The GOP has had its moments. You know, those scary, makes-you-cringe moments. There was Dan Quayle’s attack on Murphy Brown, Gary Bauer flipping pancakes, and Herman Cain running for President even though he had a closet filled with skeletons. It makes you shake your head. What were they thinking?
I yearn for those days.
The GOP now faces a major decision. To embrace Rick Santorum, or one of the other three candidates. Santorum continues to surge, quite possibly because he’s deemed by the main stream media (and sometimes even non-main stream sources) as the only viable conservative option in the current field. He’s currently the anti-Romney. You know this drill, the media raises a candidate up to challenger status in order to have them compete with Romney. Bachmann, Gingrich, Perry, Cain, Gingrich (again) all were anointed by the media prior to their ascent to the media’s guillotine. Santorum is one the same path, except that he’s still being propped up by the media. The argument has been made that the liberal media is worried about a Romney’s candidacy and Rick looks like a candidate Obama can walk all over in November. For once, the liberal media is absolutely correct. Santorum is poison to the GOP, a cancer that will eat away at the current anti-Obama sentiment and redirect that sentiment towards a candidate who is far out of step with the center-right coalition that elects Republican Presidents.
He is the brakes on a surging GOP, which has been fueled by strong anti-Obamacare sentiments, activists upset by the size and scope of this government, and the original Tea Party members who yearn for lower, fairer taxes. A Santorum candidacy ends all of this and changes the debate from relevant topics to the odd and strange that Santorum has stood for. These topics include: Satan coming after America, women in the military, gay rights, and contraceptive use to name a few. Hey, anyone see that unemployment flirts with double digits each month? Gas prices are through the roof? In a Santorum-Obama matchup, there will be little discussion of issues that matter in 2012. Instead the Obama machine will relish in the opportunity to go after Rick’s weak and generally unpopular social stances. The Chicago machine will paint him as an extremist and we have ourselves a candidate who may be our version of Walter Mondale in 1984. We lose–badly.
Besides Santorum being a political albatross on the party’s neck, he’s the biggest government candidate left standing in the GOP field. He’s a big spender (i.e. Congressional pay increases, Bridge to Nowhere), big government advocate (No Child Left Behind), and a tax raiser; his social agenda creates a nanny state that would make Mayor Bloomberg look like Ron Paul. If you want to see social engineering, Rick’s your guy!
Now is a time for choosing. Though all are flawed, any of the other three candidates are extremely more acceptable than Rick Santorum. His nomination destroys any of the current GOP traction, and sets us back light years. He would created a unfocused party and will splinter the GOP into a number of directions. We can say goodbye to Reagan Democrats, the middle class, small government conservatives and any serious economic conservatives. Conservatives need to see this candidate for what he is: an unelectable swelling boil on the GOP.
