The Damnation of Santorum Has Begun

Is Senator Santorum the next Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan of the Republican Party?

Barry Goldwater changed the GOP from the east to the west, from Wall Street to Main Street, from the corporation to the entrepreneur, but he led the GOP to a thundering defeat in 1964. He could not restrain his views, which seemed radical at the time.

Ronald Reagan rose out of the ashes of the Goldwater campaign to lead the Republican Party to a great election victory in 1980, preaching economic liberty. Reagan was as conservative as Goldwater, but he moderated his views with an uplifting personality.

Senator Goldwater pointed the way, but he could not cross the divide.

The Senator spoke out against Social security and hinted of dropping the bomb on North Vietnam. President Johnson ran The Daisy Ad, and Goldwater’s campaign imploded.

Senator Santorum is being crucified for his religious beliefs. Maureen Dowd, the sometimes acerbic columnist for the New York Times, calls him “Mullah Rick.” Kimberly A. Strassel of the Wall Street Journal asked if he is the “Moralizer in Chief?”

What is his sin? He is a Christian, a Catholic who believes in the theology of the Church.

He believes in the teachings on the sanctity of human life; he is pro-life. The Senator was the prime proponent of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

He is against gay-marriage and is personally opposed to contraception. He questions the loss of spirituality by many Protestant churches.

Most Americans, including Catholics, support contraception. The American public supports a woman’s right to choose.

That does not mean though that Catholics, who do not always agree with the Church's teachings, want the government to tell their Church what to do.

Thus, the Senator is easily pictured as outside the mainstream, to turn him into the Barry Goldwater of 2012. His own words will be used against him. He’s a straight shooter, but attacking President Kennedy’s famous Separation of Church and State Speech is a loser. He said “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of Church and State is absolute.” Neither did the Founding Fathers, but he was pilloried for this statement.

The media was strangely silent on President Obama’s quoting of Scripture to raise taxes. Imagine the outrage if President George W. Bush had quoted Jesus in support of lowering taxes!

Not everyone should go to college, but most parents want their sons and daughters to pursue the American Dream, which includes college.

Senator Santorum had no need to pick the JFK and college fights, but he chose to do so.

Senator Santorum is different from most of the candidates. He is a conviction politician, a rare individual today. He wears his religion on his sleeve.

The public is looking for leadership, an intangible. Walter Mondale’s pollsters kept saying the American people supported his positions over those of President Reagan. Yet the public overwhelmingly voted to reelect the President. They wanted his leadership, especially after the President Carter years.

We are a pluralistic society, a nation which tolerates freedom of religion, all religions, but we are based on the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Of course, the reality is that the President is using social issues, such as contraception, to take the voters’ minds off economic issues. The President’s advisors expect to win as the issue is posed as the freedom of access, emphasis on the word free, of a woman to contraception.

The gender gap has favored Democrats for decades, with the exception of the 2010 Midterm elections. President Obama is trying to grow the gap.

Most Americans favor gun control, but after Vice President Gore lost Tennessee and West Virginia in 2000, the Democratic Presidential candidates have stayed away from the issue. Some voters are one-issue voters.

We may see in November 2012 if pro-life, anti-gay marriage voters outnumber the single issue voters on the other side.