Why Rick Santorum Should STFU

I do have more to say on this but I’m gonna run this Forbes bit first because it’s well done.  The good thing is theres no chance Santorum will win the primary but there IS a chance he could become president.

From Forbes Magazine:

Last week Rick Santorum vowed to end America’s “pandemic of pornography,” insisting that if he were president he would limit the rights of adults to show and view images of consenting adults having sex. No doubt there is too much pornography in this country, and anyone thinking of watching it should go read their Bible instead. But what I want in a president is a pragmatist, not a panderer.

It would have been one thing for Santorum to say that his real crusade is against pedophilia or against child trafficking. Those are real evils that must be stopped. But that’s not what he said.

Here’s why Santorum should stop talking about porn.

Porn is not going to go away. The porn industry is very careful not to violate laws protecting underaged boys and girls from being exploited for porn. If porn is made with underaged performers, those responsible for the project do get caught and do go to prison.

Big porn producers like Vivid and Hustler go out of their way to keep underaged kids out of the business, and they work with the authorities to track down and prosecute anyone involved in pedophilia. They do so because they want to protect their legitimate business from government’s prying eyes.

Any limits on the production of pornography in the U.S. will simply push the producers out of the U.S. and into countries that either don’t have such laws protecting children or don’t enforce them.

Banning something generally is not a good way to reduce demand. It didn’t work with alcohol during Prohibition; it hasn’t worked with harder drugs ever since. Scarcity itself creates demand. But Americans don’t have a right to drugs. We do, however, have a First Amendment right to free speech and to peaceably assemble, even if the assembled people are naked and accompanied by a video camera.

Ultimately, we have bigger problems than restricting what adults can do with other adults. If Santorum really wants to fight obscenity he should focus on limiting the crazy things senators and congressmen do with unconsenting taxpayer dollars.