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When you're in a hole, stop digging

It is axiomatic that when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. But some people never learn.

High on the list of those who have trouble learning to put down the shovel are politicians. It seems to be deep within their DNA to believe that if they just keep on shoveling the same old BS that eventually they will fill the hole up and be able to climb out on top. It never works.

The latest example of this is Rick Santorum. Over the weekend, Santorum appeared at right-winger Tony Perkins' home church where he was introduced by a pastor named Dennis Terry. Pastor Terry, in his introduction, went into a long rant about how this is a Christian nation and there is no room for anyone who isn't Christian. All liberals, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, in short anyone who doesn't accept Jesus as a personal saviour should "Get out!"

When he finished his rant, Santorum applauded him and he's been trying to explain that applause ever since. His response boils down to "I wasn't really listening and I don't agree with all of his remarks."

Then Santorum dug yet another hole for himself with his own statement that he didn't care about the unemployment rate or the economy, that his campaign is focused on bigger social issues. Any unemployed person who is desperately trying to find work to support him/herself and his/her family would no doubt consider his/her lack of employment as a social - in fact a moral - issue. But Santorum and, indeed, all the Republican candidates for the presidency are so disconnected from the middle class and from average Americans that they do not appreciate that simple fact.

Whether those average Americans are  liberal, conservative,  Buddhist,  Muslim,  Jewish, atheist or any other permutation of belief, they love their country and they love their families. They certainly have as much right to be here as any fundamentalist Christian and until Santorum and his peers can truly believe that and unequivocally state it, as far as I am concerned, they can get out.

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