Juan Cole: Top Ten Differences Between Rick Santorum and JFK

10. John F. Kennedy was a war hero who fought in the Pacific theater after America was the victim of a war of aggression. Santorum is a chickenhawk who voted to send US soldiers into Iraq on false pretenses.

9. John F. Kennedy wanted universal health care to help the poor. Santorum wants to repeal the Health Care Reform that provides for every American to have health insurance

8. John F. Kennedy was a liberal who cared about people. Rick Santorum is a rightist radical who wants to abolish the Federal safety net for those who need it and who plays politics with race resentments.

7. John F. Kennedy was committed to protecting the environment. Rick Santorum argues for human “dominion” over the earth, more oil and gas use, and dismisses the threat of global climate change.

6. John F. Kennedy launched a US government project to land an American on the moon within a decade, saying “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…” Santorum, no visionary, views space exploration as a “wasteful” “government program” and wants to hang competition with the Chinese in space on the US private sector (as if there is money to be made in the black vacuum of outer space)

5. John F. Kennedy praised science and scientists, saying, , “Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man’s place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man’s own nature.” Rick Santorum believes that most scientists are immoral.

4. John F. Kennedy supported peaceful revolutions. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Rick Santorum supported the dictator Hosni Mubarak and opposed the Arab Spring.

3. John F. Kennedy opposed government secrecy and censorship on national security grounds. Rick Santorum called Julian Assange of wikileaks “a terrorist” for publishing classified documents.

2. John F. Kennedy opposed wars of aggression, saying, “The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough — more than enough — of war and hate and oppression.” Rick Santorum wants to launch an illegal and unilateral attack on Iran

1. John F. Kennedy was a hunk.

Rick Santorum wears sweater vests.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/top-ten-differences-between-rick-santorum-and-jfk.html