Is a Santorum Surprise in Iowa About to Upset the 2012 Republican Primary?

The news out of Iowa over the last week seems to be shaking the predictions of the establishment and main stream media to the core.

I believe what makes America exceptional is not just our economic potential or our remarkable innovation, but the fact that we are a moral enterprise. As President, I will protect America's moral foundation, empower American families and build America's economic freedom

P>AMES, Iowa (Catholic Online) - I have heard it before; it happens every four years. They say "Do not insist on the "social" issues, just trust the Republicans". Translated - trust the establishment Republicans. Another refrain is, "just elect them to office and they will be better than the Democrats".

These voices often promise that the establishment candidate will be more "Pro- life" than "those Democrats" and that they will defend marriage and protect religious freedom. They do it with a smile; a wink and a nod. I do not know about you..but I am not buying it.

Here is how I see it. We have several good candidates in the Republican primary this year. My personal preference is one who is genuinely, consistently and unqualifiedly Pro-Life. He has shown extraordinary courage in defending our youngest neighbors in the womb against the slaughter unleashed by legal abortion. His name is Rick Santorum.  I have written extensively about him. 

I know that he has lived in a faithful, happy marriage and family for years and weathered many storms. He will honestly and passionately defend true marriage and the family and society founded upon it, without equivocation, in the face of a what amounts to a cultural revolution aimed at restructuring Western civilization.

This is a man who has been "savaged" by some on the fringe of the radical homosexual equivalency movement - in the most vile manner. He has had his name intentionally defamed - but has not backed down. He has not stopped insisting on the unchangeable truth about marriage and the family and society founded upon it- because he knows it is true and that the truth does not change.

He understands that the free market is only free when it respects the freedom of human persons. His answer to the economic challenges we face is to enlarge the circle of participation - not to grow the federal government and, to use the old expression, "rob Peter to pay Paul."

He does not buy the lie that the American economic dream has to be limited. Rather, he seeks to expand the potential for free people to participate and prosper in the greatest market and opportunity based economy the world has ever seen.  He has real plans to rebuild the manufacturing base of our Nation because he truly cares about workers. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. 

He is a proponent of small and limited government, and is not anti-government. He knows that the family is the first government and that all other government must defer to, support and not usurp its exercise of governance.

He supports the choice of parents as to where to send their children to school, no matter what their economic circumstances. He and his wife have chosen to homeschool and they understand that the family is the first school and parents the first teachers.He is not only using the language of "pro-family" voters. He, his wife, and their children are the very embodiment of the message we proclaim.

He respects the proper role of mediating institutions such as churches, synagogues, charities, social concerned business, trade and philanthropic associations. He understands that good government starts from the bottom up and then - and then with caution - proceeds from there. He is an advocate of limited government properly understood within the principle of subsidiarity.

As President he would be a steward over a federal government which genuinely serves the family, the mediating institutions, the local and state governments and the common good. He has an intelligent understanding of the proper role of governance and does not propose dangerous ideas which will threaten our national stability.

He has a real, genuine Christian faith. Ironically, the main stream Press is reporting that he is the "evangelical" choice. They forget, this man is a devout Catholic Christian. You see, they do not understand that real Christianity, be it Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, provides a vision of the human person, the family and human society which benefits the whole human culture.

Included among those who are trying explain his growing support by attributing it to what they disparagingly refer to as "evangelicals" are some Catholic commentators in dire need of catechesis as to what their own Christian faith is all about.  

The problem is that the establishment political class and the main stream media have promoted the idea that "religion" is only a "private affair" to be "tolerated" and that "religious people" are somehow less intelligent; to be pandered to at election time.

This assessment of mine - that the establishment and main stream media belittle classical Christians of every ilk -  includes those "country club" Republicans who actually feel that "religious people" are to be tolerated at election time if they make it possible for their party to be in power - then disregard them thereafter.

These folks do not understand that Western Civilization is grounded and founded upon the Jewish and Christian vision of the inherent dignity of every human person which derives from their having been created in the Image of God. They do not really believe that there are objective truths or that these truths are, in the words of the American founders, self evident and form the basis of inalienable rights endowed by a Creator - even if they can quote the words.

They do not accept the notion that there is a Natural Law which is written on the human heart and can be known through the exercise of reason. They may proclaim the great promise of the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be Self Evident" but they actually espouse moral relativism. 

Many seem incapable of comprehending the candidacy of a man who is able to bring believers of all stripes, along with all people of good will, into a coalition which recognizes that religious faith - and the vision of the human person, the family and a truly just society which it informs, actually serves the common good. A man who really believes that religious freedom is a fundamental human right.

At the Huckabee Republican Presidential Candidate on December 3, 2011, Rick Santorum reiterated his refusal to separate the moral issues from all of the other issues. He said:

"Everyone says we need a truce on social issues that we need to focus on jobs and the economy.  But what is at the heart of this country is that America is a moral enterprise and we are sick at the heart of our country - when we see millions of children being aborted and marriage not being defended.  A truce is not a truce, it is surrender.  I will not surrender; I will fight and defend America."

He addressed a connection between big federalized government and the breakdown of the first government, the family:

"(I)f family and moral values break down, government gets bigger and bigger. Social issues are central to every issue we deal with in America. Unless we get the moral issues right, we will never get the economic and foreign policy issues right."

Reiterating his unwillingness to compromise on the "social issues" and only address economic issues he sounded once again the theme of his campaign - that they are inseparably connected.  He rejected the calls to enter into a "truce" on social issues saying, "It is surrender, not a truce. Under a Santorum presidency, there will be no surrender."
 
We are living under what Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, rightly called a "Dictatorship of Relativism."  When there is a wholesale effort to deny the existence of anything objectively true, any objective moral values, which can be known by all and form the basis of our common life, then there is no real freedom. Instead, we teeter on the brink of anarchy.

Senator Rick Santorum offers a corrective which is long overdue. He does so with courage and clarity. And, talk about a debater...though not given a lot of time in many of the debates, he used the time he did receive well. I will never forget the debate many years ago when he defended the child in the womb in the halls of the U.S. Senate against the evil of partial birth abortion. I was there. I know this man is one of the great debaters in political and public life.

He refused to back down in the face of blistering attacks against him for a free flowing and insightful interview he gave in January of 2011 to CNS news. The perpetrators of those attacks tried to take his accurate exposition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s references to the Natural Law in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and use them against Santorum.

In that letter Dr. King cited the Catholic Natural Law tradition to argue the Natural Law as the basis of fundamental human rights. I wrote back then - and reassert now - that Dr. King would have agreed with Senator Santorum.

The former Senator responded to the attacks against him with these words, "For decades certain human beings were wrongly treated as property and denied liberty in America because they were not considered persons under the Constitution.

"Today other human beings, the unborn of all races, are also wrongly treated as property and denied the right to life for the same reason; because they are not considered persons under the constitution. I am disappointed that President Obama, who rightfully fights for civil rights, refuses to recognize the civil rights of the unborn in this country."

Santorum's moral message is expressed on a "No Surrender Moneybomb Appeal" on his campaign web site: "The day we stop fighting for the unborn child, or fighting to protect the sanctity of marriage, expel God from the public square, or decide we will no longer enforce the laws of our land, is the day we surrender all our founding fathers created."

"I believe what makes America exceptional is not just our economic potential or our remarkable innovation, but the fact that we are a moral enterprise. As President, I will protect America's moral foundation, empower American families and build America's economic freedom. And I won't compromise on my values to do it."

Rick Santorum's candidacy has been all but ignored by the main stream media and the political establishment - until now. The news out of Iowa over the last week seems to be shaking the predictions of the establishment and main stream media to the core. 

Many are asking the question, "Is a Santorum Surprise About to Upset the 2012 Republican Primary and Shake up the 2012 Election?" Stay tuned.

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