A Love Letter to Rick Santorum

So a new Gallup poll has Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney by 10 points nationally. The man won Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, and has been leading in Michigan polls -- although Romney has closed the gap over the last few days. Meanwhile Romney is losing ground to his new rival in Arizona, where Santorum has narrowed Mitt’s lead down to 3 points. Both primaries are February 28.

I never would have dreamed that Rick Santorum would manage this feat, but it looks like he has a realistic chance at nabbing the GOP nomination.

Imagine it. Just take a moment, please, and let your mind contemplate this very real possibility. Rick Santorum could be the GOP nominee for President of the United States.

If Santorum should win the nomination, voters will be presented with a candidate who has claimed that states should have the power to make birth control illegal.

In the general election, independent and swing voters will get to know all of Santorum's colorful past statements. YouTube is a treasure trove for the curious voter. Take, for example, this gem in which Santorum claims that 50% of all euthanasia in the Netherlands is forced, and that elderly people have to wear bracelets that say “don’t euthanize me.”

Or take this one, in which he tells the Heritage Foundation that the right to privacy, which doesn’t really exist, is a selfish right, one that doesn’t serve the common good:

Just this past weekend, Santorum was on a tear, saying that Obama’s agenda was not based on the Bible, but a "phony theology."

Then on Meet the Press, he insisted that kids at public school can’t get properly socialized, not the way home schooled kids can.

He also attacked Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act for covering prenatal testing, which he opposes because it encourages abortion.

And of course on Monday he asserted that Democrats are “anti-science” for believing in climate change.

What we’re looking at here are not gaffes. These are the man’s sincerely held beliefs, and he’s sticking to them.

This moral certitude is apparently playing well to the GOP base. The 23% of the population who steadfastly embrace social conservatism and therefore identify with Santorum and his values may propel him to the nomination. But they don’t have the sway to make a difference in the general. Whoever wins that will have to appeal to those notorious independent and swing voters, people who vote based on their wallets more so than their Bibles.

The Republicans appear to have recognized that the economy may not be their winning issue in November. With jobs being created and the DOW doing fine, this avenue of attack is looking less and less promising. So they’re targeting those trusty social issues. Drumming up bigotry over gay marriage worked pretty well in 2004.

But it’s not 2004 anymore.

Just imagine Rick Santorum standing at a podium, across from President Obama, at a national debate. Imagine him being asked about any one of his many past statements regarding birth control or home schooling. Imagine him telling all those soccer moms (or whatever demeaning term they’re using to generalize about women voters now) that it would be morally wrong for them to find out whether their unborn babies have congenital defects.

It’s hard not to believe that such a move would be suicide for the Republicans. And I’m sorry, but it would be so much fun to watch.

I know I should be careful what I wish for here. A Santorum nomination would bring out the fundamentalist vote, which could have an unpleasant result in the downticket races. Romney would suppress turnout among that segment, which is from any angle a Good Thing.

On the other hand, Santorum’s views are so out there, that they draw out the public’s heretofore unrecognized inner-feminists. Here is a man who knows better than you do what kind of prenatal testing you ought to get. He thinks the state should be able tell women that they may not decide when they should have children! The 1984-like level of invasive government he advocates is distasteful to anyone with a remotely rational concept of the appropriate role for government in our lives.

This man could provoke the next wave of feminist action in the United States. He could single-handedly revive the movement. He could wind up being a tremendous boon to the struggle for women’s rights.

So maybe it’s a little crazy, but I’m not-so-secretly hoping for a Santorum nomination.

Plus, the entertainment value.