Rick Santorum Wants to Save Us From Barack Obama

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail

“The sad fact is, [Kennedy] could have stood by his beliefs and won; he chose not to,” Santorum said. “Instead he charted a course that has won many elections, but has put American civilization at risk.”

 

Santorum’s Houston speech was a long, difficult one, highly intellectual and filled with references to or quotes from four popes, John Henry Newman, Martin Luther King, C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton (not to mention, uh, New York Senator Chuck Schumer). But the point of it wasn’t to rouse the troops; rather, it was to frame — for himself, for the country, perhaps for history — the proper relationship between church and state. It was, in short, the kind of political address we don’t hear anymore.

“Well, it’s more of an academic speech than a political document,” Santorum replies when I ask him about it in Charleston. “The best reaction I got that night was three philosophy professors who came up to me and said that, you know, we didn’t expect this. We expected some sort of right-wing political discussion. And one said, ‘I will assign your speech in my philosophy class. This is something we will chew on for days.’”

As we’re chatting, two middle-aged women approach, and Santorum politely explains what we’re talking about.

“That’s what we love about you,” one says. “You’re very thoughtful.”

“I don’t know … ” Santorum says bashfully.

“Are you Catholic?” the other asks.

“I am,” Santorum says.

Go-o-o-d!” the woman replies, though it’s tough to tell whether she means it … or the exact opposite.

Not that Santorum seems to care what others think about him, or his views. As he stated near the end of his Houston speech, “I have always felt comfortable to be on the path our founders took, the one that is now less traveled and invites the most criticism.”

To put it another way: Make all the anal sex jokes you want about me, folks. I’m not wavering on what I believe.