Kenneth Roy Eck’s literary luvvies Jim Swire An…

10.01.12
No. 498

The Cafe 2

R D Kernohan has no worry about being mistaken for the Rev I M Jolly, as that great comic creation was, of course, incredibly funny. His own petulant moans about modern Christmas (22 December

     For example, there’s the typical Christian attempt to claim, for themselves, the ‘true meaning of Christmas’; as Jeremy Hardy recently pointed out, during BBC Radio 4’s ‘News Quiz’: ‘The Christmas that we do is a kind of a mish-mash; it’s basically a bit of Hanukkah, a bit of Saturnalia, a bit of pagan solstice, a bit of celtic mysticism, a lot of Phil Spector’. (And Dickens and Prince Albert, too, he might have added.)
     The people of these islands were having a big party to mark being halfway through the dark long before we were infected by the Christianity meme; to somehow suggest that, before and now, our winter celebrations lack a contemplative element is conceited. What else does he think happens during the wee hours of a Scottish Hogmanay, once the drink has slowed?
     Unlike R D Kernohan I am all for a secular society emphasising community and togetherness, be that family or friends. While the ‘overt commerciali-sation’ of the festivities sometimes worries me in terms of taste, though, I guess we at least agree on one thing, the absolute proof that Britain is now a post-Christian society (albeit one still home to a lot of practising Christians) is our cultural emphasis on Christmas rather than Easter. Unlike R D Kernohan, however, that doesn’t bother me.

Paul F Cockburn

Today’s banner

Meikleour, Perthshire on New Year’s Day
Photograph by
Islay McLeod

The presidential hopeful

who equates homosexuality

to bestiality

Alan Fisher

Rick Santorum won’t win in New Hampshire. The latest polls suggest that the best he will do is finish third – but for a man voters struggled to identify just a few weeks ago, he has, through hard work and dogged campaigning, elbowed his way into the top tier of challengers for the Republican Party nomination.

     He spent a lot of time in Iowa. He went from meeting to meeting, diner to church hall, speaking with people, sometimes one on one, in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. When I visited the state in October, people were telling me he could be the big surprise, as the conservative-leaning voters in the state liked him and liked his message. But as each of the revolving roster of front-runners in the Republican race has discovered, once you hit the front people get a lot more interested in what you’ve said and done in the past.
     Santorum was the first of his family to be born in the USA. A story he often tells on the campaign trail is how his grandfather travelled from Italy to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. When he had saved enough money, which took five years, he sent for his wife and children, including Santorum’s father.  Much of his politics is informed by his upbringing and his Roman Catholic religion. A father of seven living children – an eighth was born prematurely in 1996 and survived for just two hours – he is deeply opposed to contraception (‘it’s harmful to women’).
     He has argued against same-sex marriage arguing that could open the door to other unacceptable relations, equating homosexuality with bestiality or paedophilia. So, outraged by such a suggestion, one columnist asked readers to redefine ‘Santorum’ as a disgusting sexual term, which now appears high in Google rankings if you enter the senator’s name.
     He wrote a book – always a starting point for any presidential campaign – called ‘It Takes a Family’, which was seen at the time as a reply to Hillary Clinton’s ‘It Takes a Village’. Santorum argued that ‘the influence of radical feminism’ meant that women found it more ‘socially affirming to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children’.

His 18-point losing margin was historic, and in such an important
general election swing state as Pennsylvania, throws a huge question
over his electability.

     Santorum got into the presidential battle in June last year – and immediately headed north to Iowa to begin his campaign. While others used TV advertising to get their message across, the Santorum team couldn’t match that media buy. And so he fought a ground war of attrition, holding more than 350 campaign events across the state in the past seven months. The pattern reflected his entrance into national politics in 1990 at the age of 32. With similar tactics, he unseated a seven-term congressman in a staunch Democrat district in Pittsburgh. He unseated a Democrat when he moved up to the Senate in 1994. However, he hasn’t held office for more than five years, rejected by voters as he tried to win a third Senate term. His 18-point losing margin was historic, and in such an important general election swing state as Pennsylvania, throws a huge question over his electability.
     During his tour in Iowa, he didn’t just address the issues he knew would play well with the slightly older, more conservative, more religious voters that make up large parts of Iowa’s Republican Party. He talked about the economy and carried a reasoned and nuanced argument about rebuilding America’s manufacturing base. In towns where jobs have been shipped, it played well. And there is his constant message on the threat from Iran, arguing that military action is necessary to prevent it building a nuclear weapon.
     Known as ‘Rooster’ in high school for his refusal to back down from an argument,he is likely to finish far behind Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. It’s a more liberal state and his conservative views won’t play well there. He’s already been heckled by students for his anti-gay stance. 
     But he knows the big battle for him is in South Carolina. In two days after the Iowa result, his campaign received more than $2 million in donations. It will help him to get his message across in the first southern contest and he’s already spending some of that on TV time to introduce himself to voters. But in South Carolina, he must establish himself first as the only strong conservative voice in the race, which would mean knocking out Texas governor Rick Perry. Then he has to hope that people see him as someone who can not only beat Mitt Romney but can credibly challenge Barack Obama in November.
     The first is easier than the second – but a win in South Carolina and the rooster will be crowing.

Alan Fisher is an Al Jazeera correspondent