GOP PRESIDENTIAL UPDATE: Rick Santorum Says He’ll Win On Family Values, Says Sarah Palin Won’t Even Run
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is counting on “values voters” in Iowa to vault him into contention for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination.
He tells Washington Post columnist George Will “never underestimate the power of social issues.” Santorum thinks that Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee will end up not running. Thus opening up his window of opportunity in Iowa.
Those of us in Pennsylvania have already had the pleasure of getting to know Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum, and it scares me to think of what a Santorum presidency could do for any progressive progress for any American. The news media has been focused on only the second part of this story- his gaffe about Sarah Palin. The mainstream media is more nterested in the horse race and the drama of politicians taking swipes, intentional or unintentional, at each other. But the real story here, is the first part where Santorum talks about “values voters. This is code for two things.
- It means the campaign- which is starting now- is going to get nasty and hateful towards, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, women, and other groups that are so often “othered” by those who seek to have control over our private lives.
- It means that lies and misinformation will be the primary currency used in this campaign by those who represent themselves as being about “values.”
Unlike a few other far right crazies- and by this I mean to include Palin- Santorum is a smart guy, and extremely dangerous. Time to ramp up for support for anyone running against the GOP and the conservatives. In the last election, the astro-turfed “Tea Party movement, was created and floated out therer as a tool to shift attention to the size of government and taxes. The frustration and anger expressed by many Tea Party members was quite real, authentically directed at a Washington who has failed the middle class. Democrats flubbed it up at the time they had the most ability to actually do something positive, by failing to really change the system and act with backbone, so they took the brunt of the anger. The American people were tired of BS, and so blue dog democrats who claimed to be something that they weren’t, and spent most of their time trying to figure out how to be like the folks who had failed the middle class lost the most.
But even if the momentum expressed by the Tea Party Movement was authentic frustration at Washington, the seed for the movement and the structure, not to mention the powertrain underneath, was all old-school GOP. Far right conservatism, merely used the fuel of that frustration, and used it to good advantage.
The Tea Party was a sham sold to all those who were disenfranchised with Washington.Undreneath, the real motive was a social agenda, which we have seen borne out by the fact thAt not a single piece of legislation handled by the new GOP controlled House has dealt with jobs and the economy. They have all been big intrusive government policies to limit the rights of women, and the ability of our govbertnemt to dig into our personal lives. Politicians like Man on Dog Santorum will now use that Tea Party momentum, but will have no problem being direct in his “values” messages. Â It is going to be a pretty bumpy ride.