Santorum is fascinating; he’s an honest politician. I’m literally mesmerized by him. He’s willing to say things that people don’t want to hear and to defy “conventional wisdom” and just go for it. I don’t know if he’s Reagan or Goldwater, both of whom were good men and solid conservatives. As a Republican, I’ll take him if he’s either, but I’m praying for a Reagan.
The fact that Santorum is gaining so much traction tells me that people want someone who stands for something, even if they don’t agree with all of what he says.
Whether or not that will translate into a nationwide draw, I have no idea. I’m cynical, you know that. But I do know that as a whole this country is starved for principle and resolve. We’re soft and relativistic and so empty. People want something real.
And Santorum is real.
To them, he is a humorless, stiff moralizer, and people don’t like being preached at…
Yeah, but Santorum concedes that his “personal feelings and personal moral judgments are not those that are going to be reflected in public law, nor should they all the time.” Not so those bastards that people keep on voting in who criminalize salt use, sugar use, incandescent light bulbs, your child’s lunch, asthma inhalers, dust on farms, killing rodents on private property, political comments on blogs, using coal, using oil, using natural gas, toilets that flush, and thousands of other things. The difference is that the progressives–liberals–socialists push through their doctrines with almost no debate and with insignificant opposition–especially at the local level.
Santorum’s “mistake” has been to answer questions openly and honestly and fully–not hide, “triangulate”, and outright fib like the other candidates have done for years. I guess that movie was right–we can’t handle the truth.
I tend to agree with you, but I don’t think he plays well to the unsympathetic.
To them, he is a humorless, stiff moralizer, and people don’t like being preached at. Time will tell, I guess…
Well Silverfiddle, to the SNL skit crowd and those that soak up the media pitch, sure, but to those that swept out the House in 2010, he not only sounds reasonable and responsible, he sounds direct and forthright. I think that will play for a good part of the country in 2012. It sure plays better than the overbearing, boot on your neck, no drilling-no pipeline-no problem Obama.