Rick Santorum’s rhetoric goes to the extreme – The Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson, Monday, February 27, 12:11 PM
Something had to change — so, in recent days, Santorum’s avuncular smile has become a nasty sneer.
On Saturday, he attacked President Obama for advocating higher education. Yes, you read that right: Santorum came out against going to college.
“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college,” Santorum said in Michigan. “What a snob.”
Huh? Santorum elaborated: “There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day, and put their skills to test, that aren’t taught by some liberal college professor trying to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he [Obama] wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”
Ridiculous? Offensive? Hypocritical? Manifestly, all of the above.
Only a fool or a liar is unaware that higher education is all but a prerequisite for success in the post-industrial economy; the unemployment rate for college graduates is just 4.4 percent, compared to 9.5 percent for high-school graduates. The idea that encouraging young people to go to college is really an attempt to lure them into indoctrination camps, or campuses, would be grossly insulting if it were not so comically paranoid. …
Progressives have an obvious interest in seeing the Republican Party choose a weak nominee, but they shouldn’t hope for Santorum. He would be the most extreme candidate since Barry Goldwater — and probably would suffer the same fate. But the nation can’t afford to take that chance.
Rick Santorum’s rhetoric goes to the extreme – The Washington Post