# Poll: does anybody else believe that Rick Santorum is crazy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581 "2012-02-22T01:59:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/41 "2012-02-22T18:29:15Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > This is very helpful for people who are browsing the forums using Tapatalk or some other interface which doesn’t recognize polls. Without the “poll” cue in the thread title itself, it looks like any other thread, and you can waste time reading quite far before realizing that it’s built around a poll. Interesting - thanks for that. I’ve bitched about Poll: Polls enough around here that I’m glad there’s finally a solid, legitimate reason to shut me up! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/42 "2012-02-22T19:04:19Z")
I went with DSM-IV diagnosis, but the poll did not specify Axis I vs Axis II. He is definitely a raging narcissist, which would earn him an Axis II diagnosis… ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/43 "2012-02-22T19:17:37Z")
I went with #2. In other words, to the OP title, answer = YES. While I’m not up on DSM-IV, I think the distinction between 1 and 2 is that by convention these crazy things don’t get an official diagnosis, because we give them a pass for reasons of cultural tradition, having to do with a long history of blending dilusion and power. Which cycles us back to Santorum himself. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/44 "2012-02-22T19:50:58Z")
I don’t see insanity, I see zealous religious fascism in Rick Santorum. I do not want a religious zealot in the White House. Newt Gingrich probably has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Mitt Romney has delusions of believing he is a real boy. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/45 "2012-02-22T19:56:59Z")
I don’t believe he is crazy, just a very devout believer in Catholic doctrine. I don’t think “very devout” is the same thing as “extreme fanatic.” ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/46 "2012-02-22T20:17:56Z")
Not to hijack, but I think the Catholic Church teaches some pretty weird stuff. And it seems like there are a lot of Catholics out there who spend the rest of their lives dealing with the stuff they were taught growing up. [/hijack] Romney actually reminds me of George W. Bush and Al Gore and of stuff I’ve read about JFK: powerful men with powerful fathers, who seem to spend their lives proving themselves to Daddy. _That_ scares me. (I know John McCain also had a powerful father, but I think he has more issues with his experience in Vietnam than with his father and grandfather.) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/47 "2012-02-22T20:30:02Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I don’t believe he is crazy, just a very devout believer in Catholic doctrine. I don’t think “very devout” is the same thing as “extreme fanatic.” Except that Santorum is in the “extreme fanatic” category. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/48 "2012-02-22T21:22:24Z")
I wonder how many would see him as insane, or at very least as suffering from a severe personality disorder, if he claimed his inspiration for his morality came from the goddess Bastet instead of from Christianity. Either way it’s a fascist, General Woundwort-ian fascism against women especially that he justifies in the supernatural as proclaimed in a book that he’s never read (at least not as of 2005\*) and which does not condemn abortion or contraception in the first place. I truly don’t think there’d be any question of his mental competence if he wasn’t claiming inspiration from an established religion, one that he turns too not just for personal comfort (and sure as hell not for notions on charity and good works) but for excuse to subjugate others. \*From [this article](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/magazine/22SANTORUM.html?pagewanted=all): > [@](#): > > Santorum is not a reader of Scripture – ‘‘I’ve never read the Bible cover to cover; maybe I should have’’ – and has no passages he clings to when seeking spiritual guidance. ‘‘I’m a Catholic, so I’m not a biblical scholar. I’m not someone who has verses he can pop out. That’s not how I interact with the faith.’’ ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/49 "2012-02-22T21:38:12Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I wonder how many would see him as insane, or at very least as suffering from a severe personality disorder, if he claimed his inspiration for his morality came from the goddess Bastet instead of from Christianity. Either way it’s a fascist, General Woundwort-ian fascism against women especially that he justifies in the supernatural as proclaimed in a book that he’s never read (at least not as of 2005\*) and which does not condemn abortion or contraception in the first place. I truly don’t think there’d be any question of his mental competence if he wasn’t claiming inspiration from an established religion, one that he turns too not just for personal comfort (and sure as hell not for notions on charity and good works) but for excuse to subjugate others. > \*From [this article](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/magazine/22SANTORUM.html?pagewanted=all): The best thing about being Catholic is we don’t have to read the bible, we have someone who does it for us. Loach, lapsed Catholic ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/50 "2012-02-22T21:47:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Newt Gingrich doesn’t have a crazy bone in his body. I don’t think he has any principled ones, either. > > Santorum and Gingrich aren’t crazy. Santorum is just a religious fanatic, and Gingrich is profoundly corrupt. Well, that whole “colony on the moon by my the end of my second term” certainly reeks of lunacy to me, but I’m a realist, not a fantacist. He’s fucking nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/51 "2012-02-22T21:52:15Z")
On the other hand, Catholics also have the most well-reasoned, intellectual defenders of the Bible around. Too often, the Protestant reliance on _Sola Fide_ translates into “My idiosyncratic interpretation of scripture is the only right one, cause God told me so!” Which is of course at odds with their pretense of _sola scriptura_, but there ya go. ---
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/52 "2012-02-22T21:58:04Z")
I doubt anyone here would argue that he isn’t a fanatic, but I wouldn’t say he’s ill. I know people who say and think even dumber and crazier things, yet have no diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/53 "2012-02-22T22:07:26Z")
While I’m in the small minority in thinking he’s nuts, I am glad to see I’m in the overwhelming majority (82%+ as of this typing) in thinking he really does believe most of the shit he says. [QUOTE=Loach] The best thing about being Catholic is we don’t have to read the bible, we have someone who does it for us. [/QUOTE] Unfortunately Catholics haven’t got even the beginnings of a monopoly on that one. It’s one of the great mysteries to me how many people give such credence to a book they’ve never read even though it’s available free of charge a million different places. > [@Chefguy](#): > > Well, that whole “colony on the moon by my the end of my second term” certainly reeks of lunacy to me, but I’m a realist, not a fantacist. You can roll your eyes about that comment now, but when the economy is rebooted by our trade with the moon people I’ll bet you’ll be the first to claim you were always on board, probably from your condo in the lunar capitol of Newttown. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/54 "2012-02-22T22:13:27Z")
Fanatical believer. Of the sort that when confronted with the shock on the rest of humanity’s face after their latest action or expression sees that only as proof that they must be doing God’s work. Of course, there’s people who post on this board who would categorically state that all who are believers are mentally ill, but that’s another half hour… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/55 "2012-02-22T23:42:13Z")
[QUOTE=JRDelirious] Of course, there’s people who post on this board who would categorically state that all who are believers are mentally ill, but that’s another half hour… [/QUOTE] I don’t believe that, but I do think there’s a point at which any belief, even one with some merit (e.g. free market capitalism or harsher penalties on illegal immigration) blends with mania. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/56 "2012-02-23T01:47:17Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t believe that, but I do think there’s a point at which any belief, even one with some merit (e.g. free market capitalism or harsher penalties on illegal immigration) blends with mania. If it has merit (in your opinion) how does it blend with mania? For example, illegal immigration - does the dealing with this issue have merit until it goes too far for your comfort? Then by your definition, it becomes ‘mania’? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/57 "2012-02-23T01:52:16Z")
“Almost everything carried to its logical extreme becomes depressing, if not carcinogenic.” Ursula K. LeGuin. Immigration Reform becomes “maniac” when people start talking about “voluntary self-deportation,” or total deportation of all illegal immigrants, or a non-amendment re-interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s “jurisdiction” clause, or when they start talking about an electrified fence with alligators in the moat. It’s like pornography: you know it when you see it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/58 "2012-02-23T02:04:34Z")
I have a bit of a problem with the push poll term “extreme fanatic”. I have no doubt that Santorum has at least some deeply held religious beliefs which he thinks all of us need to live by, and that he’s comfortable cultivating believers who are even farther out there by my standards. These of course are people who’d consider me a fanatic for helping create a society they believe is sinful and even Satanic. Tonight I was dining with a person who wants to see Obama defeated in 2012, but is distressed by what she referred to as the “clown car full of idiots” who are the GOP candidates. Does Rick Santorum have the biggest red nose and floppiest shoes? It’s hard to tell. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/59 "2012-02-23T03:14:33Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > If it has merit (in your opinion) how does it blend with mania? A poorly worded phrase on my part. By ‘merge with’ I’m referring to ‘joins with a mental disorder that is already there’. Example: I worked for years at homes for the mentally ill in Alabama. (I know, “how can you tell in Alabama?”, etc., but you can.) It’s a very religious climate down here in general, and it was interesting to see how that played into mental illness. Religion does not in and of itself _cause_ mental illness, but it does merge with it. Example: Client A is a bipolar male who has little or no impulse control and has auditory hallucinations when he’s having a manic episode. He is not religious. Client B has the same diagnosis but is very religious. When Client A is having an episode he doesn’t apply any type of religious imagery to it and his hallucinations might be anything from his long dead grandmother to Mr. Oleson from _Little House on the Prairie_ (actual examples, btw), while when Client B is having an episode he sees himself as being directed by God and the voices are the voices of God or Satan or other supernatural beings. (One client I knew heard the voice of an archangel he called _Cadence_, but I digress.) It’s interesting to me how some mentally ill people plug their religion into their mental illness or vice versa. While I don’t think Rick Santorum is bipolar, I think his personality, whether it fits an official diagnosis or not, has plugged into his religious beliefs to combine a rigid black-white mania that would be there if he was an atheist, a Hindu, or a Raellian, and merges in such a way that is a fusion of official dogma and personal assholery and greater than the sum of its parts. ---
**Author:** ![Isaristh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@Isaristh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isaristh)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581/60 "2012-02-23T03:30:41Z")
We have separation of Church and State for a reason, to keep the State out of the affairs of religions to a reasonable level (I doubt we’d allow honor killings without a murder charge, but we also had this recent go with the birth control issue), and likewise should keep the “Church” (any religion) out of the State. Rick Santorum would accomplish the opposite. It’s very obvious he wants to bring about a “Christian America” and force people to adhere to “superior ideals” found in Christianity. He must not be elected. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-does-anybody-else-believe-that-rick-santorum-is-crazy/613581.md?page=4)