I’ve always subscribed to the notion that, by and large, the
leaders most admired by the American people are those who speak
plainly; that is, they represent themselves as who they are and
what they believe, and not as folks would like them to be. They
come to the table and lay out the bill of fare they’ve prepared,
then serve it up as advertised.
Love him or hate him, George W. Bush had a firm set of
moral convictions that he employed when dealing with issues,
particularly in the arena of foreign policy. To call out the “Axis
of Evil” was the most natural thing in the world for him. There was
no mistaking his aims, or from whence they derived. He saw evil in
the world, and said so. Compare the attitudes of our enemies — and
our allies, sadly — toward our nation now that the Oval Office is
occupied by a man of confusing and even questionable
beliefs.
After three years of the enigmatic Barack Obama, we
desperately need someone who can and will be willing to cut through
the lies and propaganda of the left and explain his views and
values to the American people in a clear and cogent manner. As we
peruse the so far thinnish field of GOP presidential candidates,
it’s worth noting that there may be just such a man in the
running.
Rick Santorum, who has long been involved in a love-hate
relationship with many on the right — the hatred hinging on his
support of Arlen Specter in 2004 — looks like he will be tossing
his hat into the ring. And like George W. Bush, whether you agree
with him or not, you know where you stand with him, especially on
certain topics. Chief among these is the right to life for children
in the womb. Many politicians have paid lip service to this issue,
but how many have the guts to confront the left on this, and to
hoist them by their own petards?
A
case in point was an interview Santorum gave to CNS News
earlier this year where he questioned President Obama’s inability
to say whether a human life is protected by the Constitution,
basically couching the debate in terms of civil rights; a concept
that, in this context, was unfamiliar to those on the left. He said
that if folks like Barack Obama decide that a child in the
womb is not a person under our Constitution, that it
would be “almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are
going to decide who are people and who are not people.’”
What did he mean by this? Well, in a totally unbiased
Politico piece
titled, “Rick Santorum plays race card on President Obama,” the
senator further explained:
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.
This burst of common sense was, of course met with the usual
howls of indignation from leftists — “ludicrous!” shouted one of
them — although it was a perfectly legitimate use of an analogy
that, when employed by them to justify gay “marriage,” becomes
totally illegitimate. Unborn children, like blacks before them, are
denied their rights by virtue of circumstances beyond their
control, not by a choice of sexual preference. Maybe the
plainspoken yet passionate Santorum can explain to the nation
exactly to whom the phrase “ourselves and our posterity” actually
applies.
But can Santorum get votes? Well, he served two Senate
terms until he famously lost his last re-election bid in a
landslide to a so-called pro-life Democrat in purple Pennsylvania,
a state that went big time for Obama in ‘08. Some say this was
because conservatives sat on their hands and stayed home, while
others attribute it in part to accusations of residency violations
that wouldn’t have drawn a yawn in Obama’s hometown of Chicago. In
any case, it remains to be seen whether he can garner votes
nationally, given the wild hatred of him by the media because of
his views on homosexuality and Islamism.
There are still many conservatives who will not forgive
Santorum for his support of the duplicitous Specter, though without
it, we may have not gotten John Roberts or Samuel Alito confirmed
to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in him, we have a man who has
everything we need to defeat Barack Obama and his polyester
policies; a man who is not only able to enunciate conservatism in
clear, concise terms, but is totally unafraid to live
it.
