This time Senator Rick is interviewed by Ed Gordon. Once again Rick does a great job. I'm not qualified to judge how well he walks the walk, but he gives a great interview.
There's an interesting exchange a few minutes into it over Affirmative Action. Rick tries to make the point that Affirmative Action as an issue is dead, and the number of African Americans that federal Affirmative Action programs help pales in comparison to the number of African American individuals and entire communities that have been devastated due to the breakdown of the African American family. Ed Gordon just can't swallow this and insists that Affirmative Action is somehow a bigger issue than the African American family.
EG: I just want to make sure that we're under the same understanding here, Senator. Forgive me, but you understand that African Americans see Affirmative Action as far bigger than set-asides and the 5% set-aside that you suggested there. It's a much broader issue and topic for African Americans.
RS: Yes, I know it is for some African Americans. And I understand that the issue of Affirmative Action has a lot of connotation to it. But when it comes to government programs, that's what Affirmative Action by and large is: it's a set of preferences and set-asides. So my point is, that what we need to do is focus on things that have greater impact in the African American community than a handful of government programs that benefit a very small number of African Americans. So my point is not that I'm against those things - and in fact in the book I talk about my support for them - but when you focus on those things you miss what I consider to be the bigger picture here. And the bigger picture is that the African American community - and particularly in the inner city - is... we need a program and we need a policy - both from a government as well as community-based - to be able to address some of the more systemic problems there.
EG: Alright, I would just beg to differ with the idea of a greater impact than Affirmative Action. I think that would be a hard road to go down with most African Americans, that you'd find many things greater than the impact of Affirmative Action through the years.
RS: I would say the out-of-wedlock birthrate in the African American community going from 20% to 75% has had a bigger negative impact than the positive impact of Affirmative Action.
Gordon doesn't reply except with a casual "Alright." If he does not agree with what Rick just said, than that is enormously revealing.
Santorum does not support repealing the Affirmative Action programs in place, but he states that healing the wounds that have been inflivted upon the African American family and community is a more fundamental issue. To disagree with this is to give up on the idea of actually achieving equality. It is almost unbelievable.
I would argue that such a low regard for the importance of repairing families is a deeper cause of our culture of death than is legalized abortion. Abortion is a symptom; hostility towards the family is a root cause, a corollary to hostility towards God's will for us.
Towards the end there's an exchange on homosexuality. Gordon claims not to understand how one can differentiate between respecting a person and not approving of certain behavior that person engages in. Rick provides a quick education, and you can sense a weariness with explaining such an incredibly simple point. Again, Gordon doesn't reply.
