So Rick Santorum is nauseated by the words of JFK.

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum said.

“That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can’t come to the public square and argue against it, but now we’re going to turn around and say we’re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square,” he said.

I don’t imagine it’s difficult to make Rick vomit. Big emotions burn to escape him, and they do. Headlines have been filled with embarrassing, half-chewed materia, fled from the mouth of the Rickster. If I were an idea, I’d want to get out of Rick Santorum as fast as possible, too.

This, though. This comment is so stupid, his success in the age the ‘independent’ voter is no longer mysterious. I get Rick Santorum. He’s a young guy, and this is a problem.

Rick is excited and hasty, and he doesn’t fully digest ideas. This makes regurgitating the fine idea-slurry, by which the American consumer-voter is nourished, impossible. It belongs to the seasoned politician to make ideas so thin that they pass inoffensively through the throats of little baby citizens. Rick’s haste cuts between speaking substance and speaking gruel, delivering lines unpalatable to both the simple and the educated.

Now there are young men and women in American politics spinning fine propaganda, beyond their years even. Young people make great liars, because they’re fun, and sexy, and Americans think they’re fighting the man. This gives the lie to the youth in politics: they have no idea who they are, and they never forged their character in solidarity with a greater political life. They couldn’t have. They’ve never done anything, never built anything, never lived a life in common, passed that life on to a greater community. They’re suits and teleprompters.

A liberal and historical education can suffice a young man. He could at least name the parts of the good life lived in common. He could consider the principles whereby the public life is distinguished from the private life, and why and how a whole citizen is to be cultivated through the former. He could speak about lots of true and interesting things. But with Rick’s sheepskins (BA poli-sci, MBA, JD), he’s basically the poster-boy for the phrase, ‘Never confuse legal training with a real education.’

Now the Rickster isn’t that bad. He has a nice family and a great religion. He doesn’t see himself as a liar, at least sometimes. He is yet still young at heart.  He can barely-sorta see something out there. He’s giddy and flounders because he wants us to see it, too. Seeing the common good belongs to political prudence, and young men with real political prudence are rare. Rick is no exception.

Unlike David, most young people will not have a heart after the Lord, loving the earth and her children, minding sheep and ruling men. Love’s labors are never lost in the heart of the lover; the greatest men are the greatest lovers, but apart from David, great love takes time. The young man knows the common good the same way he knows the perfect wife  - by report only.