Rick Santorum Is Not a Conservative
Rick Santorum is not a conservative. Period. If you need convincing, check out this 2006 quote from his book tour. Here he shows his absolute disdain for what he calls the "libertarianish right" or what we now refer to as the tea party…
One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a libertarianish right. You know, the left has gone so far left and the right in some respects has gone so far right that they touch each other. They come around in the circle. This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.
The idea of personal autonomy is crazy? Since when? Individual liberty is (or at least used to be) one of the core tenants of conservatism, along with low taxes, few regulations, and the free market. None of which Santorum likes apparently…
And if that's not enough to convince you, here are a few highlights from his record in Congress:
- -he supported No Child Left Behind which was a massive expansion of the federal government's role in education
- -he supported Medicare Part D which speaks for itself
- -he voted for the 2005 Highway Bill full of earmarks including the infamous Bridge to Nowhere
- -to make it worse, he later voted to continue funding the Bridge to Nowhere rather than send the money to New Orleans for clean up after Hurricane Katrina
- -requested billions for pork projects in PA during his time in Congress
- -In the 2003/2004 session of Congress, Santorum sponsored or cosponsored 51 bills to increase spending and failed to sponsor even one spending cut proposal
- -During his last Congress in 2005/2006 Santorum had one of the biggest spending agendas of any Republican, he sponsored more spending increases than even RINOs like Lisa Murkowski, Thad Cochran and Lincoln Chafee
- -he voted against NAFTA
- -voted for imported steel tariffs
- -voted for Sarbanes-Oxley
- -he supported supported RINO Arlen Specter over conservative Pat Toomey
- and finally, in a 1994 questionnaire (when he was running for Senate) Santorum said he wanted national standards in education and was opposed to eliminating the Dept of Education.
So basically, Rick Santorum supports a nanny state collectivist government that spends a lot of money and heavily regulates business. Why in the world would conservatives vote for someone like that? The answer is that they probably wouldn't if they knew the above, but we live in a sound bite world where people don't dig in that deep.
But for those people who are paying attention, reading up on the candidates, finding out about their positions, their records…look closely at Rick Santorum because he is NOT a conservative.