Scrubbing Clean The Fabric Of American Culture

"America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography. Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking." At first blush, it's hard to argue with this thought, even if "pandemic" may be a little over the top. These are words from Rick Santorum's web site. Then there's this: "The Obama Administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws. While the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families, that will change under a Santorum Administration."
Okay then. Now we're finding ways to link violence against women and misogyny to the Obama administration. According to Rick, Barack Obama favors pornographers over children and families. How will this change under a Santorum Administration? He will declare war on pornography. The War on Terror grinds on and the War on Drugs spins its wheels while both continue chalking up huge chunks of the federal budget. Now we will be going into battle against Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner. Rick urges us all to join the War on Illegal Pornography Coalition, which is ironically blocked by the Internet servers that that govern our school district's computers because it is associated with porn. Kids can go and visit Pornharms.com, however, to discover how all this smut has undermined the very stable institutions that America holds dear: the family and the Internet.
I don't want to have to defend either one of those institutions. Both have suffered their growing pains and the new century has been less than kind to them both, but I don't know if the blame falls squarely on pornography. Like the First Amendment, I don't think I am qualified as a constitutional scholar to comment on exactly what line should be drawn. What passes for a commercial for a burger joint in some households is the worst kind of filth in others. I don't know if I want to fight in that war.
In the meantime, you can find me in line to volunteer to fight in the war against hyperbole.