In my opinion, as I have previously stated, the Republican Party is splitting. Not only is the establishment branch of the party trying to shove Mitt down the throats of the conservatives but they are vehemently trying to play down the religious issue for the base. First, let me state that as a liberal I do not think religion should be an issue at all in this election. However, as I came from the Deep South and never knew a liberal until I was in college (although I was personally liberal from birth) I spent many years in fundamentalist Christian churches. The Baptists were especially fond of preaching sermons against the ‘antichrist’ Catholic Church. Even more so, the Mormons were blasted from the pulpit in all the fundamentalist churches. They were considered apostate and Joseph Smith was deemed the embodiment of Satan and a false prophet of the latter days. Fundamentalists will not vote for a Mormon – period.

It is odd to me that President Obama, who states he is a Christian, is blasted by Christians as a radical Islamist or a as a purveyor of false theology. Generally, when someone dispenses false theology Christians do not consider them a Christian. Santorum was using code words to the faithful to send the message that Obama was not a Christian but apparently did not have the intestinal fortitude to admit it (which is supposed to be one of his string points)…oh well. I find that when Republican establishments types put the ‘religion does not matter spin’ on the Mormon religion of Mitt they are really trying to downplay the issue for the fundamentalist conservative base. The base is not taken in by this tactic. When folks like Billy Graham’s son get ‘technical’ about their explanation for Mitt and Mormonism (he stated that most Christians would not think of Mormonism as Christian but refused to state if he thought Mormons were Christians) and they also lose their ‘technical’ approach when talking about President Obama (he said that President Obama gave “free pass” to the radical Islamists when asked if President Obama was a Christian)…again, spineless code words. I have news for the establishment types, not only are liberals on to this duplicity but their fundamentalist base is demanding straight talk and bellying up to the bar on these topics. They are tired of mincing words and Santorum is giving them the straight dope (somewhat).

I do not believe Santorum will get the nomination because the establishment will ‘broker’ the convention if they have to in order to get Mitt on the ticket. In my opinion, Santorum is a zealot and he and his followers will not stand idly by and let this happen – they will run on another party’s ticket (probably the Conservative Party). This split will kill the Republican Party. When President Obama is elected again these factions will blame each other for the loss and that will be the end of the Republican Party as we know it. Democracy is not good for the Republicans. When Michael Steele opened up the primaries for partial delegate assignments he signed the death warrant for their party. I do believe that fundamentalist Christians are the epitome of hypocrite for not taking the Christianity of President Obama seriously. It boggles my mind why the focus on helping the poor is so Satanic. From what I can see, if Jesus were running for President they would vote for Santorum.