Most presidential candidates would have brushed aside the young woman's challenge, perhaps mumbling something polite about agreeing to disagree. Not Rick Santorum, on that January afternoon in a hotel ballroom full of college students in Concord, N.H. He was going to convince her (and the entire room) that, no, the inherent right to happiness does not mean society should permit two gay men to marry."So if you're not happy unless you're married to five other people, is that OK?" Santorum said, as boos washed over him. "Well, what about three men?" In a few moments, he had gone from a triumphant candidate surging in the polls after Iowa to a pilot on the verge of a corkscrew dive. It caused onlookers to hold their breaths, but was entirely in character for the former Pennsylvania senator and noted social conservative. He can't help being true to himself.
It was reminiscent of 2006, when Santorum lost his Senate reelection bid in Pennsylvania by 17 percentage points, passionately talking of morality and the family and warning of the dangers of Islamic terrorism and Iran.
He was riding high after victories in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri on Feb. 7. Polls showed Michigan within his grasp, and kept alive conservatives' doubts about Romney. Then Santorum was pulled back into extended conversation about contraception and other social issues. He defended earlier remarks that he "almost threw up" on reading John F. Kennedy's famed 1960 speech about separation of church and state. He defended his belief that birth control is sinful . . .
Santorum and the battle he waged for the soul of the party may help explain some of the polling difficulties that Romney now faces with independent voters and women, said Villanova University political scientist Lara Brown."In dropping out, Rick Santorum certainly helped his own fortunes, but I don't know if he's going to help the Republican Party's fortunes," she said. "There is probably a case to be made that he has spooked independents and moderates." . . . . He also suggested Santorum's stridency on social issues may limit his future role.
A piece in Religion Dispatches carries a similar tone. Here are excerpts:
That Rick Santorum made it this far in the GOP primary shows just how much his views on sex and reproduction resonate with the most religious part of Republican base. The fact that he made it this far by attempting to relitigate the importance, usefulness, and morality of contraception, and getting the country to even discuss it, shows how much Mitt Romney will be forced to contend with the mark Santorum has left on the campaign.
Rick Santorum thinks Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case that invalidated criminal bans on contraception, was wrongly decided. He's off the deep-end on this one, and completely out of touch even with his fellow Catholics, but his statement provoked an exchange at last night's debate about whether states should be permitted to ban birth control.
Mitt Romney feigned surprise -- and emphasized that he would be absolutely, positively against banning birth control -- but the moderators failed to ask him about his enthusiastic support for "personhood" bills that would effectively ban certain kinds of birth control (not to mention fertility treatments).
Santorum brought rhetoric into the race that many conservative activists routinely deploy but few politicians with national aspirations dare to use. "We were winning in a very different way, we were winning hearts, we were raising issues that other people didn't want to raise," Santorum said today. Many of his fellow Republicans probably didn't want him to raise them, and now they're stuck with them, even with Santorum gone.
Rick Santorum and those within the GOP who support his theocratic goals are symbolic of why I left the GOP years ago. I cannot support a political party that no longer grasps the concept of the separation of church and state.
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