Rick Santorum Announces His Candidacy saying - It is Time to Take Back America

I write from Butler, Pennsylvania, a few miles down the road from where Rick Santorum officially announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America on May 27, 2015.

There is something which many in the main stream U.S. media do not know, here it is - not many people are listening to them anymore. However, they will listen to this song. And, they will understand it. The sentiment it captures will encourage the heart of a Nation which knows we have lost our way. We are a people who long to unleash our  pride in that grand experiment in ordered liberty called the United States of America.

BUTLER, PA (Catholic Online) - I write from Butler, Pennsylvania, a few miles down the road from where Rick Santorum officially announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States of America on May 27, 2015.

I write as a private citizen - and in no official capacity.

Next year, my wife and I will celebrate 40 years of marriage. We have five grown children and seven grandchildren. I love this Nation. I believe deeply in its promise of liberty. I am deeply concerned about its direction - and that is why I drove eight hours to attend this event.

The Santorum announcement took place in main warehouse of Penn United Technologies in Cabot, Pennsylvania. Penn United is an employee owned company with an unapologetic commitment to values. The CEO and major leadership of the company were there for the announcement and Penn workers lined the industrial staircases surrounding the platform.

It was the perfect setting for this Blue Collar Conservative  named Rick Santorum. The factory is down the road from his childhood home in western Pennsylvania. He gave a powerful speech, buoyant, confident and strong. I am well aware of his positions and have written many articles over the years about this good man. Now that he has officially announced, I do so again. I will address the song, the setting and the substance.

The Song
I awakened this morning in my hotel room, the day after the announcement, singing the refrain of Isn't it Time, the official campaign theme song of Santorum 2016. It debuted yesterday at the announcement:

Isn't it time to take back America?
Isn't it time to unleash the pride?
Open our eyes and take back America
This is the wave
Changing the tide
Isn't it time?

The song has the ability to rouse hope within you - as it invites you to sing along. That is the hidden power some songs seem to have, and others do not. This song has it. It sticks in your head - and replays itself in your heart.

The chattering media class are already parodying the song. I read some of the drivel after I awakened, singing the refrain. It matters little. Music is powerful. It fuels movements and rallies responses - at crucial times in the history of Nations.

Many reports which covered the event, at least with any integrity, came from abroad. This is an interesting development. Our Nation seems to be under the spell of a new coalition which has little room any longer for the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights - or the robust give and take which used to be the hallmark of a free American Press.  

There is something which many in the main stream U.S. media do not know, here it is - not many people are listening to them anymore. However, they will listen to this song. And, they will understand it.

The sentiment it captures will encourage the heart of a Nation which knows we have lost our way. We are a people who long to unleash our  pride in that grand experiment in ordered liberty called the United States of America.

The song evokes authentic sentiment. Sentiment is one of those words which has really lost its meaning in much modern usage. People use the term "sentimental" in a disparaging manner. However, sentiment is derived from a Latin root which means to perceive, feel, experience, think, realize, see, and understand. To know in a way that engages the mind and the heart and prompts action.

This song does that. It is dedicated to the kind of people who filled that manufacturing facility on May 27, 2015. The salt of the earth folks who know we need to fix what is going wrong in this Nation that we love before we lose it. Those who know that we need to recover our soul: 

This is for the man, workin' the factory, makin' drivetrain.
This is for the farmer, workin' the wheat fields, growin' long grain.
This is for the preachers, the teachers,
blue collar warriors,
this is for believers whose dreams are on the line.

The Setting
Surrounded by factory workers who lined the stairs - and people from all over who had traveled at great length - the Santorum family stood on a makeshift platform in a factory warehouse. This was a far cry from a staged, inside the beltway kind of political event. It was real America.

The strength of their family bond was evident in their carriage and their smiles. Standing next to the Presidential candidate was his wife of twenty five years, Karen. She is lovely, strong and dignified. It is obvious how much she is loved by her husband and her children.

Karen is a NICU Nurse, law school graduate and accomplished author. She is an example to me of what my hero, the late Pope John Paul II used to call the "feminine genius". She held in her arms, precious little Isabella Marie - "Bella" - the seven year old little girl who is a miracle and has captured the hearts of millions. My life has been changed by Bella. You can read my review of the beautiful book which Rick and Karen wrote of their daughter here.   When I saw her, my eyes welled up with tears of joy.

Surrounding mom and dad were their grown sons and daughters who were able to be with them. Their oldest son has answered the call of the Nation to military service.  These strong daughters and strong sons speak of the strength of their mom and dad. However, they speak of something even more important, the strength of the family. Without the candidate saying a word, this iconic image touched everyone present.

This large and loving family, standing together, displayed the truth about marriage - and the family and society founded upon it. It spoke of the beauty and dignity of family - without the necessity of words. The family is the first society, first school, first church, first government, first economy, and the first mediating institution. Rick Santorum not only proclaims this - he lives it. 

They imaged the American ideal and the American promise; a promise which crosses races, cultures and economic situation. It unites us around a set of principles and provides a grand unifying vision. It does not divide us into camps - at odds with one another. Rather, it calls upon what Lincoln called our better angels. It does not denigrate others and mock ideals, but holds them high and calls us to aspire to them together, and to help one another along the way.

The Substance
I am a reluctant Republican. I was raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in a blue collar family. My family felt that the Republican Party had a silver spoon in its mouth and had no concern for people like us. I know, it was a caricature. However, like many caricatures, it had an element of truth behind it.

The control of the Republican Party by an old guard establishment feeds such a caricature. The establishment of the Republican Party does seem to be aligned with corporatism and cronyism. Santorum is cut from a different cloth. That is one of the reasons he is not a favorite of those establishment Republicans.

I left the Party calling itself Democratic when it was taken over by the strange coalition which now holds it captive. That coalition purports to care about the poor but fails to hear the cry of the poorest of the poor, our first neighbors in the womb of their mother.

They feign a solidarity with blue collar workers, but then foment class warfare and push Statist economic and policies which are a grave threat to liberty. They pay lip service to marriage and family - and then actively support the redefinition of the word and the demise of the institution. They do not respect the first freedom of religious freedom - and they treat the Church with contempt and disregard for its proper and important role in promoting the common good.

Yet, they claim to be the party of the working man and woman, of the real folks. That claim is no longer true - if it ever really was.

In both major political parties in the US , we are witnessing a movement toward the merger of big government and big money. At the top, the controlling apparatus, they are increasingly controlled by an elite group.

Rick Santorum is not an establishment Republican. Contrary to some who think his emphasis on the blue collar worker is some kind of new "messaging", that is absurd. This is a coalminers grandson. He is the real deal. That is why the choice of Penn United, an employee owned industry, for the launch of this Presidential campaign, speaks volumes. This is not simply a backdrop, it is a rallying cry.

Santorum is a candidate of substance whose candidacy has the potential to reach across party lines, and help to build a new governing coalition. That is IF if his real message can be heard. I will briefly touch on a few of his themes.

Economic Populism
Santorum is an economic populist and a cultural conservative. He affirms that what makes a market economy free are the free people who participate in it, and the values they bring with them. What makes all human work dignified is the dignity of the worker engaging in it. He recognizes the primacy of the human person and human capital.

This kind of economic approach also affirms that what makes an economy grow is ever expanding opportunity for expansion. A truly free market will welcome more and more people to participate, in order to lift themselves up. It does not think there is a limited economic pie - but an ever expanding opportunity to create opportunity, prosperity and growth for all. 

We use to call this the American dream. Now, it seems to way too many to only be a memory. We have forgotten a fundamental truth that the source of all of our liberties, including economic liberty, is found in our shared moral values. Values matter.

Santorum wants to expand participation in the dynamism of the market economy while also respecting fairness in competition and international trade. He insists that economic policy respect human initiative, promote mediating structures and be built from the bottom up and not top down.

 He understands the different types of capital; social, economic, moral, cultural and intellectual. He knows how together they can serve the real common good.

Herein is one of his major differences with the old guard of the Republican Party. There is a political dualism in establishment Republican leadership. They simply do not understand that just as you cannot separate body and soul in a human person, you cannot separate social (or better put cultural) and economic issues in the body politic. There is a moral basis to a free society.

Moral Coherence
We are a Nation in crisis, on every front. The angst in the American public is evident in every poll. Our Nation is threatened from within - and from without. We need a leader with clarity of thought and courage in action. We also need a leader who is morally coherent. One who does not put his values to the side - or pretend to wear them like a coat when the winds blow - out of a misguided sense of political opportunism.

For example, Rick Santorum understands the relationship between solidarity - the truth that we are our brother's keeper and have an obligation to the needy - and the principle of subsidiarity.  The word "subsidiarity" is derived from a Latin root which means providing help and assistance. In other words, in fulfilling our obligation in solidarity, we should start from the bottom out - and then up. The solution to the need is found closest to the need. We should begin with the family, then the  extended family, mediating associations, local community, local government and State Government. The last place for assistance is the Federal government, and then, it must defer and not usurp the lower governing body.

We need someone who is not an establishment candidate at all. The establishment wing of the Republican Party have already begun to sing their old tired tune, insisting we should stay away from what they call social issues in this Presidential campaign. They are wrong. There is a moral foundation to every policy issue.Values truly matter.They are not an afterthought used to justify action undertaken for other reasons. Only a people with shared moral values can expand a free market, protect freedom in the international order and build a truly free culture on the home-front.

George Washington, the Father of our nation - and first President - reminded us that, "Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society." Writing from Pennsylvania, I must also reference another founding father, Benjamin Franklin, whose insightful words still echo, "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." We need a president who recognizes and defends the moral foundations of a free and just society; one who demonstrates moral coherence in his personal life and in his policy positions. We need renewal from the inside out as people - and as a Nation.

Yes, Rick Santorum cares about expanding economic opportunity - but precisely because he respects the dignity of every human person. That is why we should also want to see our neighbor flourish. He also acknowledges the shortcomings of some fellow conservatives in failing to reach out to the poor. However, he does more than point fingers at them, he offers an alternative governing vision. He can also build a new governing coalition which can indeed take back America and move it forward and toward, in Lincolns words, the unfinished work of freedom.

Good Government
Rick Santorum is a small government candidate, as that phrase should be rightly understood. Ass discussed above, he will affirm in his policies that government begins with the smallest unit, the individual and the family, and that all other government exists to provide them the help and assistance they need and not usurp or replace them.  The proper role of all government - above the family and the mediating associations -  must be to provide assistance and help and not usurp the rightful role of the first government in the home. 

However, his advocacy of a smaller federal government should not to be construed as being anti-government. Santorum rightly criticizes the tendency in liberal and progressive circles to exalt overly federalized government as the solution and to always move from the top down.  But then,  he offers a different way - by devolving governance back to where it belongs. It is not enough to be criitical of what has failed, a true leader in such an urgent time must offer alternative solutions.

Santorum is also acutely aware of the abuse of judicial power and analyzes the problems arising out of the threats to the separation of powers doctrine properly. He knows that the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial branches has been a foundational pillar in the American polity and helped to protect liberty. Judicial overreach, bordering on judicial imperialism, is a threat to good governance.

There are many voices pointing out the failures of the federal government - but there are few voices articulating a vision for good and efficient governance.  Government which is "good" in its moral foundation, as well as efficient and good in its practical application. Santorum is one of those voices.

Religious Freedom
Rick Santorum is a passionate defender of the first freedom of religious freedom, affirming the vital role that religious faith and the principles derived from such faith, play in securing freedom for all. He affirms that religious freedom is a fundamental human right and articulates a clear and compelling understanding of the First Amendment, with both its establishment and free exercise clauses.

He respects the mediating role of religious institutions and recognizes the proper leavening role of the values informed by faith in the public square.  He grasps the struggle being waged over the nature and definition of freedom itself. In an age that has mistaken the right to do what one wants as freedom, Santorum re-presents the classical vision. He reaffirms the necessity of connecting freedom to truth. Only in choosing what is right, true, beautiful and good, can freedom flourish.

The American founders were moralists. They may not have shared the same religious creed, but they affirmed together the existing of a Natural Moral Law which is the source of all truly just positive law and they were unafraid to acknowledge that there are self evident truths and inalienable rights which come from the Creator and not the civil government.

Dignity of All Human Life
Santorum places a respect for the dignity of every human person front and center, using it as the lens through which every other policy issue would be approached, economic, social and international. That is because Rick Santorum is a defender of the Right to Life from conception, through every age and stage of life, up to and including natural death.

He is unafraid to state what is undeniably true - every person has equal human dignity, whether they are in the womb, a wheelchair, a soup kitchen, a hospice, or a prison cell. The American Founders were similarly forthright about such self evident truths. They affirmed that we are created in the Image of God and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, beginning with Life.

Confronting the Rise of Islamic Extremism
Rick Santorum has been consistent and courageous in speaking out against the rising tide of Islamic radicalism for many years. As we face the growing threat of the Islamic State (ISIS), he is owed an apology from some who alleged that his warnings of this threat, were overblown. He noted in his announcement address that ISIS recently featured him as their enemy on the cover of their propaganda magazine.

He ended his remarks at his announcement speech by reiterating the words which ISIS quoted in their article naming him as an enemy - "they know who I am and I know who they are." He continued, "I described who they are and how to defeat them. And Ladies and Gentlemen, if I am the next President, I will defeat them".

Conclusion

In 1947, C.S. Lewis addressed the decline of Britain in an insightful book entitled "The Abolition of Man: How Education Develops Man's Sense of Morality." He warned of the subjective and relativist trends in the British educational system and reasserted the timeless moral truths offered by the Christian faith. 

Lewis called for a return to the classical Christian vision of the human person and the cultivation of virtues as the path to true human flourishing and freedom. He defined what he called "the chest" in this work as the "higher emotions organized by trained habit into stable sentiments or character."

He wrote that without this "chest", men and women devolve into self-idolatry, losing their human dignity and true freedom. They become slaves to disordered appetites. The West is in a mess, just as Lewis warned. With its decline we face the eclipse of true freedom. Lewis' words in this book are timely:

"And all the time - such is the tragicomedy of our situation - we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive,' or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity.' In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."

Rick Santorum is a man with a chest. He is the real deal in an age of politicians with no real convictions. 

It is a privilege to call Rick and Karen Santorum my friends. I have come to know the Santorum family over many years and been deeply moved by their family. The witness of their sincere love for one another - and healthy, human and real family life - would be a real blessing to our Nation.

Having such a family in the White-house would be a source of healing and encouragement for our Nation in our time of national need.

When I left the event yesterday, I walked out with Karen Santorum. As she greeted the many people, mostly women, who sought to encourage and affirm her, I noticed a sign that was being held by a young woman ahead. It said "First Lady Karen". It brought a smile to my face. What a wonderful thought!

Rick Santorum threatens establishment leaders in both major political parties. He has always played the role of the underdog and been counted out by the many self-professed experts. That is one of the assets he brings to the 2016 Presidential campaign. He has the potential to forge a new governing coalition which can resuscitate the American dream and set us on a course to brighter future.

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Deacon Keith A. Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children and seven grandchildren. He is a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen nineties and has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture. He serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel. He is a senior contributing writer to The Stream.

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