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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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.
Read The Full Story
Great article! Don Feder has captured the thoughts and frustrations of many "values" conservatives. If the GOP does not come back to champion the moral issues facing this country, then we will spiral down into the abyss of democratic socialism and this country will be lost. God help us!
ReplyDeleteThese so-called "values" of Rick Santorum is to give a religious text, the Bible, preeminence over our Constitution, and in effect, converting our secular democracy to a theocracy. Mr. Santorum is a dominionist and would happily take the role of an Ayatollah, using the governmental police powers to interfere in every aspect of our most personal affairs.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history, some of mankind’s greatest oppression has come from the church, which is exactly what our forefathers attempted to protect us from with a democratic, secular government where there would be no religious test for government office. Having given sanctity to the obscene profits and absolution to the none-tax-paying corporations, Mr. Santorum would bring us a double whammy of corporate-church oppression and put us on a course to endless “holy” wars, reverting the world to a neo-medieval era. God save us all!
Wow Anon... your lack of knowledge when it comes to history is impressive.
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