Monday, February 27, 2012

GOP Elites' Problem With Santorum

Memo to social conservatives: In trying to understand RINO revulsion for former Senator Rick Santorum, remember that while leftists who run the Democratic Party loath you, the GOP/fiscal-conservative elite only has withering contempt for you. Isn’t that comforting?

One of my inside-the-Beltway friends is a businessman who moves comfortably in establishment conservative circles. When he tells colleagues that he’s a values conservative, he’s met with looks of incredulity that suggest they’re thinking: “But, wait a minute, you’re wearing shoes and your teeth aren’t crooked. My God, man, you have a post-graduate degree in the humanities. You’re not clutching rosary beads and your speech isn’t punctuated with ‘praise the lord!’”

Wall Street Republicans in effect are telling pro-lifers, family-values activists and the rest of us that in their proverbial big tent, there’s a tiny corner reserved for us where we’re expected to sit quietly with our hands folded in our laps, until it’s time to come out and work our tails off for whichever clueless candidate – Ford, George H.W. Bush, Dole, McCain – they choose as the GOP standard-bearer.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal last week, Kimberley A. Strassel dubbed Santorum the “moralizer in chief.” GOP candidates are allowed occasionally to express pro-morality views as throwaway lines – at least during the primary season. What infuriates the Republican elite is that Santorum says them with conviction.

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Posted By: Chris Carmouche