The Psalmist David, Rick Santorum and Five Smooth Policy Stones

We can turn this around, with the right leadership and the help of God. We need a figurative David with a slingshot who is unafraid to confront a new Goliath

We face the most important presidential election of my lifetime. I know such a claim is often expressed in politically oriented opining. However, I do not make it lightly. I am 60 years old and have been politically active my entire adult life. I believe the future of the American experiment in ordered liberty hangs in the balance. I have been married for almost forty years. My wife and I have five grown children and seven grandchildren. I hope to be able to pass on to them a Nation which was not only conceived in liberty but is still living its legacy.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - We face the most important presidential election of my lifetime. I know such a claim is often expressed in politically oriented opining. However, I do not make it lightly. I am 60 years old and have been politically active my entire adult life. 

I believe the future of the American experiment in ordered liberty hangs in the balance. I have been married for almost forty years. My wife and I have five grown children and seven grandchildren. I hope to be able to pass on to them a Nation which was not only conceived in liberty but is still living its legacy.

Rick Santorum's extemporaneous comments at the Truth Exposed Rally to Defund Planned Parenthood on August 15, 2015 in Iowa reaffirmed my convictions about his candidacy.  We need a morally coherent, courageous President who is unequivocal in his defense of the dignity of every human life. I believe that he is such a candidate.

The American public wants an outsider.

And, I agree with them, so do I. But I am convinced we need someone who has stood up to the entrenched interests of the culture of death, exposed militant Islam even before others would even use the term, championed blue collar values and has had real experience in the major issues of national security.

I suggest we need an inside/outer. An outsider who has real inside experience. We need a President who will not have a learning curve when he assumes this important office. We live in a serious moment which will require a serious response from someone who is ready to lead from day one.

David and the Five Smooth Stones  

One of my favorite stories from the Old Testament of the Bible is the selection of David as the leader of ancient Israel. It is recorded in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Samuel. Samuel asked Jesse to present him with his sons so that he might discern whom to anoint as the leader of a Nation in need. 

After meeting all of the sons Jesse presented, Samuel did not believe that any of them could provide the needed leadership. He asked Jesse if this were all of his sons. Jesse told him that there was still the youngest son, named David, who was out tending the sheep. Well, we all know what happened next. David was brought in from the field and he was the right one. 

I am certainly NOT implying any divine selection of Rick Santorum. That would be both heretical and utterly inappropriate. I am simply using an analogy - and sharing my personal political opinion. Just as David was considered to be an unlikely leader, so most of those surveying the current field of presidential candidates seem to say the same kind of thing about Rick Santorum.

Frankly, I am tired of the main stream media passing over Rick Santorum. I know the polls do not show him in the position which political prognosticators think makes him somehow worthy to have a place at their table. It is so early in the process that polls are not a reliable indicator of where this is leading. I think he needs to be called in from the field and examined by many who have not yet considered his candidacy.

I have known Rick Santorum for a long time. He is rock solid and extremely talented. He has stood up against establishment politicians on both sides of the aisles. He has withstood vile attacks from an extremist wing of a movement which is seeking to eradicate marriage by redefining it. He is undeterred by a mocking main stream media which often ignores him. The main stream pundit class increasingly reminds me of the Greek mythological character named Narcissus. They are so enamored with themselves, so blinded by their own pride, that they fail to see that few people are even listening to them anymore.

There is another part of the story of David I want bring to this analogy. It follows in the next chapter, 1 Samuel 17. David is the only one who will confront that feared giant named Goliath. Against all odds, David slays him, using one of five smooth stones given to him by Saul. Many sermons have been preached on the meaning of those five smooth stones, I simply want to use them as a metaphor. We need a candidate of real courage who will defend the moral foundations of freedom against a modern day Goliath. I personally believe that Rick Santorum is such a candidate.

When I say he is morally coherent, I refer especially to the fact that he does not separate the moral, economic, social and international issues. Just as the human person is a unity of body and soul - and the separation of the two can lead to dualism - so, in the body politic, the separation of moral truths from economic and international concerns erodes a Nations strength. Rick Santorum is a political David with a slingshot, ready to topple Goliath. 

The Five Smooth Policy Stones

I suggest there are five stones of public policy, positions which Rick Santorum has in his figurative slingshot; life, family, freedom, solidarity and subsidiarity.  I will treat each one of them briefly. 

Life
There is no question where Rick Santorum stands on the fundamental Human Right to Life. For Santorum, the dignity of every human life is the lens through which every other policy issue is approached. He is unafraid to state what is objectively true, every person has human dignity, whether they are in the womb, a wheelchair, a soup kitchen, a hospice, or a prison cell. He is a truly Pro-life candidate. His record on life is second to none. He is pro-life without any compromise.

Family
There is no question where Rick Santorum stands on the truth about marriage. He affirms that marriage is solely possible between one man and one woman, intended for life, and open to the gift of children. No-one can redefine this objective truth. It is revealed by the Natural moral law and serves the real common good. Family is the first vital cell of society, the first church, first school, first economy, first hospital and first government. He will stand up for this truth and against the growing assault on marriage and the family.

Children have a right to a mother and a father. Having a compassionate approach to single parents and making room for splintered families does not run contrary to the necessity of recognizing the primacy of the two parent marriage bound family as normative. Santorum supports parental choice in education or what is called "school choice." I prefer the phrase parental choice because the buidlings do not make the choice, parents do. He affirms that parents are the first teachers and that all children, no matter what their economic means, have a right to a safe, effective and productive education outside of the first school of the home.

Rick Santorum is a truly Pro-family candidate. He is unafraid to speak truth to power and will reign in the escalating abuses of the judicial, executive and legislative branches of Government which threaten our future as a free people and threaten the future of the family. 

Freedom
There is no question where Rick Santorum stands on freedom. Freedom has two sides, a freedom from and a freedom for - bringing along with it an obligation to choose what is right and true and good and noble. Otherwise, what is called freedom will collapse into a counterfeit notion of freedom and lead to anarchy or collectivism. That is what is underway in the west. The exercise of freedom must always be bounded by a moral constitution.

He has a robust understanding of the primacy of human capital which is critical for any understanding of a free economy. This is what makes him such a champion of fairness for all workers - as well as rewarding initiative and encouraging entrepreneurial pursuits. He is a champion of the worker precisely because all human work has dignity because of the dignity of the worker who is engaging in it. Expanding participation in the economic order is an irreplaceable element of a truly fair and human economy because freedom is a good of the human person.

He is a tireless champion of the first freedom, religious freedom, affirming with the American founders that religious freedom is a fundamental human right. He is an outspoken defender of the First Amendment and the free exercise of religion. He knows that our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from the State, but from the Creator. They are revealed by the Natural Law and protected by the principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Rick Santorum will stand up against the growing attacks on Christians and other believers which seek to confine religious expression to only worship behind church doors and keep it out of the public square. He affirms with the founders that the values informed by faith serve the common good. 

Solidarity and Subsidiarity
Rick Santorum affirms both human solidarity - that we are our brother's keeper and have an obligation to the needy - as well as the vital application of the principle of subsidiarity.  They must work in tandem. The word subsidiarity is derived from a Latin word which means to provide help and assistance. This is why he is a small government conservative. Big government is not very good at charity and compassion. Top down bureaucracy can also stifle economic growth and human flourishing. 

Santorum affirms that governance must begin with the smallest unit, the individual and the family, and then involve the mediating structures. It is bottom up - and not top down. All other government exists to provide these governing units with the help and assistance they need - and not usurp their proper role. The proper role for any government above the family, and the mediating associations we build together, is to provide assistance and help.  

There are many voices only too eager to point out the failures of the current centralized, bloated and corrupted federal government. There are too few voices articulating an alternative vision of governing. Rick Santorum calls for a bottom up restructuring of how we govern ourselves. Because we are by nature social beings, and cannot experience human flourishing and happiness without family and society, how we govern ourselves is the real question we need to address.To borrow from Abraham Lincoln, we need a new birth of freedom at every level.  

Conclusion
I find in Rick Santorum precisely the kind of candidate I believe is needed in this urgent hour to lead the United States of America in a time of rebirth and renewal. We are losing our moral compass and, as a direct result, we are proceeding down a dangerous path both at home and abroad. We need a true renewal from the inside out - and a restructuring of self government from the bottom up. We also need a courageous leader with proven character who can help us to face the twin problem of militant jihadist ideologies from abroad and the steady erosion of our national moral foundation leading to the decline of our way of life.

We can turn this around, with the right leadership and the help of God.  We need a figurative David with a slingshot who is unafraid to confront a new Goliath.

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Keith A. Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance.He is also a human rights constitutional 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. He has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture and currently serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel. He is also a Senior Contributing writer for The STREAM.

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