Santorum and the Separation of Church and State

There are a handful of Democratic Presidents who I admire and respect, mostly for pushing free market reforms, limited government, and a strong military presence.

Grover Cleveland, a reform who bucked his own party and Presidential tradition, serving two non-consecutive terms in the White House, routinely vetoed bills which expanded the size and scope of the federal government. He refused to outlay subsidies to farmers in Texas, for example, decry the potential precedent that such a wasteful expenditure would set. The Government must depend on the people, Cleveland wrote in his veto response, but the people must not become dependent on the government. The only Democratic president to serve between the Civil War and World War I, Cleveland had no problem throwing his weight against a liberal Republican spend-thrift Congress, one that had marginalized the Democratic into near-oblivion with the bloody shirt of Confederate infamy.

John F. Kennedy understood the necessity of a limited tax base. He also respected the need for a strong military while cutting back on government at home. Not the most effective leader when facing off against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the Kremlin, he recognized the need for a hard-nosed foreign policy. He also respected the demarcation separating a religious hegemony in the White House. He was a proclaimed Catholic, one who did not denounce his views, yet he refused to let the Vatican dictate the policies and procedures of the United States. There is a role of religion in the private leadings of men, but religious tenets which run counter to religious liberty have no place in the public square.

GOP Rick Santorum has a problem with this. An outspoken Catholic who has led with his prayers and holy orders, his minority Catholic views have begun to appall many on the left and the right, including GOP establishment types. The next president of the United States must respect the right and the role of religion among individual citizens, but to assume that the role of institutionalized faith must dictate the ways and means of government disturbs many voters. Compassionated conservatism exploded the role of government, an immoral outcome that has spoiled the fiscal stability of the country while confusing our representatives and hamstringing our candidates. A separation of church and state does not exist in the First Amendment of the Constitution, yet we must not permit future leaders to impose their religious views on anyone, let along legislate morality.