Rick Santorum: Legend in his own mind
b. traven
As a repentant psychologist with some experience in aberrant and self-delusional human behavior, I was recently struck by what passes for meaningful and heartfelt discourse in American conservative circles. The subject: Nelson Mandela. The conversants: the smarmy conservative Rick Santorum and the bullying Bill O’Reilly. Their conversation would be ludicrous if it wasn’t so typical of “serious” and “sane” conservative discourse. Naturally, the venue was Fox News, the most highly watched news show in the USA.
Rick Santorum, the former junior senator from Pennsylvania and avowed conservative Catholic, took it upon himself to pass judgment on Nelson Mandela. What came next was truly insane:
Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice and was willing to pay a huge price for that. That’s the reason he’s mourned today, because of that struggle that he performed,” Rick Santorum said. “But you’re right, I mean, what he was advocating for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives, and Obamacare is front and center in that.
That’s right: Nelson Mandela, a giant of a man, a man of such enormous fortitude and wisdom that he healed the great rift of Apartheid in South Africa, is just like, you guessed it, Rick Santorum! And just like the saintly Mandela, Santorum is fighting against “a great injustice,” America’s moral equivalent of Apartheid: Obamacare!
Santorum’s delusional statement, pointed out by Slate’s Dave Weigel in a tweet Friday morning, came after Fox News host Bill O’Reilly claimed Mandela “was a great man, but he was a communist.”
“I would never attack Nelson Mandela,” O’Reilly said next.
Righto, Bill O’Reilly. Let’s not attack Mandela by reducing his legacy to a simple allegiance to communism. And righto, Rick Santorum. Let’s compare the brutal system of Apartheid to the extension of health care and health insurance to Americans. They’re so much alike!
Time for the men in the white coats to claim Santorum and O’Reilly before Santorum claims he’s Mother Teresa and O’Reilly claims he’s the Pope.
The Contrary Perspective 
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This is a historical fact (I recorded Mandela’s speech, via CNN, upon his release from prison): Right up front in the speech he expressed his gratitude for the contributions of communists to the struggle against Apartheid. As a “red” myself, I found this thrilling and inspiring. This man knew the eyes and ears of the world were upon him, and he did not back away from acknowledging communist support. (And indeed, the Apartheid regime, rabidly anti-communist, had just been forced by world public opinion to release him from 27 years of imprisonment, so what could they do to him at that point? Doubtless the diehards were regretting not having assassinated him decades previously!) Now, let’s pick the names of two politicians who were U.S. Senators in 1990 out of a hat: Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. Rabid anti-communists, rabid pro-segregationists. Hmmm, is a pattern emerging here? Let’s go farther back in history: who was first to come to defense of “the Scottsboro Boys”? That’s right: communists. I know Santorum is relatively young. I’m guessing that wherever he went to college he belonged to The Young Republicans (and/or Campus Crusade For Christ). What do you suppose that group’s stance on Apartheid was? To avoid embarrassment, they may not have spoken in favor of it in public, but privately do you suppose they opposed it? Ha!! Fat chance!
I doubt that Nelson Mandela personally considered himself a communist. But it is not surprising in the least that the likes of Bill O’Reilly would attempt to besmirch his reputation with such an accusation. Hell, Dr. Goebbels would have done exactly the same!!
Great comment. Thanks, Greg.
This country could use a real Nelson Mandela instead of the faux one it got. Right is right and playing ball with the banksters is still playing ball even though everyone is back to work.