Santorum blind to America's sins

This posting is worth quoting in full:

The Real Problem with Rick Santorum's "Satan" RemarksIn 2008, Rick Santorum gave a talk at Ave Maria University about Satan’s efforts to undermine America. A lot of attention has focused on Santorum’s comments on mainline Protestant churches—but that’s not the really notable part of this speech. Here’s how Santorum opened his discussion of Satan in America (emphasis mine):If you were Satan, who would you attack, in this day and age? There is no one else to go after, other than the United States. And that’s been the case for now almost 200 years, once America’s pre-eminence was sown by our great Founding Fathers. He didn’t have much success in the early days—our foundation was very strong, in fact, is very strong. But over time, that great, acidic quality of time corrodes away even the strongest foundations. And Satan has done so, by attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality…Let’s think back to what America was like almost 200 years ago. Slavery was legal, indeed enshrined in our Constitution by our Founding Fathers. The federal government was forcibly removing American Indians from their lands, leading to thousands of deaths. Women couldn’t vote and were limited in their rights to own property. And yet, Santorum sees Satan wielding more influence and having more success in America today than he did then.

The issue is not that Santorum favors slavery or Indian removal—if prompted, I’m sure he would agree strongly that these were great evils. But how does somebody look at the history of American society and see a country that was more Godly under Andrew Jackson than it is today? The answer is by focusing only on the rights and treatment of white, Christian men. When some conservatives and libertarians make paeans to a lost period of American greatness, they are treating the perspectives of women and minorities as if they don’t exist, or don’t count.

Two years ago, David Boaz wrote a great piece for Reason called “Up from Slavery.” You should read the whole thing, but the subhead is a good summary: “There’s no such thing as a golden age of lost liberty.” Of course, Boaz is a libertarian and Santorum is not, but the distinction shouldn’t matter here: both Boaz and Santorum subscribe to value systems that should treat slavery and Indian removal as two of the greatest injustices in American history.

By contending that America has fallen from grace relative to 200 years ago, Santorum shows major blind spot for injustices committed against out-groups. That, not his take on mainline Protestants, is the really troubling component of his remarks at Ave Maria.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Republicans want to "Keep America America" and What Conservatives Consider "Objective History."