There isn’t much of a “left,” let alone a “secular left.” However, it does give you a idea of how irrelevant Rick Santorum has made Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich’s rallying cry is the last refuge of very desperate Republicans. To slither behind a pulpit, declare you’ve “fallen short of the glory of God,” then ramble on and on about how the “secular left” is a threat.
Newt Gingrich warned members of a Georgia church Sunday that the “secular left” is trying to undermine American principles established by the Founding Fathers as he sought to rejuvenate his presidential bid.
The former House speaker is bypassing Tuesday’s Republican presidential primaries in Michigan and Arizona and spending most of the week in Georgia, which he represented in Congress for 20 years. Gingrich said at a church north of Atlanta that Americans have faced a “50-year assault” by those trying to alienate people of faith.
Including John F. Kennedy in the “50-year assault” is rather humorous; the man who was seen as so close to the Pope he had to give a speech to prove he was not. That 50 years later Rick Santorum is admitting when he read the speech it made him want to throw up isn’t surprising.
What Kennedy proclaimed in his speech on religion wouldn’t happen today by either Democratic or Republican candidates for fear of what it would mean to “key demographics” as they’re now euphemistically called.
If the “secular left” weren’t always under threat itself and usually by the Democratic Party, whose members contort themselves while never making the case that secular government policy serves all the people without regard to faith, its charter mission, that would be one thing. But when was the last time you ever heard a Democrat stand up for secularism?
Poor little Newt, he’s like the little brother who wants to hang out with the big kids. The big kids just ignore him, but let him tag along to keep mom happy.
AND so they can make fun of and laugh at him.
Do you mean really stand up for it, not just say that we’re free to “not believe” if we want? I can’t remember. I’d bet it’s been a decade or more, at least at the federal level.
Anyone know of a more recent example?