even after the Bush White House admitted no WMD had been found, Santorum held a 2006 news conference and lied:

“’We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons,’ Santorum said.”[2][3]

Yes, Santorum knows about lies.

Now Santorum advocates attacking Iran to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons, the same lie the US told to justify invading Iraq. “Pro-life” Rick Santorum wants to be President so he can lead the US into a war against Iran (video).

Santorum and his fellow pretend-limited government conservative R-candidates, Romney and Gingrich, are walking contradictions:

They profess a reverence for life as long as it is unborn.
They bemoan the growth of the federal government while pushing for the growth of government by their advocacy of a militaristic, security state. They supported the execution of a US citizen without due process by the Obama administration.
They tell us how damaging Obama’s domestic policies are, but they support the same policies when practiced by rulers with an R after their names.

“What Makes This Country Great”

"I'm an Italian guy from a steel town who grew up understanding what makes this country great.” – From Rick Santorum website

A good lie mixes some truth in with it. Santorum’s campaign website mentions he grew up in a steel town, so you’ll think he is still a member of the working class. Other than four years working as a lawyer, Santorum has worked in politics since he was 23. After he was elected to Congress at 32, Santorum has held office or been a D.C. lobbyist ever since and lives just outside of Washington, D.C.

“What makes this country great” for Santorum is political power. As a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, Santorum says he opposes the big government policies of Obama. Santorum wants you to forget that he:

talks about limited government, but supports the NDAA and the PATRIOT Act (video and PATRIOT Act votes in 2005 and 2006);
pretends to be a limited government conservative, yet Santorum admits he’ll vote for bigger government as he explained how he’ll “take one for the team” during the Mesa AZ Republican debate when he described voting for bigger government to support Republican President Bush on No Child Left Behind (video);
professes to be a fiscal conservative despite voting five times to increase the National Debt limit: HR 2015 in 1997, S 2578 in 2002, HJ RES 51 in 2003, S 2986 in 2004, and HJ RES 47 in 2006 (video about Santorum’s big spending ways in Congress);
protests Obamacare despite having helped create a new unfunded entitlement, Medicare Part D, as Republican Senate conference chairman;
joined with senators Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg to pass new federal gun control regulations;
helped keep forced dues flowing to the labor unions by voting to kill the National Right to Work bill (video);
pretends to oppose abortion despite bragging (4:30 in this video) about voting for funding birth control—which means he sent US taxpayer’s money to Planned Parenthood for abortions (video).[4]

As Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute says of Santorum:

“…Santorum might be viewed as the mirror image of Ron Paul. If Ron Paul’s campaign has been based on the concept of simply having government leave us alone, Santorum rejects that entire concept. True liberty, he writes, is not ‘the freedom to be left alone,’ but ‘the freedom to attend to one’s duties to God, to family, and to neighbors.’ And he seems fully prepared to use the power of government to support his interpretation of those duties.”[5]

The Spiritual War in America

When nearly half of Americans polled want a preemptive attack on Iran now, and when government murder of US citizens without trial is cheered by the mob, the Father of Lies is winning.[6]

When Rick Santorum talks about government murder of Americans as good and murder of Iranian scientists as a “wonderful thing” and he gets your vote, the Father of Lies has won.