Santorum: No Smart People On Our Side

September 18, 2012 by 23 Comments

Rick Santorum delivered a sermon to the gathered hordes at the Values Voters Summit last weekend, telling them that they’ll never have the media or smart people on their side because those people want to “tell you what to do.” This from a man who wants the government to tell women what they can and can’t do with their own bodies, ban pornography and possibly even birth control. Amusing.

httpv://youtu.be/0n5oa55EsmI

There are so many levels of absurdity here. First, how he equates smart people with “elite,” tapping into the very long tradition of anti-intellectualism on the right. Second, how he then goes on to say that since you won’t have the smart people on your side, you need the church and the family — presumably because there are no smart people there? There are, of course, but that seems to be what he’s implying.

Filed Under: Wingnuttia 23 Comments
About Ed Brayton

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

  • Reginald Selkirk

    A classic from Dover:

    “We’ve been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture.” -Pastor Ray Mummert

  • matty1

    Isn’t it funny how reading a book and mentioning that fact to someone else makes you an elitist out to control people but ‘earning’ billions and using some of that money to corrupt the political process doesn’t.

  • dingojack

    I guess santorum must be one of the dumb people then.

    He’s only just now figured this out. (Did he ‘phone a friend’?) 😉

    Dingo

  • raven

    Rick Santorum delivered a sermon to the gathered hordes at the Values Voters Summit last weekend, telling them that they’ll never have the media or smart people on their side because those people want to “tell you what to do.”

    Santorum has three degrees from good public universites, including a law degree.

    He uses his education to make $3 million a year.

    He is a smart, educated person in the economic elite. Obviously he is outright lying.

    those people want to “tell you what to do.”

    It is the other way around of course. Normal people tell the christofascists to go away and leave them alone. The fundies can’t stop trying to tell other people what to do. If they would just stay under their rocks and live their hate filled, dysfunctional lives quietly, no one would care about them.

  • DaveL

    Of course, smart people don’t have families. They just come ashore once a year at high tide, lay some eggs in the sand, and clamber back into the surf.

  • ArtK

    This would be an “own goal.” The absurdity of the statement just serves to prove the underlying point that Santorum and the people with him are aggressively ignorant.

  • Michael Heath

    Rick Santorum’s a smart guy, he’s merely going after the voters who found Sarah Palin so appealing; who we know are predominately conservative Christian populists. Given this was one of their major national events, he fit his message to his audience perfectly.

    I’m increasingly mindful of high school math and science classes I took in the 1970s; specifically some of the quiet kids sitting in the classrooms who struggled to pass. I never pondered what their politics became until we were introduced to Sarah Palin and saw the type of people who find her so appealing. I think I better appreciate how frustrating it must have been struggling to do the work; I don’t appreciate some of them concluding their inability to flourish in such environments is grounds to dismiss those who did succeed and also use those skills and knowledge now.

  • Alverant

    Ironically conservatives tend to consider themselves to be elite in the sense that they deserve better treatment than everyone else for no good reason apart from their own egos.

  • bahrfeldt

    “This from a man who wants the government to tell women what they can and can’t do with their own bodies, ban pornography and possibly even birth control. Amusing.”

    No. It could be considered amusing if he and his expressed philosophy were relegated to the obscurity of the fringes they so richly deserve. As it is, they are dangerous.

    “Santorum has three degrees from good public universities, including a law degree. He uses his education to make $3 million a year. He is a smart, educated person in the economic elite. Obviously he is outright lying.”

    He is fleecing the flock, and lusts for even more money, more fame and more power. He cannot open his own version of a “true Christian” church, so must rely on alternate avenues to feed his avarice.

  • jws1

    The Christianists seem to be convinced that the best way to define themselves is by listing the things they hate and/or resent. Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on them, sub-consciously, that shouting what they are “for” is odious to an overwhelming number.

  • tbp1

    Isn’t he on record as saying he’s a conservative rather than a libertarian precisely because he wants the government to tell people what they can do in their private lives?

    Does the term “cognitive dissonance” mean nothing to these people?

  • http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

    Alverant “Ironically conservatives tend to consider themselves to be elite in the sense that they deserve better treatment than everyone else for no good reason apart from their own egos.”

    Lies! It’s not “better than everyone else”, it’s “better than those that should be below them”. The Natural Order®, you see.

    tbp1 “Isn’t he on record as saying he’s a conservative rather than a libertarian precisely because he wants the government to tell people what they can do in their private lives?”

    Oh, posh! Telling someone “The Lord only wants what’s best for you.” is waaaay different than “You must eat these abortion pills and gay marriage this person!”

  • cry4turtles

    Rick Santorum sucks Blue Whale.

  • Pingback: Rick Santorum: For Dummies « Cubik's Rube()

  • d cwilson

    Colbert had an excellent takedown on this last night.

  • http://motherwell.livejournal.com/ Raging Bee

    There really are no smart people on their side, because they really do despise and reject all signs of intellect or intelligent advice, even from people on their own side who are trying to help them win elections. Sarah Palin showed us that in 2008, and Mutt Romney and his friend Donald Trump are emulating that example today. This is the most honest thing Santorum ever said.

  • http://festeringscabofrealityblogspot.com fifthdentist

    Yeah, damn those stupid smart peoples! Always wanting us to make sense and stuff and making fun of our imaginary friend.

  • http://dododreams.blogspot.com/ John Pieret

    telling them that they’ll never have the media or smart people on their side

    To be fair, he’s right. No smart people are on Santorum’s side. In fact, he’s counting on it.

  • http://thecyberneticatheist.blogspot.com/ RW Ahrens

    Funny story:

    My Agency has a word list that is searched against to block sites from our network, based on that word list. This page is blocked, with the reason being given as “sexual”.

  • dan4

    I’m wondering if Santorum meant the word “smart” in the manner of something to be surrounded by sneer quotes…but bungled the presentation by not realizing this doesn’t work in a “spoken” context unless one puts “so-called” before the word (or at least does the “air quote” gesture while saying it).

  • martinc

    This speech seems to advance the Republicans further into the wasteland than ever before. They’ve always been happy to win votes by working themselves into a lather about the “intellectual elites”, but there always seemed to be an underlying assumption that those intellectuals were not really truly intelligent: that there was some kind of common sense possessed by the man in the street that was not possessed by the ivory tower scientists, and that this more than outweighed the scientists’ greater book learning. Santorum here seems to be going further, and actively stating that people should have pride in their own stupidity; that stupidity is valuable for its own sake. It’s a surreal line to take … I’d have thought his intended audience would much prefer the traditional approach, because they’ll have happily Dunning-Krugered themselves into believing they ARE intelligent.

  • Ichthyic

    Santorum here seems to be going further, and actively stating that people should have pride in their own stupidity; that stupidity is valuable for its own sake. It’s a surreal line to take …

    surreal?

    nope.

    They simply read “1984” as instruction manual instead of warning.

    War is Peace

    Freedom is Slavery

    Ignorance is Strength

  • stace

    This page is blocked, with the reason being given as “sexual”.

    Daggone frothy lube Santorum trigger.