They say numbers never lie but they did in the Iowa Caucuses. Mitt Romney may have received eight more votes but it was Rick Santorum that was Tuesday night’s big winner.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this unprepossessing candidate (photo above) ends up carrying the Republican banner against President Obama. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he won. Disgusted yes. Surprised no.
This is America, and much of America is stuck in the Nineteenth Century.
Many Americans simply are not comfortable in a “modern” world. They believe all the things their grandparents believed, and while they may pay lip service to such ideas as women’s equality, civil rights and environmental protection, they don’t accept the ideas in their hearts.
Rick Santorum speaks their mind.
He comes right out and says things like:
I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.
And:
It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the (Roman Catholic Church sex abuse) storm.
He opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, and believes that English should be the official language in the United States. He wants schools to teach creationism as an alternative scientific theory to evolution, and urges laws against adultery, sodomy and “other actions antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.”
Naturally, he is violently opposed to abortion under any and all circumstances. And he believes states should have the right to outlaw birth control.
Santorum is a free-market fanatic. He would balance the national budget, slash social programs and corporate taxes, and do all the simple-minded things conservatives advocate as the cure for America’s economic problems.
He even wants to ban weather forecasts by the National Weather Service “when private-sector entities perform the same function commercially.”
In effect, by electing Santorum, Americans may think they can turn the clock back to the “good old days,” when life was simpler – especially for white American males.
Of course that’s impossible. But they don’t know that. And Santorum certainly is not going to tell them.
