He is stupid but this about it. In his mind, it’s a perfectly logical statement. It’s in line with the way he thinks about homosexuality. Santorum is equating being gay with a choice. Should the gay man be forced to print something that is against his “beliefs” which is his question. Should a florist have to provide flowers to a gay wedding because it is against the florists beliefs?
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Actually the religious freedom laws grew out of questions concerning governmental restrictions on religious activities. Can the government force a Muslim prisoner to shave? What about build a road over a tribal religious site? The idea that the law will help strike a balance between citizens is relatively new. Until recently the religious freedom law has almost always been used as a shield by religious individuals against a government action.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case decided to give religious people a sword to swing at others in the name of religious freedom. That is what we are talking about here. How, in a civil society, do we strike a balance between the competing rights of citizens.
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Santorum’s example is more like the “kosher deli forced to sell ham sandwich” example. Print shops can decline to print material which is defamatory or obscene. What they can’t do is decline to print the same material for one customer that they would print for another. If they print the “God hates…” signs for the Eastboro Baptist Church but decline to print the same signs for the Westboro Baptist Church, they have a problem. If they decline to print for both, they don’t.
If a baker will bake a “Congratulations to Alex and Dana” cake for a straight couple, but not for a gay one, that is discrimination.
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Considered, and rejected. Being a member of the Westboro Baptist Church does not make you a member of a protected class. Being a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, and holding abhorent, hateful opinions, unlike being gay, really is a choice.
Do you see how this is a false equivalence? It’s the stock in trade of the RWNJ’s these days.
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Well stated.
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Dear Ricky: no self-respecting Christo-fascist would purchase their hateful signage from a shop operated by “fags.” I thought you freaks were against doing business with them on religious grounds.
This is not a valid analogy, and is an old conservative argument.
Instance one is a restaurant refusing to provide simple food and service they would supply to anyone else, to the exclusion of one group of people (gays).
Instance two is a printer (or cake shop in NC) that refuses to provide a product and service that is hateful and discriminatory in intent- a 1st amendment right on the part of the printer. The printer does not print hateful/discriminatory signs for everybody (he would probably be out of business if so), nor does the printer exclude only one party (Westboro), and applies the “hateful speech” clause to all.
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Thank you, Eustace. I was going to raise this issue but will instead append to your comment.
The GOP has made false equivalence their stock-in-trade, and their base is far too stupid and gullible not to recognize it.
The pizza situation is dramatically different from the cake situation. The pizza shop wants the blanket right to refuse service to certain people, based on their sexual orientation. No one is asking them to produce a custom product that offends their sensibilities. It’s all just pizza. The cake situation is not at all like that. The baker hasn’t complained that he is being forced to sell his cake. He simply doesn’t want to decorate it in a manner that he finds abhorrent. It has nothing to do with the identity or orientation of the customer.
Honest to goodness, it is really mind-boggling how dense some people are.
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I think he got his jollies off quoting it in full on TV on purpose.
Point could be made without the full quote. Agree that neither should be viewed as endorsement but given Santorum’s claiim that merely printing as part of your business is a forced endorsement his voluntary quote should be-- according to his logic-- be viewed as even more of an endorsement.
Put slightly differently, if you are going to claim that printing the slagan as part of your business is an endorsement what does voluntarily distributing an offensive slogan over nationoal TV constitute?
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See, I’ve wrestled with something similar over the last 20 years or so.
Granted it’s an ideological-- as opposed to a religious qualm.
As a graphic/web designer-- I’ve had opportunities to accept/decline work of a political nature.
As a professional-- if you have the time, the money is right-- you do the work.
And the other side of the coin is-- someone-- will do the work.
I may not be thrilled with it-- but it is work-- and until recently this has been ultra-red-Texas.
Now. Had someone asked me to produce anything of substance for Greg Abbott’s campaign?
Can’t say what my reaction would have been. I believed in Wendy Davis’ candidacy-- as a vehicle for change.
But unless I’m asked to produce something that’s actually illegal?
If I have the time-- I do the work.
jw1
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Excellent response and point.
I think the more salient issue here is how a (once) venerable news organization like CBS thinks it’s a good idea to turn the microphone over to a bloviating, out-of-work jackhole. Did Dick Cheney have too many honey-dos yesterday?
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Not unlike Sen Tom Cotton’s recent reference to:
…the crime of being gay.
IMO there’s a RWNJ think-tank talking-point/meme being disseminated recently–
in order to refresh the idea that being gay requires a stigma attached.
Luntzing gays.
Has a fetid ring to it.
jw1
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Methink God hates Santorum. It’s so hard to clean up after all.
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Right – because “Best wishes on your wedding” and “God hates fags” are totally the same thing.
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According to people like Santorum- it is.
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As much as I hate Rick Santorum, I really want to hit Dan Savage for that one.
And I hate this guy because he abandons his daughter over and over again so he can go campaign. His daughter could drop dead at any second and he wants to tell me about family values?
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He’s got it completely backwards. The Indiana law would require the shop owner to print the signs because the customer’s religiosity takes precedence.
Also being gay is not a religion.
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But that’s the platform he runs on. He is the self-proclaimed stupid man’s candidate. His rallying cry is ‘smart people will never support conservatives.’
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"If you’re a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up?” Santorum asked on CBS’ “Face The Nation.” “Should the government — and this is really the case here — should the government force you to do that?”
For those of you who avoided the embarrassment and misfortune of having this idiot be one of your Senators, be forever grateful.
Does the former Senator really want to argue that a country that protects the rights of people to picket funerals with “God Hates Fags” signs, is one that unduly burdens those who object to gay marriage? Gays have to tolerate the hate speech from the animals who belong to Westboro. In exchange, they may purchase a cake for their wedding. Sorry, if Rick Santorum can’t live with that.
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