Monday, February 27, 2012

And The Devil Makes The Loudest Noise

I've been watching and reading with some interest lately about the role that Satan has in our current national debate. Specifically these words from a 2008 speech from the Republicans' chief sweater vest, Rick "Dickie" Santorum: "Satan has his sights on the United States of America! Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition." The 2012 model Santorum insists that he is a person of faith and the media's insistence of bringing up this bit of his past is merely a distraction from the real issues at hand.
Or is he possessed by demons?
Is that literal or figurative demons? Fifty-nine percent of Americans believe that Satan is a concept, not an actual personality. That would fit in well with the platform of a party that declared war on an abstract concept: terror. There is no doubt that Satan, in all his varied forms, could incite terror, after all. By contrast, non-Republican John Lennon once defined God as "a Concept by which we measure our pain." He goes on to list the things that he doesn't believe in, including Elvis and the Bible. Or magic or the I-Ching.
All of which brought me to this vision of Harvey Comics. It was easy enough to cast Mitt Romney as Richie Rich, and we can only assume that Hot Stuff would be Barack Obama. Newt Gingrich is Baby Huey, and that would leave Rick Santorum as the Holy Ghost, Casper sans sweater vest. John Lennon never mentioned comic books.

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