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Free and Strong America

Monday, March 26, 2012

On Bastardy in America and the Stark Differences Between Romney and Santorum




Kudos to presidential hopeful Rick Santorum picking up another huge win, this time in the Lousiana primary. Although behind front-runner Mitt Romney in the overall delegate count, it seems that Santorum won't be pulling out of the race any time soon, if at all.

Columnist Michael Barone has put out a great article contrasting the differences between the two candidates while at the same time examining the effects of bastardy on this country...




"Among the top 20 percent in income and education, (author Charles) Murray finds that rates of marriage and church attendance, after falling in the 1970s, have plateaued at a high level since. And these people have been working longer hours than ever. He labels this group Belmont, after the upscale Boston suburb.


In contrast, among the bottom 30 percent of whites, those indicators started falling in the 1970s and have been plunging ever since, to historical lows by 2008, even before the current economic doldrums. He labels this group Fishtown, after the Philadelphia neighborhood that has been the home of low-income whites since it was first settled in the early 19th century.


In Fishtown, he reports, one-third of men age 30 to 49 are not making a living, one-fifth of women are single mothers raising children. Nearly 40 percent have no involvement in a secular or religious organization.


The result is that the children being raised in such settings have the odds heavily stacked against them. Santorum made this point vividly, and Mitt Romney agreed.


These findings turn some conventional wisdom on its head. They tend to contradict the liberals who blame rising income disparity on free-market economics. In fact, it’s largely driven by personal behavior and choices.


They also undermine the conservatives who say that a liberation-minded upper class has been undermining traditional values to which more downscale Americans are striving to adhere. Murray’s complaint against upscale liberals isn’t that they’re libertines but that they fail to preach what they practice.


What light does this shed on the GOP race? For starters, Romney is literally from Belmont, where he raised his family and now has a condo, and where he helped build a large Mormon temple. He grew up in another Belmont: Bloomfield Hills, Mich.


Santorum, in contrast, describes himself as the grandson of an immigrant coal miner, a product of Fishtown. He often tells of getting his political start by winning two House races in Pittsburgh’s steel-mill suburbs."




The whole article is an interesting read and sheds some light on the differing viewpoints of the two leading presidential hopefuls to replace Barack Obama as well as the decline of what once made up the core of American society.




3 comments:

Ross said...

Do you agree that Newt should pull out of the race, that he has no chance of securing the nomination, and keep his pie in the sky ideas about building moon bases to himself?

If Romney secures the Republican nomination, how do you feel about the prospect of having a Mormon president?

J Curtis said...

Newt has said recently that by staying in the race, it keeps attention from the White House off of the frnt-runner, Romney and bete prepares the eventual nominee for any criticisms they might receive from Obama. Gingrich is becoming increasingly irrelevant though.

I'd rather be governed by competent Mormon than an incompetent Turk.

Ross said...

I first heard of Newt Gingrich in 1994 when he became House speaker. I knew he wrote bad alternate history novels set during the Second World War, but didn't know that at the same time he was pursuing President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, Newt was having an extramarital affair himself.