GOP Clown Car Part 5: Rick Santorum

  Let's round out the one percenters with former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. I  am finding it very hard to write about Rick Santorum. As a liberal, you see Santorum as the nerdy prudish cartoon character that most people think of when you say or Google his name. He has been a favorite target of ridicule for the left for over a decade now. His constant focus on social issues, especially abortion and LGBT issues, has made him a lightning rod for attention. The 2003 comments that compared homosexuality to incest and bestiality not only earned him the "Man on Dog" nickname, but they also motivated gay activist Dan Savage to set up the now famous Rick Santorum Google problem. On one hand I see a good decent and family man that in his eyes is trying to make this country a better place, but that pales in comparison to the idea of a extreme puritanical politician that can not keep his mind off of what people are doing in their bedrooms.

  One of the ways the GOP is trying to woo the more open minded millennials is too be a little more libertarianish on the social issues. That is not the school of thought that Santorum comes from. He firmly believes in legislating morality. A quick look through what he did as Senator shows where his motivations are. Everything is a slippery slope that will leading America into some kind of Sodom and Gomorrah hellscape of carnal desire and depravity. When asked about contraception, he said it was "a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." This quote pretty much cover his opinion on most social issues, that it is outside the norm and therefore wrong. He looks like a true believer in a sea of con artists and hucksters. I know there are plenty of Republicans that give lip service to the social issues but deep down don't really give shit what people do with their private parts. One shudders to think what a President Santorum would actually be like, but outside of a group of true believers there are not many other people that actually want to see that happen.

  For all the talk and legislation on social issues by Santorum sometimes he is the reluctant culture warrior. It's almost like there are two Santorums. You have the blue collar Santorum running a serious issue oriented populist style campaign. There are times he tries to be that guy, and talks about wanting to focus on issues other than the social issues he is famous for. The problem for him is that with the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court Case decision, gay marriage was going to be an issue this cycle, and Santorum, in spite of trying to be more than the candidate that talks about social issues, was never going to let that go. "I just can't quit you" to quote a movie that Santorum has probably not seen. There was a episode of The Jim Gaffigan Show where people come up to and say something about his fictionalized version of himself's food humor and he says that he is more than just food jokes and keeps getting a yeah right as the response. That's what it feels like Santorum says he wants to talk about something more than social issues.

  It seems clear that being the best non-Romney candidate in 2012 meant that Santorum was going to try at least one more time in 2016, but being second in 2012 continues to look like it was based more on luke warm feelings towards Romney than love for any of the other contenders. Even spending a huge amount of time in Iowa and trying his best make another serious run, his campaign languishing at the bottom of polls and that does not appear to be changing any time soon. Perhaps one of the issues may one of style over substance. Santorum's ideas may be fairly radical, but at his core he more of a establishment policy wonk and many of his solutions tend to be more creating legislation to address the various issues. With Trump, Carson, and Fiorina leading in polls, policy wonks are not what the base is looking for, and being slightly more exciting version of Scott Walker is not going to get you far.

  When Santorum lost his Senate race in 2006 he became a lobbyist and Fox News talking head. 2016 will probably be his last campaign, and other than popping up on cable news or a couple more books on evil liberals leading America straight to the gates of hell, it will be the last most of us will see of him. I am sure he will use his connections in Washington to get his next job, but he does not seem to be as money grubbing and greedy as some of his other former colleagues in Congress. While I hope nothing bad happens to him, I am really happy he has little or nothing to do with policy making in this country and hope he will never be able to Google his own name again without seeing the love note that Dan Savage sent him.