Rick Santorum Wants to Save Us From Barack Obama

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail

“You know why Tea Parties have risen up?” Santorum continues. “You want to know why there’s anxious people everywhere you go? Because they know at a foundational level, America is at risk.”

RICK SANTORUM CLEARLY BELIEVES in American exceptionalism, in the impact our ideals have had around the globe. “Capitalism and freedom have doubled life expectancy in 200 years,” he says. “People say, ‘Oh, it was gonna happen anyway with technology.’ Well, where do you think the technology came from? Did technology develop in the Muslim world?”

 

That said, Santorum also clearly believes we’re losing our way as a nation. In Santorum’s America, not only would there be no government bailouts and no Obamacare, but Social Security would be privatized, and the feds would keep their nose out of things like global warming. In short, we would have far less government involvement in our lives.

Except when we’d have more. He’s also opposed to abortion, and favors a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. If some see those positions as contradictory, in Santorum’s view they are exactly what the Founding Fathers intended: a country where we are all protected from the power of the government, but where we all agree to live by certain values.

But whose values? If there’s a cornerstone of Santorum’s nascent campaign, it was laid in Houston in September, when the Senator gave an address marking the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s speech about the separation of church and state — a speech in which JFK sought to assure the country that the Pope wouldn’t be hiding out in a back room at the White House, telling him what to do. Santorum came to Houston, however, not to praise Kennedy, but to bury him.

While bigotry against Catholics made it necessary, Santorum argued, for JFK to address the religion issue, he went way, way too far in separating faith and politics. In short, JFK took language in the Constitution meant to protect religion from government and wrongly used it to protect government from religion. He chose to “expel faith” from public discourse, Santorum said, thereby setting off a 50-year run of secularism.